My friends trying to convince me that his great-great-great grandfather is black.
Yet he’s the whitest guy I’ve seen…
Can a white guy have black blood? I would think he would be a darker skin color. He says it was washed out over time.
I call bullshit… Can people give me some facts?
Once upon a time, the entire human race was what we would now consider black. Five generations is more than enough time for those genetic influences to be suppressed.
Hello and welcome to the board.
There are even black parents that have very light skinned kids so by simple reasoning and genetics if your friend had only one black grandparent, he could easily be a pale Blue-Eye Blond. If the ancestor is further back then it becomes very much less important to his coloring and appearance.
Jim
I think you will find my recent thread Were There Many “White” Slaves in Antebellum America? very informative.
I would say you are the losing side of this one at least in some cases. Think of all the very, very white people that have Native American blood if you don’t think the differences get diluted through the generations.
No kiding…
Well sheesh… I live up to the username…
Easily.
One of my great-great-great-grandmothers was an American Indian. Yet, I have absolutely no Indian features. I have blue eyes, brown hair that was extremely blond when I was a child, and a pretty full reddish beard.
That’s a lot of generations for those features to wash out.
My brother’s stepson has a Chinese father, and he has red hair, blue eyes, pale complexion and looks like Howdy Doody. And that’s only one generation.
Keep in mind that many white people might have black ancestry and not know of it, because a lot of light-skinned, mixed blacks would “pass” into white society. In the linked thread, another Doper mentions ancestors who did so, and they cannot find out what happened to them-it’s really sad.
Sure. Lots of blondes around here do.
I hear that problem is 10 times worse in LA. 
Jim
That’s only one ancestor out of 32. Even presuming that the black ancestor was pure sub-Saharan African, it is quite likely that a descendant at that distance would not show any obvious African traits (and it is also quite possible the black ancestor, it he was in the US, would not be pure African either.)
This article has some information of interest:
And:
Given that the article indicates that 30% of white Americans have at least some black ancestry, your friend wouldn’t seem to be that unusual.
(On first read, I thought the question was “Can white people have black robots?” I am disappointed it is not.)
Would that have been a technical or an ethical question? Hmmm—I guess it all boils down to a question of power supply, and what you want to use the robot for…
ALL people are ultimately related to each other, and since humankind originated in Africa we should all have some Black Blood in us no matter what our “race” is.
For even more anecdotal evidence my girlfriend’s great grandfather was a black African and although she’s got really curly hair and tans easily she’s undeniably white.
We are not sure what “color” our hominid ancestors were, nor what texture hair they had, etc. Climate was drastically different all over the world at the time hominids evolved and began to migrate out of Africa. So while we all have “African” blood, it may not be “black” blood as that term is commonly used and understood.
1/4 black - Mariah Carey.
My child (3 caucasian grandparents, one dark-skinned mulato) would pass as pure caucasian, down to the auburn hair and the blue eyes. In this country we are used to it.
The “trying to convince me” part of the OP confuses me. Is this really a matter requiring a preponderance of evidence and a great deal of debate?
Associate: Hey, Bryan, I’m 1/32 black!
Bryan: Yeah, whatever, pass me the peanuts.
Not tto highjack the thread or anything but I saw a commercial a few weeks ago for 20/20 I believe that said something to the effect of “Meet the twins: One black, One white…”
I never got the chance to see that episode air. It left me quite puzzled though. Is this possible?
