Disappointment hurts, especially when it happens in a part of your life that’s important to you. That’s why the following story is so devastating: This white supremacist who has spent years trumpeting his Anglo-Saxon heritage just found out via 23andMe that he is 100% Chinese.
Wow. That’s got to hurt.
Darren Reynolds of Aberdeen, Maryland has spent the past decade researching, exploring, and gloating about what he thought was his pure European ancestry—he posted on social media about the superiority of the genes he inherited from members of the Germanic tribes, attended anti-immigration protests wearing his homemade “White Lives Matter” sweatshirt, and even joined a local group called the Heritage Brothers whose mission is preserve the purity of white bloodlines in American society. So when Darren opened his 23andMe report this week expecting to see that the vast majority of his ancestors had come from Northern Europe, the information he was faced with made his jaw drop and his stomach turn: As it turns out, his genetic ancestors are all from mainland China, with a high likelihood of ancestry from the Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Hunan provinces in particular. After receiving the report, Darren quickly called the company to let them know that there had been a mistake, but the follow-up test they did on his DNA only confirmed his Chinese roots, and even added the update that he got 7.8% of his genes from an ethnic minority group called the Chinese Dai.
Oof, what a blow!
In the days since getting his results, Darren has faced an identity crisis. He had always assumed that it was the fierce Saxon warrior blood running through his veins that had made him so successful in his career as an insurance underwriter. He had thought it was his strong ties to the European continent that gave him such good luck dating blonde women. And he had estimated his own IQ at upwards of 140 after seeing a race-based intelligence chart from a meme account on X. Now he has to reckon with the fact that his forebears came not from Europe, but from a different continent that he thinks completely sucks.Â
Well, Darren is in for a tough road as he comes to terms with this life-changing realization. It won’t be easy to tell his Heritage Brothers about his true origins, but it’s better to fess up now than to let this fester. Darren may still be a white supremacist, but he sure isn’t white. He’s Chinese.