A Speculative Fiction Post

I think we need some kind of disruption to get us to change the pattern of our country's current downward spiral. How's this for disruption: #landback to Indigenous people as soon as possible. I've talked a little bit in the past about how that could work, and that it doesn't mean all the people whose ancestors came from somewhere else would be evicted.

But what if it did mean at least those of us descended from European conquerors and pioneers had to leave and return to our ancestral lands?*

If we were all ejected from this country, repatriated/rematriated under some plan, we would get a taste of both the way we — we = our past and present government — treat migrants, refugees, and all immigrants now, as well as how our ancestors treated the Indigenous people in North America in the past.

As a person with almost 100% northern European heritage from at least five countries, I started thinking about how such a thing could work. Which country would all of us Heinz 57 people go to? And what about couples with divergent ancestries (and their children, whose ancestries are even more divergent)?

I guess my first thought is that it would start from a DNA test, and whatever source has the highest percentage is where you go.** Couples could pick from their two options. The other idea would be the birth country of your most recent immigrant ancestor, but that would require records that a lot of people don't have, so DNA would be simpler. (Or possibly there could be a way to allow either option.)

I know that this is more a premise for a speculative fiction story than anything else. Maybe I should write it.

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* I'm realizing that even this demarcator is complicated, since there are, of course, many people with both African and European ancestors, and increasingly more people with Asian and European ancestors. In a speculative fiction story, however, this could provide an interesting element of irony, as people who want to stay in place search for reprieves based on bits of their heritage that would have been denigrated historically.

** A probable complication of this approach: siblings with the same biological parents have different country-of-origin sourcing in their DNA profiles, since they each get different amounts from their two parents. This plan would potentially send adult sibling families (and their parents, aunts, uncles) to multiple countries. That's obviously untenable, so likely there needs to be a blending aspect among a specified set of related people: you have three countries to choose from, or these two countries, or what have you. (Or you can choose to get away from your family! That could also work for some people.)