SYLVIA MCKEOWN: Is the booming DNA-testing industry linked to a rise in prejudice?
Geno-typing is proving to be useful for solving crimes and facilitating medical research
Sunday was international holocaust remembrance day and the 74th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation. It comes at a time where a recent poll conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany found that two-thirds of American millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is. The same poll found that 68% of those participating believed there is anti-Semitism in America today. It’s a pattern that is currently snaking its way across the West and bleeding into politics. Far-right politicians are making stands and gaining acceptance in Sweden, Italy, Turkey, Austria, Hungary, and France, not to mention the recent election of former army captain turned president Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. This overwhelming sentiment, casually displayed in governmental chambers and on swastika-riddled streets, is giving justification to people’s ingrained prejudice. It has also created a booming marketplace for people to find out just how different they are from those they like to "other". The...
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