Traces of Race, Roots of Gender A Genetic History

This chapter uses the metaphor of the triptych to describe about race, gender, and science. The triptych is a threefold, and it is a work of art to narrate stories that do not hang together in a straightforward way, in which time and place relate in nonlinear ways: the three panels of the triptych can be folded and unfolded, superimposing historically remote moments in time or setting them apart. The peculiar collection of DNA that went into the Mark Anderson sequence indicates the challenges of producing such a sequence in the early 1980s. The triptych demonstrates how genetics is dependent on presumably Black female bodies, from matrilineal links in DNA, to Mitochondrial Eve, to Henrietta Lacks, from whose body the HeLa cell line was extracted, upon which much of the research in the field of genetics has emerged. Genetics is neither an enemy to be defeated nor a savior to be embraced to repair racism or sexism in society.