Cornel West Responds to Dr. Gina Paige of African Ancestry: “I’m Not Giving You My DNA”

The Tight Rope

SpkerBox Media

Society & Culture

5 • 605 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on The Tight Rope, the professors are joined by Dr. Gina Paige, co-founder of African Ancestry. African Ancestry is the world leader in tracing lineages of African descent with a database of over 30,000 indigenous African DNA samples. Join us for a rich discussion on why Black people are the original victims of identity theft and how African Ancestry is working to rectify this.

In 2003, Dr. Gina Paige co-founded African Ancestry, Inc. (AfricanAncestry.com) and in doing so, pioneered a new way of tracing African lineages using genetics, and a new marketplace for people of African descent looking to more accurately and reliably trace their roots. Paige travels the world helping people demystify their roots and inform on identities so that they may better understand who they are by knowing where they’re from.

Paige resides in Washington, D.C. and holds a degree in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Paige was honored with an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Global Oved Dei Seminary University.

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Credits:

Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry

EP/Host: Cornel West

EP/Host: Tricia Rose

Producers: Allie Hembrough, Ceyanna Dent, Dustin Hodge

Coordinating Producers: Lindsey Schultz, Christian Ware Berry

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Dr. Gina Page, and I'm here with Professor Rose and Professor West on the tightrope.
0:13.5	My dear brother, Skip Gates, has been after me for almost 20 years to get my genealogical roots in place, put it on TV and all that.
0:23.2	I said, no, no, brother, that's not my thing.
0:26.2	Now, how is your project different than Brother Skips project?
0:32.3	I'm happy to answer that question, but I have to say I have, every time I think of you,
0:39.4	Dr. West, I met you at a conference. I can't even remember where it was. And I was so excited. And I came up to you and I was like,
0:45.0	I'm Gina Page and we have this company and we can tell you where you're like, yes, give me a test.
0:52.4	And you were like, no, my sister, maybe he could get my brother.
0:56.7	Talk to my brother.
0:57.8	He's interested in that, but I'm not giving you my DNA.
1:01.3	I've always loved you for that response.
1:03.7	It's been 14, 13, 14 years.
1:07.2	Oh, I love it.
1:08.5	It shows how deep you'll love it, just like I love brother Rick, too, and I love Skip, but it's just, it's just not yet my thing. All I need to look, Curtis Mayfield and Aretha and DeBois, I figured that's going to get me through, but maybe I need to be more open. Well, and let me tell you how we're different. So, he, Skip Gates used our tests for his first specials.
1:29.1	Oh, interesting. Yeah. They, he told, he, he, he says that he told Oprah where she was from,
1:36.9	but he used African ancestry.com's result that said she's the Pelle people from Liberia.
1:43.4	So anytime he's told someone where in Africa they come from, it was based on our test.
1:50.3	So, you know, there's that.
1:52.4	I think that the work that he's done in partnering with genealogical companies like
1:59.1	Ancestry.com and family tree DNA to help people suss out
2:03.8	their family trees in addition to their genetics has helped raise awareness among black people,
2:12.9	the world, but I'm concerned more with black folks, about the importance of understanding your family history.
	...

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