The Human Genome

As a medical student here at Howard University, I found Dr. Dunston's speech greatly inspiring. Most often when we discuss the inheritance of our African ancestors, we focus mainly on the historical context of it all. I personally am not greatly intrigued by most historical lectures so the demonstration of the scientific connection between my ancestors and I was quite engaging. Dr. Dunston explained that we are innately "phenomenal" due to the genes that naturally occupy our bodies. I find this important because our genome expresses our history, our struggle, and our story and is something that cannot be altered or taken away from us. Most often, historical stories are altered to favor the views of the victor or cover the lies of those who were in the wrong. Scientific evidence of our inheritance however serves as exactly that, EVIDENCE. African Americans should pride themselves on the qualities which occupy them and make them different from everyone else. We are unique, unlike any other, and this a possession that we can always declare as our own. Our genome originates us back to the deeply rooted past of our African ancestors which demonstrates that their stories still lives on and will continue to live on as we produce offspring of our own. Knowing that we innately posses such a wonderful quality, we must all conduct ourselves with a sense of pride and strive to positively represent our people. Furthermore, such scientific knowledge offers further evidence to the confusion of life originating in Africa. Our genome is one that cannot be falsified so when it is traced back to Africa we cannot deny these origns. Instead, we should pride ourselves on having found the origination of the human species.