Knowing where you come from shouldn’t be a privilege for people who can afford $100+ DNA tests. It should just be something we all have access to. I’ve always wondered about my roots—who my ancestors were, what cultures they came from—but like a lot of people, I couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on a guess. Services like 23andMe make it feel like your identity is a product behind a paywall, and that doesn’t sit right with me.

Now imagine if ancestry was just part of your birth certificate—no extra cost, no third-party company involved. Everyone, no matter where they’re from or how much money they have, would start life with access to that knowledge. It would take something deeply personal out of the hands of corporations and put it where it belongs: with individuals and families. And beyond the personal value, this kind of access could reshape how we think and talk about race and identity in a way that’s based on truth, not assumptions.

It also avoids a lot of the shady stuff we’ve seen from commercial DNA companies—selling data, breaching privacy, all of it. If ancestry info was handled as part of a secure public record, we’d have more control over it. It’s one thing to be curious about who you are—it’s another to hand over your genetic blueprint to the highest bidder.

And let’s be real: racism and bias thrive when people don’t understand each other. If more of us had a clear, accurate look at our ancestry from day one, it might help challenge some of the nonsense we’ve been fed about who's who and what that supposedly means. We’re all way more connected than we think.

This isn’t about making things more complicated—it’s about making them fairer. If you think everyone deserves to know where they come from, not just the people who can afford to, sign the petition. Ancestry shouldn’t be a luxury. It should be a birthright.