Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/the-lost-family

Comment #2918

2020-06-20T17:24:19Z

Here's a quote from a newsletter Porter received today: "Thanks to AI and machine learning, Veritas Genetics, a private company, now offers a full genome sequencing report for only $599... and that price will likely drop to $100–$200 by next year."

Note that The Lost Family was published this year, and reports the cost of the sequencing service as $1,000. That's how fast things are changing.

Comment #2917

2020-06-18T11:27:06Z

Thanks for your comment, Leanne! I wonder if you experienced another thing I did growing up in a mostly-white town: "white" is not the monolithic identity we are encourage to believe today. A few nationalities that I remember were Polish, Italian, Hungarian, Australian, South African—and all were proud to be both American and something else. Even English, which didn't count as "Anglo-Saxon" if you were a relatively recent immigrant.

It's possible that my experience was colored by a particular set of teachers—grades 4-6 were the worst—and the books we used had an influence, too. But it's a painful memory to this day.

Comment #2916

2020-06-18T02:19:38Z

Nice review. I don't like okra, either!

My small town in upstate NY was also nearly all white. But I didn't notice any of those negative associations with WASP that you describe. Interesting.