I applaud your work, being a first gen college student from a poor family myself.

Well, it’s the same instinct that makes you want to care for that screaming, hairless apelet and advance the species, so there’s an evolutionary offset.

I think it’s broader than that. Displacement is the gentrification Spike warned us about a decade ago, which is real and frightening and on the ground. Just as frightening, however, but more abstract, is what happens in the sci fi that little white nerds scream about whenever any POC who’s a fan - or even a writer -…

Exactly this. I’d be interested to hear the story of the Brooklyn natives that were pushed out to make room in whichever neighborhood Ms. Merlin lives in, or the feelings toward tourists who are trying on on an urban ‘Brooklyn’ look as fashion.

This.

It’s not putting yourself above anyone to look at the numbers and recognize that teenage pregnancy, drug use, lack of education, etc. will make it about statistically impossible to succeed. It’s common sense, or at least should be.

I do find this article confusing for the very reason you point out. There are good points that should be made and voices that should be amplified, but the uncritical first person and family accounts of what seems to be a fairly privileged position of whiteness really weaken her position to be taking a stance against…

Yea of course, I didn’t mean to come off sounding like there’s no value in your own determination or anything like that. And I definitely don’t want to sound like I’m giving these people a pass because, “they didn’t know any better.” Just pointing out that as far as motivation goes, it’s a easier to get started when…

If being a witch gives you eyebrows like that, then let the witches bite me ! That’s how it works right?

If the show gets anywhere close to the comic that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa also wrote (which is great and you ought to read it) there will be plenty of “chilling” to go around. Consider this photo a nice bit of misdirection.

I think part of the difference is that you likely looked at your family in comparison to those around you. You had something different that you could look at and say, “Oh, my life/family could actually be like THAT?” Meanwhile, the people living in Appalachia are largely all in the same boat. The people they can…

I grew up in Steve King’ s district. You want to talk datasets? Look up the racial composition of Lyon County, Iowa. I knew the majority of the people who lived there when I did.

I get asked these same questions! I wonder if you might, like me, have some Saami ancestry? Saami people are indigenous to Northern Europe. I don’t think these tests identify Saami genes because the population is pretty small. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people

Ashkenazi Jewish is a pretty rare false positive there are some distinctive genetic markers in that particular group. 15% is roughly one Great Grand parent so its possible no one in this generation knows about it. A lot Jewish immigrants assimilated pretty quickly after arriving in the US. Both due to discrimination…

It’s not bigoted to say that some of the problems in places like these stems from racism.

Most countries are not so wide spread as the US.

I wish I was not gray so I could ungray you! This is EXACTLY what I have thought about this “send in your dna!” shit from Day 1. People are waaay too blase about this. As they are with everything, I suppose. But this is DNA, people! Hello.

She did the DNA test. A name she didn’t recognize came up as a close relative. Her parents recognized the name and realized what had happened. Before they decided whether to tell her she looked at her birth certificate and saw the name matched the doctor. So she went to the parents with this info and they told her…

Here’s the other bad news: apparently your biological dad is a freaking idiot.

Me too! Two weeks ago. in one fail swoop- my brother is only half sibling and this is your father. Heck of a black Friday deal that purchase turned out to be. There are no family secrets with DNA.