DNA Tests Can’t Tell You Your RaceDNA檢測無法驗明種族

杰克·赫雷拉

Its always a mess when Latinx1 folks take DNA tests. Things go alright， until we get to the “ancestry2” portion， which some commercial genetic tests label as “ethnicity.”

拉美裔做DNA檢測總是一片混亂。本來一切正常，可一旦涉及“血統”部分（一些商業性基因檢測稱之為“種族淵源”）就會亂套。

My grandfather is Mexican， but fair3-haired and blue-eyed （we sometimes call people who look like him bolillo， which means “white bread”）. When he got his report back from Family-TreeDNA， he found out he had more North American ancestry than expected. My friends brother， also Mexican， came into the living room with his tests results printed out. “I found Im 3 percent black，” he said.

我祖父是墨西哥人，但金發碧眼（我們有時稱他這類長相的人為bolillo，意為“白面包”）。他收到家庭樹基因檢測公司的檢測報告后，發現自己的北美血統成分高于預期。我朋友的兄弟也是墨西哥人，他拿著打印的檢測結果走進客廳說：“我發現自己有3%的黑人血統。”

In the past few years at-home genetic testing has grown into a billion-dollar industry; since 2013， more than 26 million people have sent in their DNA for analysis. And while companies like 23&Me， AncestryDNA， and MyHeritage claim to be able to tell your “ethnicity”—a word they know many people will read as a synonym for “race”—none of them explicitly offer to tell consumers their racial make-up. Theres one simple reason for that： The science just doesnt exist.

在過去幾年里，居家基因檢測已發展成為一個規模達10億美元的產業；自2013年以來，已有2600多萬人將自己的DNA送去檢測。雖然諸如我與23對染色體公司、家譜基因檢測公司和MyHeritage之類的公司聲稱能驗明人的“種族淵源”——他們知道很多人會把這個詞解讀為“種族”的同義詞——但它們當中沒有任何一家公司明確表示可告知消費者其種族成分。原因很簡單：這種科學知識根本不存在。

To understand this， lets go back to my friends brother. He thought the test told him he was “3 percent black，” when in fact it reported that he had a 3 percent chance of having genetic ancestry from some part of the African continent.

為了理解這一點，我們再回到剛才我朋友的兄弟的例子。他以為檢測結果顯示他有“3%的黑人血統”，但其實檢測報告說的是他的祖先來自非洲大陸某地的概率是3%。

Hows that different than being “3 percent black”？ First off， that percentage is being interpreted incorrectly. A lot of people read their DNA tests like a pie chart： Youre 25 percent this or 50 percent that. But thats not at all what the statistics represent.

這與“3%的黑人血統”有何不同？首先，對該百分比的解讀有誤。很多人將自己的DNA檢測結果解讀為一張餅圖：你有25%的這個或50%的那個。但那根本不是該統計數據所表示的意義。

“They are fractions， estimates. Its saying that your genome has a certain percent estimate of representing a certain area，” says Marcus Feldman， a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies.

“它們是分數，是估值，表示你的基因組按估算有一定比率代表某個地區。”斯坦福大學生物學教授、莫里森人口與資源研究所所長馬庫斯·費爾德曼說。

Feldman explains that when it comes to peoples roots， the tests are saying something more like： Were 30 percent confident that your DNA indicates ancestry from Okinawa， Japan. Thats not the same thing as saying someone is 30 percent Okinawan.

費爾德曼解釋說，就尋根問祖而言，此類檢測結果更像是在說：我們有30%的把握相信，你的DNA表明你的祖先來自日本沖繩。……