 Jessica Alba
Tags: biology, knowledge, race/ethnicity, social construction, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2011 Length: 3:33 Access: YouTube Summary: In this short video from 2011, Jessica Alba appears on the talk show Lopez Tonight and endures George Lopez's comedic preamble before hearing the results of her ancestry DNA test. According to Lopez and the language used by the testing company, Alba is 87 percent European and 13 percent Native American. But to the astute observer, the show is actually claiming to reveal more than the details of Alba's genetic composition. It is also claiming to reveal information about her "true" race, and therein lies the problem. • As I have noted elsewhere on The Sociological Cinema, racial categories do not consistently correspond to biological observations (see here and here). To put it another way, race is not based on biology; it merely claims to be. This point often confuses people, for they reason that in some sense race must be biological. After all, skin color is largely a genetically determined characteristic, and so the thinking goes, race must be too. But while genetic instructions largely determine the amount of melanin a body produces, it is through socialization that people become predisposed to notice skin color as one of the most salient features a body can have. The thickness of one's eyebrows, the shape of their ears, or the color of their of eyes—these are also genetically determined characteristcs, but people mostly discount these features as the bearers of useful information. To socially construct race, then, is to teach people which physical characteristics are the salient markers of a racial group, and racism becomes possible once people begin assigning meanings to those salient racial markers. • At about the 45-second mark, Lopez explains that the DNA analysis distinguishes between four ancestral groups, and perhaps sensing that it would resonate with his audience, he incorrectly equates each ancestral group with a race. The Europeans, according to Lopez, are white, Sub-Saharan Africans are black, East Asians are Asian, and the Indigenous American group refers to Native Americans. The results confuse Alba, who racially identifies as Latina and knows her last name comes from Spain. But it is instructive to dwell a bit on the basis of her confusion, for it highlights the incompatibility between ancestral DNA and race. In the United States people with Spanish heritage tend to be racially categorized as Hispanic or Latino, which is a category believed to be distinct from white. However, DNA analyses show that the original inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. Spain, Portugal, the small UK overseas territory of Gibraltar, and the Principality of Andorra) are a part of the same general migratory group of homo sapiens that settled the rest of Europe. As with all racial categories, contemporary distinctions between whites and Hispanics in the United States are socially created and not based on some deeper biological truth. Submitted By: Lester Andrist
Emily
7/28/2017 09:41:16 am
She took a new dna test which proved her to be 22% Native American! Her father Mark Alba was 50% Native American, Her grandma was half Native and her grandpa was full native! Do your research, she even has family photos on popsugar of her mexican side! She is only 17% Spanish and she got the last name Alba from an ancestor from 200 years prior to escaping to mexico! Theres a reason why she looks navajo/mayan, Her FATHER ALONE HAD 20 NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES IN HIS DNA AND DOES NOT LOOK EUROPRAN AT ALL. Again She has even joked about her Asian looking grandparents. Because they were asian. Her mother Cathy had no french but BRITISH Ancestry and was 99.8% European! Jessica Alba looks like her Mexican Grandmother Isabel Martinez!
Kurt
9/15/2017 12:18:48 pm
Emily, Jessica is also 1/8 Danish, her mother is 1/4 Danish, as her grandfather came directly from Denmark. The tests have no Danish category, Danish people don't test as just "Scandinavian", so some of the results are Danish even if it doesn't appear as so, most likely some of the British and the Scandinavian part.
Robert Lynch
9/30/2020 08:08:08 am
I am a retired anthropologist who has roots in Argentina. I am distantly related.to Che Guevara Lynch. Yes Guevara was Irish on his Dad's side. Castro on the other hand had a Dad from Lancara,Spain in Galacia as in Galway Ireland. The Irish and the Basques of 1200 years ago spoke almost the same language in a trade route..
