I enjoy the show “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr that airs on public tv. I thoroughly love the way they use genealogy and DNA analysis to dig into the past and trace the various celebrities past relatives. There is always some interesting information that has been discovered.
I was watching season 3, episode 7 of this show the other day. This episode was titled “Family Reunion.” and the celebrities on this show were LL Cool J and Sean Combs. There was a comment made by LL Cool J and the response made by Mr. Gates that started me on my journey. LL just found out his relatives were boxers and LL and his mother are both avid boxing enthusiasts. The conversation went like this:
LL Cool J: “…It makes you wonder if your DNA carries shadows or consciousness.”
Gates: “Yeah, things that are coded. It’s in there man.”
I think LL hit it right on the spot with his comment. I truly believe that in our DNA, how we look at it, think about and act on diversity is coded in our DNA. We already know that our physical features are passed down and our mannerisms maybe as well. So, it is not too far fetched to believe that how we think, what we think, and how we act are also passed to us through our heritage and DNA. Yes, some of our mannerisms, how we think and act are learned and developed as we grow-up. Yes, the people and environment we are raised in also influences us. However, there are those few traits that are inherited.
How many times have we heard “Wow, your Uncle Al used to always say that.” You had only met Uncle Al briefly when you were six years old and the only thing you remember saying to him was hello.
Diversity is not new, but its importance is becoming more recognized as technology brings the world closer together. Companies and organizations reach out for better, newer opportunities, we typically live in global neighborhoods and strive to understand our neighbors better and of course we search for our ancestral past from around the world.
Social media like Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit and others allow us to interact internationally. The family heritage and DNA sites like Ancestry.com, 23andMe.com, Familysearch.com, Genie.com and many others helps us understand our heritage and reach around the world to relatives we never would have thought existed. More on that in future writings.
Does our heritage, does our DNA influence how we think about Diversity? You tell me your thoughts.
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