Can two light-skinned people have a dark-skinned child?

Woops, sorry about that. I thought I was in the other thread. That’s what I get for posting at 1 AM.

Although what I know is about eye, rather than skin or hair color, but perhaps it can throw some light on the questions raised here.

In HS biology (which was back in the 50s when it was still possible to teach Darwinian evolution in public HSs) I learned that two blue-eyed parents could not have a dark-eyed child. I accepted that at the time, but after a while I worked out a scenario. I tried out my ideas on a geneticist and he agreed. It would be rare but possible. Similarly, two parents of blood type O could have a child of any blood type with the same mechanism.

Here is how it works. It is perhaps a little simpler with blood types, so I will do it for that. To have type A blood, you have to have at least one gene that codes for a protein that produces a particular antigen (I think that is the right word, but forgive if it isn’t). If neither chromosome has that gene (actually, if it has a version of the gene that doesn’t make that protein), then that person will have type O or B blood. The same considerations work for type B. If the person makes neither protein he will have type O. If he marries another such person, all their children will have type O. If he marries a person of type A, then either that person is really Aa, meaning has one gene that codes for the A protein, or type AA, meaning both genes do.

The thing is that that is not the only way of having type O blood; it is far the most common way, but not the only way. Nothing is ever quite as simple as it appears in HS biology. You could have genome Aa or AA and still have type O blood. For the antigen is manufactured in a sequence of steps all of which are coded genetically and all of which have to be present for the A antigen to be produced. Suppose there is another gene, call it Z that has to be present. Suppose that there is a rare mutation that makes a gene I will call z that fails to make that protein (most likely an enzyme). Now if a person with genotype AAzz marries an aaZZ (here I am simplifying and ignoring the B antigen), then both will have type O blood and all their children will have genome AaZz and hence type A blood.

In a similar way, it is possible for two blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child and two blond parents to have a dark-haired child. I see no reason why all this couldn’t happen with skin color. I once met an albino (east) Indian. Pink eyes, white hair, extremely pale skin, whose children looked like perfectly ordinary dark-skinned Indians. There was some cognitive dissonance with this very pale person with Caucasian features speaking strongly Indian accented English.

Aaagh!! It’s the attack of the zombie nigger babies!

:smiley:
Sorry, I just had to say that once, when I realized that the thread had been resucitated.

I can see how old this thread is but I just watched the movie SKIN about a dark skinned girl born to white parents and my interest is peaked for a couple reasons. First, the movie caught my attention because I actually gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, 17 years ago who has a much darker skin than my husband or me. So dark in fact, she easily passes for Mexican and is frequently thought of as being half black. (The half black issues were mainly when she was much younger in middle school.) I am of German decent, my husband Dutch! When she was just a baby, my husband and I were out and people asked us her nationality, as if we had adopted her. I never felt alarmed by her skin color, mainly because there was no question she was mine and my husbands. My husband too, has NEVER thought she didn’t belong to him, and the fact that she actually looks like both of us, especially his mother, minus her lovely deep brown/olive complexion. I honestly and quite ignorantly thought she was so dark because I was a bikini laden sun goddess during my entire pregnancy. I figured the melanin soaked in! Ha ha! Don’t make fun, I was so young back then! So, yes, yes, yes, it is quite possible and the more I learn I realize it had nothing to do with sun bathing during pregnancy.

I know this is a zombie, but I believe the woman the previous poster is referring to isSandra Laing. There was a film about her called Skin starring the lovely Sophie Okonedo. It’s about a black appearing woman who was born to white South African parents which due to the circumstances, caused quite a few problems for her.