I have been wondering about this for a long time…
If someone who is half-black (but with light skin), decides to have a child with a partner who is white, is it possible that the child will be born with dark skin?
How about someone who is a quarter black? One-eighth black? One-sixteenth…you get the picture. I would think that the further removed you get from black ancestry, the lighter you would be.
I assume that it makes no difference whether the partially black parent is the mother or the father.
I have heard of this scenario only in novels. Has it happened in real life, too? Or is this a case of anti-miscegnation propaganda? (Did I spell those words right? Please let me know.)
Let me see if I can 'splain this…
First generation - you have one person who is white (very few or no genes for dark skin color) and one who is black (just about as much skin color as a person can have. They have a child. This is your “half black” person, who is actually brown.
The brown person marries a pink person (meaning, they’re “white” but not as white as the white person in the first paragraph). Most likely the kids will be somewhere between brown and pink, but it is possible that brown will contribute all of brown’s dark color genes, and pink will conribute all of pink’s dark color genes (which probably aren’t many, otherwise pink wouldn’t be pink), resulting in a child that has more genes for dark skin color than brown. In other words, brown and pink could have a child darker than brown – but not as dark as black in the first paragraph.
Likewise, if the genetic lottery comes out right, brown and pink might have a child with lighter skin than pink (both parents contribute just their genes for light skin color). However, a good suntan could skew the results on that one.
You have to remember, though, that there are several genes affecting skin color, and unlike genes for eye color they may not be dominant/resessive but all of them having an effect on the particular skin tone that results. Mixing skin color is not like mixing two jars of paint - the results are not consistent due to the way heredity works.
If you take it out a few more generations, darker-brown’s children are more likely to be dark skinned than lighter-pink’s, but a lot depends on who they marry. As a result, someone who is 1/8 “black” can have a skin tone from extremely dark to extremely light, depending on what they inherit from their parents. There are people 1/4 and 1/8 African-American with lighter skin than many people of European descent, even if the majority of such folks are darker than most Europeans.
Thanks for the info, Broomstick. Skin color is more complicated than I thought…
Sorry it took so long for me to see this. This message board changes pages at a snail’s pace…(but I understand, 'cause it’s loved so much)