(10-18-2018, 01:02 PM)JagNGeorgia Wrote:

(10-18-2018, 09:01 AM)mikesez Wrote: When the DNA-testing companies give percentages, they usually aren't clean, base-2 percentages like 6.25% or 0.78% or 0.098%.  They're more random number. The percentages they give are really based on "German people usually have at least 9 out of 13 of these distinct genetic markers, you have 4 of the 13, so we'll pencil you in as 45% German until we look at what other distinct ethnic markers you have, then we'll massage the percentages so they add up to 100%"  Bustamante could have constructed a percentage, but instead he gave a range of how many generations had passed.  Right-wing meme-smiths came in behind Bustamante and did the bad math of {6,7,8,9,10} = 10; 1/(2^10) = 0.098%.

The point is that they do use it, and it's accurate enough to closely reflect one's DNA or else they wouldn't be using it. 

Don't make this into a "right-wing meme-smith" conspiracy. It isn't at all unreasonable for people to use the percentages to reasonably conclude one's genetic make-up. 

You aren't being clear on your stance with Warren, either. You say that she's a "little Native" and that you don't have a category. You think she's justified in calling herself native American or you don't and it appears you're reluctant to answer that. 

(10-18-2018, 10:58 AM)mikesez Wrote: Genetics is not identity.
She clearly has a small number of native american genes, and therefore at least one native american ancestor, but not once in her life has she actually identified herself with that people group.  She never lived with them, she never went to their gatherings, she never learned their customs.  At least once she checked a box that she shouldn't have checked on a mundane form.  The form was not a college application.  The form was not a job application.  It was a registration form for a directory.  But everyone who has looked at the thing in detail has said that checking the box didn't give her any benefits.  The Boston Globe has already said that their initial story gave a false impression, knowing what they and we know now.  Trump just won't let it go.  I don't know why Warren took the test and released the results.  Maybe she hoped that doing so would cause a million dollars to get donated to charity and cause Trump to stop this line of insults.  Certainly that's what any intellectual and ethical adult in Trump's shoes would have done.  If so, she overestimated Trump.

Statistically, most white Americans have a native American ancestor.

She specifically claimed Cherokee ancestry. You say she didn't identify as such but she did. 

Whether or not she gained from claiming that heritage is questionable, but her calming that heritage is not.

1) I did answer your question.  As worded, your question invites equivocation.  Genetically, she is part native American.  As a matter of identity, she is not at all native American. Warren in her life has, intentionally or not, equivocated in the same way your question equivocates, between genetics and identity.  I get that the answer is not satisfying to you because it's not a simple yes or no.

2) I don't think most white Americans have a native ancestor.  Most white Americans immigrated after 1840 and there was much less intermarriage (and many fewer natives remaining to marry) after that time.

3) the deception that the meme-smiths are engaging in is insisting that it really was exactly 10 generations ago. It was six, or seven, or eight, or nine, or ten. If it was six, that native ancestor's genes had worse than average luck in the meiosis roulette. If it was ten, they had better than average luck.

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