In The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome, Alondra Nelson details how DNA testing is being used to grapple with the unfinished business of slavery: “to foster reconciliation, to establish ties with African ancestral homelands, to rethink and sometimes alter citizenship, and to make legal claims for slavery reparations.” In her deep dive into the intersection of genetic ancestry and racial politics, Nelson gives an overview of US reparations projects over the past century including one in our back yard – the African Burial Ground in New York City. Now a national monument and the oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans, the African Burial Ground was a major factor in the development of consumer DNA testing, a multi-billion dollar industry.
A statewide common read of The Social Life of DNA will be hosted by the UU FaithAction NJ Reparations Task Force.
Common read dates and registration will be announced via email. Join our mailing list and watch for updates, or join our Reparations Task Force by contacting reparations@uufaithaction.org or admin@uufaithaction.org.