# Do I sport some "black" ancestry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160 "2005-05-31T01:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/1 "2005-05-31T01:40:35Z")
🆒 Inspired by Cecil, [here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050527.html). I ask this question in the same spirit as Cecil’s reply. Just wondering, so I tried a little research. Couldn’t find much, really, so I thought I’d toss the question to the SDMB. While racial mixing (aka rape) probably wasn’t universal in the days of legal slavery, I understand it was pretty common. Adopting, for the moment, jim crow’s “one drop” idea, wouldn’t it be likely that many of us who’s ancestry in the US goes back to those days would qualify? Even (especially?) many of those neo-nazi folks? One of my relatives attempted to do a family tree a few years back, and I’ve wondered ever since how we could possibly _know_, for sure, who sired whom way back then. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/2 "2005-05-31T03:32:27Z")
_snerk_ facetious answer - we all come from the cradle of civilization which _apparently_ is Africa, so the answer is yes. facetious religious answer - we are all descended from Adam and Eve [jewish, christian and possibly muslim answer, of course] and that _includes_ blacks, so yes, the answer is still yes because we all come from the same originating couple. spurious historical answer - Roman legions frequently hired auxilliaries from various colonies to fill in the skill gaps, such as scythian horsemen, mauritanian slingmen and _nubian_ spearmen…if you come from a country where the auxilliaries were from africa and could be considered black…well - dating the locals and pregancy happen, as did settling down near the fort the legion was stationed at in the later years of the empire. Additional spurious historical answer - Rome was more or less colorblind, what mattered was your _citizenship_ and people from the african colonies were perfectly free to move to Gaul if they chose. Both white and black romans had slaves from africa, and moved all over the empire, and where you have people, they fuck, pregnancies occur. Overall, yes Virginia…even the most rednecked inbred Klan member has a black in the woodpile if you go back far enough. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/3 "2005-05-31T03:56:01Z")
[Here’s some data:](http://www.isteve.com/2002_How_White_Are_Blacks.htm) > [@](#): > > Molecular anthropologist Mark D. Shriver heads a group of nine population researchers at Penn State University who are going beyond the arbitrary “one drop of blood” rule to answer these ancient questions about the family trees of the typical American “black” and “white.” > > . . . > > Is mixed race ancestry fairly typical for an American? In two ways, it is. First, more than 50 million whites, according to his analyses, have at least one black ancestor. > > [But:] > > . . . > > Among self-identified whites in Shriver’s sample, the average black admixture is only 0.7 percent. That’s the equivalent of having among your 128 great-great-great-great-great-grandparents (who lived around two centuries ago), 127 whites and one black. > > It appears that 70 percent of whites have no African ancestors. Among the 30 percent who do, the black admixture is around 2.3 percent, which would be like having about three black ancestors out of those 128. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/4 "2005-05-31T04:18:17Z")
**aruvqan** I thought I was clear that my question referred to much later in our common histories. I asked if we might have some black slave ancestry. You know, in the USA. We all know about Lucy. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/5 "2005-05-31T04:28:22Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Here’s some data:](http://www.isteve.com/2002_How_White_Are_Blacks.htm) Now that’s interesting. I assume that the researchers limited their sample to those who’s ancestors were in America at the time of slavery. Of course they would. Also, the so-called one drop could have entered their tree more recently. Like maybe Grampa Bruce wasn’t grampa. That’s pretty hard to measure, though. I’ll look at the linked site tomorrow eve. I’m sleepy. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/6 "2005-05-31T08:54:09Z")
I remember seeing a documentary about a genealogical investigation of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings - what struck me about it was that, along with the self-identifying black Americans who were happy to concede that they were Hemming’s and Jefferson’s descendants, there were some self-identified white Americans who had great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that this meant they had (at least one) black ancestor. Also, maybe I’m misremembering something I read, but weren’t there several court-cases from the 1970s dealing with challenges to a State’s racial classification of the plaintiffs (i.e. they id’d as “white”, but their 1/32 of African American ancestry meant they were classified as “black”)? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/7 "2005-05-31T10:57:53Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#): > > I remember seeing a documentary about a genealogical investigation of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings - what struck me about it was that, along with the self-identifying black Americans who were happy to concede that they were Hemming’s and Jefferson’s descendants, there were some self-identified white Americans who had great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that this meant they had (at least one) black ancestor. :eek: When processing the news “You are a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” the informed reacts “OMG! I’m part _black_???” Can you think of a more screwed up reaction? Sally Hemings is a good example of just how race is, in so many ways, a social construct. She had three, count 'em, _three white grandparents_! and just one black grandparent. The kids she had with TJ had _seven white great-grandparents_ and yet they still had to be freed by their owner. Once freed they had to leave Virginia because of State law that said “blacks” couldn’t live in that state as free residents. _Seven White Great-Grandparents_ and they were still legally considered black! How likely is it that someone who has seven French great-grandparents and one Dutch great-grandparent would accept being told that he is Dutch? And yet, still today when processing the news “You are a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” the informed reacts “OMG! I’m part _black_???” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/8 "2005-05-31T12:03:41Z")
Probably everyone has an ancester that was conceived “on the wrong side of the blanket” so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/9 "2005-05-31T20:41:52Z")
It looks like **Colibri** ’s data are based on DNA analysis of some sort, and would therefore not care about whose kids were legitimate and who knew if they weren’t. And even if Grampa wasn’t actually Gramma’s husband, he was likely someone of the same race as Grampa. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-sport-some-black-ancestry/306160/10 "2005-05-31T21:07:04Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > And yet, still today when processing the news “You are a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” the informed reacts “OMG! I’m part _black_???” I’d say the same thing, but after it I’d probably say something like: “That is so COOL!” But then again, I’m inordinately proud to be 1/32 Cherokee, and I think it’s fascinating that that means I could theoretically have been classified as “colored” in some southern states under the one-drop rule. Maybe I’m just easily amused.