The following link will clear up what was done and how they did it on the series, "African American Lives," which has been alluded to several times. They were well aware of the false claims that can be made concerning the implication of genetic data. This is why,above the solid tests they used, they employed an archaeogeneticist and a biological anthropologist, both experts on the population groups of the continent, to try to correlate geography/tribal group to the genetic data of the participants in the series.
An interesting (and funny!) aside: On this program a prominent biological geneticist consulted, a white prof. at Penn State, informs Dr. Gates how he had this test done on himself. The results showed a genetically significant percentage of his ancestry was African. He told this to his mother who told him not to tell anyone about this. His mother had been keeping this family secret which he was in the dark about--although he had no problem with this "revelation." Genes don't lie; but we have to be careful to interpret the results responsibly. But, it seems to me, this discussion is about culture.
"African Americans" have been blessed with a horrific gift: a common cultural heritage forged out of the the experience of slavery and it's aftermath that's made disparate people/tribal groups into a basic identity, with various subgroups and identities. This has been the foundation of a political solidarity that made the Civil Rights Movement possible--something that has inspired peoples all over the world in their struggles for freedom. I remember talking with Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem and they commonly referring to me as "brother"--many of whom would, by phenotype, be considered "white" in this country. "African American" culture is grounded in Africa but is also of the American experience. "African Americans" only have to travel to find out how American they are culturally; and non-Americans understand better than whites in this country how African American culture is at the core of "Americaness."
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/profile_gates.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/about.html
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/ANTH/faculty/fjackson --a biological anthropologist consulted on the series.
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