100% English

100% English was a Channel 4 television programme shown in November 2006 in the United Kingdom. It looked at the genetic makeup of English people who considered themselves to be ethnically English and found that while all had an ethnic makeup similar to people of European descent, a minority discovered genetic markers from North Africa and the Middle East from several generations before they were born. The presenter was Andrew Graham-DixonThe test results were interpreted by DNAPrint Genomics, based in Sarasota, Florida^[1].

Additional recommended knowledge

Daily Visual Balance Check

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Weighing the right way

The concept of the show was to:

Take eight people - all of whom are convinced they are 100% English. Then submit a sample of their DNA to a series of state-of-the-art tests... Lord Tebbit, Garry Bushell and Carol Thatcher are among the participants who have agreed to place their genetic make-up under the microscope.. ^[2]

Gary Bushell, who appeared on the show in good-faith, later criticised the slant of the programme and the portrayal of English people. On his website he stated: "Only Nazis, and it appears C4, think of national identity in terms of racial purity... Besides, you could apply the same tests to the French or Italians and get similar results, but no-one questions their right to nationhood."

Bushell also criticised DNAPrint Genomics stating their tests had a 28% error margin for European DNA and that the same DNA sample often produced radically different results. He also stated that most anthropologists disagreed with DNAPrint Genomic's racial classifications and questioned the reliability of the markers that they had used to designate African DNA.^[3]

References

See also

• Genetic genealogy
• African American Lives