10 Quotes by Libby Copeland

...if the philosopher Françoise Baylis is right– if identity is something we work out in constant conversation with the rest of the world, a kind of story we tell, shaped by our beliefs and desires and fact-checked and validated by others–then the only person who could have said who [anyone] is [that person].

The concept of race as distilled into popular culture is the product not only of scientific research but of history, culture, and politics as well– the product, in other words, of flawed human beings. Columbia University sociologist Alondra Nelson has described the concept of race as “a way to sort human communities in such a way to justify social inequality; this sorting is neither natural nor inevitable.” [Boldface added]

People thought they could get away with everything, she says– and indeed, they did until genetic genealogy came along. In Moore's view, DNA is an equalizer, a revelatory force with the power to right past wrongs.

Linda would say that she was so excited to have half-sisters that she didn't fully appreciate how her story posted a fundamental threat to their story.

Should parents have an expectation of privacy if they relinquished their children decades ago when the culture was radically different, when psychologists said the best thing for a child was not to know his or her biological family?

We are connected to other human beings on this earth– genetically, historically,' Winn says. 'It's like magnets, I may not know where the other end of the magnet is, but I'm being pulled to it. How can we answer anything about ourselves if we don't know what our roots are, if we don't know who are people are?

Seeking out genetic information... may allow adult adoptees, who had no choice in whether to be adopted, or by whom, to exercise their autonomy in making meaning out of it.

Some of the stigmas seem so dated that you'd think these secrets couldn't hurt anymore, but they do. Because, in fact, out of those secrets came people– people who can sometimes still sense the shame that surrounded their hidden identities.

Time is the enemy of secret-keepers, because with time comes the inevitable revelation, one way or another.