ruby wilson
12/9/2021 10:26:23 pm
that is so fucking cool
ruby wilson
12/9/2021 10:47:19 pm
If her dad is 3/4 native american, she is half of that. 75 percent is 3/4s, divided by 2, 37.5 percent... i want to know the rest of the percentages. Brown is always dominant though, my mum is hald spanish, half mauritian but she is more yellow than brown.... it also depends on which genes you get from each parent. The gender gene is more dominant in the man or woman, which is why you tend to get rows of girls or boys in families, depending on which parent has the dominant gene
sean wang
4/16/2022 03:38:45 am
Her dad is not 3/4 native american,. I wonder how dumb you are
MarkAnthony Ramsey
4/27/2022 10:34:39 pm
The Mexican race is literally made up of Native American and Spanish from Spain. Typically more native then Spain so her percentage shows a Mexican woman. Btw there is no DNA test that can determine or distinguish between Tribes in existence. If a DNA tests tells you a specific tribe they are fraudulent and lying to you. This is why we don't use DNA test for tribal enrollment. Not to mention less then 5% of Native American DNA is on record at all. So statistically a Native American is way more likely to not see Native American results back period. In matchable code miscellaneously groups and usually shows up as NorthWest or NorthEast Europe.
Irene
7/22/2022 01:49:49 pm
A new DNA test? that anything like the new (2nd) autopsy done on George Floyd? LOL @ needing a 2nd opinion on a dna test!
Jroberts
11/10/2018 02:45:41 pm
Hispanic isn’t considered a race, at least according to the US Census. It’s an ethnicity (you or ancestry is from Central or South America) and is separate from race. You can be White and Hispanic.
ruby wilson
12/9/2021 10:43:13 pm
Race is ethnicity, its your blood. Nationality is your citizenship, where you were brought up.
sean wang
4/16/2022 03:28:15 am
Race is not ethnicity, Germanic and Saxon are both belong to the same race but different ethnicity
Jack Harlow
5/10/2022 06:24:09 am
I could have sworn... Humans are a race themselves... ethnicity is what your actual bloodline is... Black, Mexican, pr, Chinese... Etc . And nationality is your citizenship in wherever you're living regardless of ethnic background. Am I wrong?
Chris
7/26/2019 12:34:04 pm
The YouTube link doesn't work. Looks like the video or user has been removed. I think this video is the same though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZNAqwrm9hY
lol
12/26/2019 05:28:15 pm
I did that test and being hispanic I came up with IRISH, GREEK, and BALKAN 45%!! Spanish and Portuguese 39 percent. the rest jewish, north africa and middle east with 8 percent native american.
Wes barry
4/19/2020 10:39:18 pm
They Lopez test were nonsense. Know your roots days Larry David was 97% Jewish. That' obviously makes Lopez's claim about David being 37% native American moronic.
Mememem
9/15/2020 12:39:22 pm
So everyone wants to claim tbe pretty people but if she was ugly no comments. And she looks east indian to me.
MoonCat
10/27/2020 03:39:26 pm
She was HORRIFIED and shocked that she was mostly European, i.e., white. The look on her face was hilarious! I mean, how could anybody be that stupid??? Most Hispanics seem to not know that Spain is on Europe, they are just as white as somebody from France, Germany, etc.
ruby wilson
12/9/2021 10:36:35 pm
hahahaha shes not but loved everything about this comment, youre hilarious
sean wang
4/16/2022 03:48:29 am
She mostly white, you should get over it
Race obsessed
2/13/2022 01:04:00 am
This has got to be the most pathetic garbage I’ve read in a long time. It’s so disgusting that white people are so disappointed to find out they’re white. White people invented nearly every single technological concepts that has significance and nearly everything that shook the world. That includes our civilizations. There’s a reason all the brown and black people are literally willing to risk their lives and their children’s lives go escape their trash civilizations and come to ours. It’s not because their people are doing great back in the home land. It’s because our civilizations are safest, wealthiest, cleanest with the lost opportunities and most fair. In fact, white people are so generous with our resources and civilizations that we put into law legislation that gives minorities an advantage over us white people. I can’t imagine any Latin country or African country that would ever do the same. But even with all of that being a fact, minorities come or countrys and STILL complain about how terrible we are. It’s stunning the lack of awareness and gratitude. And whites are so generous, that even when our hands are being bitten and our faces spat on, we STILL hold our arms out with a smile. Keep it up though, cuz I’m not sure how much longer that will last. We are extremely tolerant and patient people, but don’t forget, we have built the most ruthless armies throughout world history. The most lethal warriors have always been us. Really starting to get sick of this nonsense and I’m not alone. So ungrateful Comments are closed.
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