In West Chester, DNA becomes a building block for race debate

Officials from West Chester - both the university and the borough - are betting on something scientific to help ward off the divisions that have separated communities grappling with the resurgent issue of race.

They are looking to DNA.

In a new initiative called "One University, One Ancestry," the school will offer DNA testing to students, staff, faculty, and community members. They hope it will not only give participants insight into the origins of their ancestors, but awaken them to shared experiences and backgrounds revealed by a closer look at the gene pool.

"So much of talking about race is based on negative things," said Anita Foeman, a communications professor and lead investigator for the project. "Our idea is to make it inclusive and positive, and give people an experience that reaches everyone."

Or, as West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta put it, "There's nothing that brings people together like sharing a little DNA."

She and university president Greg R. Weisenstein helped launch the program Tuesday by opening test kits and depositing their saliva in tubes that will be sent for analysis to a Utah lab.

The results, which will arrive in about four weeks, will be in the form of a pie chart that will report percentages of their genetic makeup that come from different parts of the world, Foeman said. The results are based on a statistical analysis of genetic markers and their frequency across populations.

Come September, the project will expand so willing participants from the community can register via the website dnadiscussionproject.com. The tests cost about $120, but the project organizers hope to use grant money to offset the price for students and others.

Once registered, participants will receive saliva kits in the mail and be asked to return them to the lab and await the results. They will then gather in the spring for seminars and discussions about the experience.

Foeman and coinvestigator Bessie Lawton, an associate professor at West Chester, will analyze the data for a report to be published in scholarly journals.

The initiative evolved out of Foeman's DNA Discussion Project, a West Chester University class that examines students' genetic makeup. Students create websites and research papers based on the results.

One student, who had been told his ancestors came from Europe shortly after the Mayflower landing, learned that his DNA results indicated that 60 percent of his genetic makeup had origins in Southeast Asia. Soon afterward, that student checked Asian for the first time on a form that asked about his ethnicity.

Comitta heard about the project last year. She asked Foeman about an expanded version after participating in community discussions that began after the unrest over the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Called "Courageous Conversations," community members gathered at West Chester locations - including St. Paul's Baptist Church and the university - to discuss issues of race and differences that include gender, ethnicity, and disability.

Minority enrollment at the university has climbed from 15 percent to about 22 percent in the last six years, school data show. The borough demographics are about the same.

A DNA project that would reach outside the university's walls might help people see that they have connections they didn't know, Comitta said.

The initiative also could help the community deal with differences proactively, rather than being forced to rely only on a reactive response if a problem occurs, Weisenstein said.

The university president said he was curious about his ancestry, which was little discussed in his household.

As a child, Weisenstein overheard conversations about German, Irish, and Austrian ancestors, but his parents were more concerned about putting food on the table than documenting the past, he said.

But Comitta knows a lot about her heritage. She says she is a descendant of first lady Abigail Adams and William Dawes Jr., who rode with Paul Revere. Another of her ancestors sailed for America on the Mayflower - in the brig, she said. "I hope that in addition to the ancestry I'm aware of, there will be some surprises," Comitta said.

Foeman said the project is "reimagining the narrative of race," which has been simplistic and divisive.

"When you have a background you don't expect," she said, "there is this moment when all you thought was true is challenged, and that moment is an opening for conversation."