Goffman against DNA: genetic stigma and the use of genetic ancestry tests by white nationalists

Abstract

How do white nationalists use genetic ancestry tests? This article provides a qualitative analysis of posts from Stormfront, a white nationalist message board, to understand how white nationalists use genetic ancestry tests to advance ideological claims about the threat of genetic admixture. Starting in 2004, members of this message board began discussing the promises and pitfalls of using genetic ancestry tests to prove their whiteness. Using Goffman’s framework of stigma and impression management, we explore how they manage undesirable test results and genetic stigma amongst themselves – when they take genetic tests and discover they are partially non-white. Finally, this article looks at how they simultaneously deploy exclusionary or inclusionary strategies that challenge past concepts of whiteness built on the one-drop rule. Pragmatic concerns often drive their strategic positioning when confronted with undesirable test results, as they are aware that too strict exclusionary policies may impede the group’s demographical survival.

Keywords:

• whiteness
• racism
• white nationalists
• race
• genetic ancestry test
• stigma

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the researchers and research assistants involved in the Participation Lab at the Institute for Society and Genetics, UCLA, led by Professor Chris Kelty and Associate Professor Aaron Panofsky. Special thanks to graduate student researchers Roderic Crooks, Irene Pasquetto, and Jennifer Pierre as well as undergraduate researchers Jeniece George, Michael Abassian, Francesca Essilfie, Amir Ljuljanovic, Sarah Meskal, Pamela Lim, Ravneet Purewal, Michael Scheipe, Antoine Rajkovic, and Won Kyung Oh. A shortened version of the article appears here: Élodie Grossi and Joan Donovan, “Hate in the Blood: White Supremacists’ Use of DNA Ancestry Tests,” The Activist History Review, October 20, 2017.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 1322299.