'It made me question my ancestry': does DNA home testing really understand race?

Many who have done a DNA home test begin to question their family heritage and wonder if they might have been misled. However, taking DNA tests from different companies reveal wildly varying results. There are a few reasons for this: 

• The companies are only looking at very recent DNA samples, from a relatively small group, in one specific database.
• The databases are skewed towards different parts of the world. Some have more American customers and other more British or Australian customers.
  
• These companies don't ask about the genetics of the past, and which of those past inferred genetic clusters we get our ancestry from.
  
• We probably inherit very few genes from our ancestors. DNA is inherited in “chunks” that break up the further back in time you go.
• There are ancestors from whom you inherit no DNA.

DNA testing companies often have very few samples from Africa. Some companies are trying to rectify this and have launched a program to encourage researchers to study remote populations and submit their data.

However, questions have been raised about the ethics of European and American scientists collecting genetic information from Africans for economic gain.

Genetics over the last 30 years has revealed that there are no clearcut biological racial categories. Everyone is racialized in some way.

Ancestry is a legacy, not a bloodline. Our genetic script is just one side of the story.