It’s strange how people act once they begin to learn about themselves. Sometimes this change is good but other times it impacts their personality, affecting the morals and social boundaries they had before.

As DNA testing has grown over the years and has provided people with insights, whether completely accurate or not is still up for debate, it has brought the 1% effect to life.

What do I mean by ‘the 1% effect’?

It’s how I label the occurrence when someone finds out they are 1% of a certain race and are therefore entitled to adopt and use negative stereotypes and languages of the culture. They defend any negative remarks with their 1% ancestry.

Is 1% enough to adopt a lifetime of racial struggles, especially those that you weren’t raised to acknowledge and now use as a jest to bolster your fragile ‘credibility’ to your friends?

I’m not here to say that any fractional amount of history that exists within your body isn’t important and that it shouldn’t be explored, I’m only stating that it should be a handhold for you to climb whatever socially appropriate ladder you find so that you can mock a culture without significant backlash because you are 1%.

The desire to know who you are and where you come from is only natural but does not have to be marred by insensitive jokes and insufferable slurs that you believe you are now privy to because a test told you that you were ‘part of the crew’.

There should be some amount of honor, pride, and sacrality that comes with discovering your heritage.

Those who use it as a way to justify their actions (past, present, or future) shouldn’t be praised for the 1% but taught to respect this uncovered part of themselves.

Just because others make a mockery of their people, doesn’t make it right.

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Thanks for reading my extremely opinionated rant!