Identity in this DNA test era and why ADOS matters

I recently watched a video where this content creator joked about how Black Americans are always having an identity crisis with the names we use to describe ourselves. I laughed as she threw out the most common names ; African American, Black , ADOS etc. and then proceeded to the rest of her point. I thought about how it is true that we do seem to have a mass re-naming of ourselves every few years. And I realize that it is not our fault. As a group , we have always had the most malleable of standards for inclusion. We are the recipients if you will of the one drop rule which essentially says an ounce of our essence makes you down with our legacy regardless of what you look like and who your parents are.

I wasn’t alive in 1865 or even 1965 but one thing that has become relatively clear is that in general, Black people in America knew who we were. If we weren’t white and weren’t Native American, we were Black. Even and in spite of many of us having white and Native American blood.

Post Civil Rights, post mass influx of millions of immigrants from all over the globe, the rise of DNA tests and a continued effort to dismantle and distort the unison of Black American people has people in 2023 acting confused about who is Black and who isn’t.

Ethnogenesis noun. : the process by which a group of people becomes ethnically distinct : the formation and development of an ethnic group

There are so many factors at play here. But my piece is geared to a specific, powerful, influential, resilient group of people whom I am proud to be a member of and who should never forget or get confused who we are; ADOS. ADOS stands for American descendants of slavery. ADOS is a very specific identity. It is not open for all. It tells a story, it is a complex, beautiful web of many cultures and sub cultures and we know who we are. We are Foundational and intrinsic to the United States of America. And you better respect that.

When these ancestry kits came out and people could test their ancestral origin , I thought that was really dope. Many Americans and when I say Americans , I am talking about people who have ancestry in this country since at least the 1800’s, do not have specific country percentage knowledge of their ancestors. This is more than especially true for Black Americans. We in general have less of a knowledge of our percentages in Africa because of white people’s crimes against us. I repeat we in general do not know about where our African origins because white people sole us from Africa like livestock and goods to work for their profit. Please don’t ever forget that or get things confused. Furthermore , the crime of theft reached many capacities physically, mentally , spiritually. They embedded themselves in our DNA through mass sexual assault. The Founding Fathers were founding rapists.

But let me clue you in on why DNA tests as much as they have been touted as the greatest thing ever has not necessarily captivated many Black Americans. We know who we are. Our ancestors come from South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Louisisana, Mississippi and every other state in the South . We have roots that came in from the Northeast as well. We have our own distinct ethnogenisis which means in fact we are not without a homeland or an origin point. Our culture was bred in what would become America, with our melanated bodies and souls, which were ripped from the rich African soil, transplanted here in the United States. We have our own dialects and languages. We have created our own religions and cuisines. We have regional cultures within our culture. We know who we are. Our ancestry is American. Stop trying to say otherwise. No one tells Brazilians, Puerto Ricans, Haitians or any other group in the Americas that they are not of their land even though their creation story is a result of the European crimes as well. But everyone will tell the ADOS from Savannah, Georgia that they aren’t American. Get real.

I will keep on emphasizing that point because people get it twisted about what is what. And that is on purpose and it is a weapon used against us for others to gain. If reparations for the descendants of America’s crimes were approved tomorrow, 100 million plus people in this country would claim to be Black American/ ADOS descended. But any other time , people love to downgrade and act as though we are not a specific people with a specific heritage. They present lighter skinned members of our community and say this person is 46% European descended so how is this person Black? They bring up being “ Black” but with Cameroonian parents so how aren’t they Black American or African American? Because technically….. They even had the gall to try to call Elon Musk an African American because why not?

ADOS, we have to stay focused at the end of the day. Don’t let these people whoever they are try to take your heritage away from you. Do not let them get caught up in percentages and well technically’s. This is meant to try to distort our story and often times insert themselves in a legacy that is not theirs.

There are many things that are happening behind the scenes of all these debates online and in the discourse. Number one, the sons and daughters of Willie Lynch make it their life’s mission to extract from and control the narratives of Black people. It’s why they make content seeking to act dense about who Black Americans/ African Americans are. It’s why their commercials have many of us in seemingly happy families with them even though this is not the reality of most of us. It is a way to obscure their crimes by trying to be a part of our families. It’ll make it possible for reparations to become a reality if more white people are able to be “ Black”.

Number two, there has been a massive rise in immigration of people of African origin to the United States since the 1960’s. They are estimated to number about 4 million and their group is projected to rise by 10 million in some estimates by 2050. As these distinct groups rise and their members gain more foothold in this country, these debates and narratives will become more dominant in our country. Allowances and legacies that are and have been set aside for Black Americans has been used profusely by these groups of people. But many members of these communities benefit from foreign origin privilege and many make a point to often be weaponized against the interests of ADOS Black Americans. But many have often been of use and in support of the wider Black community as well. The point is we may both be black but we’re not both Black American. I can’t immigrate from here and move to Trinidad and claim to be Trinidadian. If I were to have kids in Trinidad , my kids wouldn’t be Trinidadian either. We are not of that soil.

America loves to insult and demean its’ native Black American population. That is why they love to put foreign Blacks to play our heroes on screen. That is why they put foreign Blacks in top positions. They do that for the optics and none of the obligations. It is much easier to control someone who has less of an allegiance to the people they pretend to represent. That is why they’ll promote when they can people who look less phenotypically Black and they seek to control every aspect of our creative and social discourse. There is a fear of Black separation. A potential Black separation would trigger healing , would trigger innovation, would reverse built in trends for our community. A Black separation with our own institutions, our own mediums for media, arts and education would be harmful for American success and ingenuity. We wouldn’t have talented artists like Monique and Taraji P. Henson crying about being robbed by Hollywood if we invested promoted and preserved more of our own. Stop selling yourself just because they want to buy it. They want to control us to control our story and our depiction worldwide. Then they come and try to say it is segregation when we seek to protect ourselves and our interests. An oppressed minority group who seeks to divest from the mainstream is practicing wellness and prioritizing the survival of their people. It is much different than a powerful, resource controlling group who seeks to oppress and discriminate against a much less socially and materially strong minority.

America doesn’t even want Blacks to consider themselves a community into themselves. Unless they can manipulate us into group think and insert their narratives to serve their interests. It trickles down to the everyday population. Content creators will make very Black/ ADOS specific content and comedy and everyone else will try to claim the exact same stories for themselves. It is so lame. Be yourself and pull from your own cultures to create. Put us on to what makes you you. Stop trying to do “ Black people” in your interpretation when you don’t seek to even support real Black people. When you don’t work on the members of your communities who disparage us and look down upon us and invoke the worst of white supremacy for a leg up in their systems. Make that make sense. You want to be like people that you look down on.

Everyone has some amazing things about their culture, their history, their legacies. Everyone has a story. Every group has their own distinct thing going on. We do not have to be the same to be respectful of each other’s cultures. The argument will be made about the melting pot and “cultures sharing” and the what about’s and the technically’s. But at the end of the day, you know who you are. You know who your group(s) are. You know what is a part of your legacy. Or you should know. You should know who you are. Pull from that . But don’t seek to try to insert and craft dissertations about why someone isn’t who they are and why they look this way. And why you consider this person family and not that one. If you question why an ADOS Black person is this complexion or has this colored eye, ask the white people why. They know more than they claim to know. They know that the evidence of their crimes is on our beautiful faces and bodies. They know what they have done and continue to do to our people.