# If all the white women in the world disappeared and only white men were left...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576 "2014-05-03T12:57:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/41 "2014-05-05T02:55:59Z")
Ha! Makes my observation look like crap. I salute you. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/42 "2014-05-05T03:06:45Z")
Are Hispanic and Middle Eastern women considered “white”? I guess I’m not really clear as to what the OP is asking. Is this supposed to be some sort of social thought experiment or is he asking what predominantly white cultures would end up looking like? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/43 "2014-05-05T04:55:11Z")
There be a small decrease in the[total amount of Neanderthal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Interbreeding_hypotheses) in the global genome, which would be sad, I guess. Picture Iron Eyes Cody with a tear in his eye, except he’s a Neanderthal, not an Italian. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/44 "2014-05-05T10:08:58Z")
FWIW: There are sites out there where discussions on race and the shifting demographics of America and the world are normal and, amazingly, for the most part free from flaming , name calling and the like. It appears to me that given how this site is managed and also its general (very broadly speaking) demographics this is probably not a good place to pursue such issues. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/45 "2014-05-05T14:07:59Z")
Concur, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/46 "2014-05-05T15:33:12Z")
It would mean that my wife would be OK. On any given day I would still have the same percent chance of having sex, which after the birth of our second is sadly less than prior to any offspring. What would happen to out daughter, though? Would she disappear half the time? Fade in and out? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/47 "2014-05-05T15:51:42Z")
The point has already been made, but it bears repeating: the definition of “white” in the US has always been in flux. In The Beginning, only people of northern European ancestry were white. Gradually, the often (but hardly always) darker-skinned peoples of southern Europe stopped being scary “others” and were added to the mix (ha!) In any event, I think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that “white” features like light eyes and hair will disappear. There are many non-European populations who carry those recessive genes. There are people with green or hazel eyes all over Kashmir, for example (and some of them are pale enough to make Elvira look tan.) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/48 "2014-05-05T16:01:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The white race is a sociological concept, not a biological concept… Ok, so there is some factual information in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/49 "2014-05-05T17:19:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > In the distant future of Joe Haldeman’s _The Forever War_, global racial mixing has led to everyone looking vaguely like a Pacific Islander. Is that what happens; is there a regression to the mean (not using “regression” as a value-laden term here)? That does seem to be what happens in feral dog populations, but I thought that variety tends to be preserved, albeit with less distinction (more of a rainbow than a set of color bands). As Chronos pointed out, recessive traits tend to remain in a population; it’s the dominant ones that can be easily “bred out”. To the extent that “whites” have dominant traits, those would also remain in the population thanks to the males and nonwhites who have white genes but not enough of them to be considered white. > [@msmith537](#): > > Are Hispanic and Middle Eastern women considered “white”? > > I guess I’m not really clear as to what the OP is asking. Is this supposed to be some sort of social thought experiment or is he asking what predominantly white cultures would end up looking like? Part of the problem is that, as mentioned above, the term isn’t well-defined. The genetic diversity of central Africa dwarfs the rest of the human population; it accounts for over 80% of the variation in the human genome. Any traits we’d call “white” are limited to a small number of rather arbitrary ones, and oddly enough, wouldn’t include the genes for light colored skin and hair (which are present in Africa, just not predominant). For example, melanism in human populations varies dramatically and very quickly, taking only a couple thousand years to go between extremes in a relatively isolated population. In fact, there are reasons to believe that the predominance of dark black skin in African populations is due more to sexual selection than to natural selection (e.g., it persists in populations that live in dark, forested areas.) I’d have to search to find where I read this; probably Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/50 "2014-05-05T17:33:16Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The point has already been made, but it bears repeating: the definition of “white” in the US has always been in flux. In The Beginning, only people of northern European ancestry were white. Gradually, the often (but hardly always) darker-skinned peoples of southern Europe stopped being scary “others” and were added to the mix (ha!) Look, I don’t appreciate your overbroad definitions of what’s acceptable, race-wise. “NO IRISH NEED APPLY” worked for my great-great-great grandparents (OK, well the English-descended ones, anyway…), and I say it should work for me. Darn tootin’ those O’-whatevers aren’t White. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/51 "2014-05-05T18:09:01Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Are Hispanic and Middle Eastern women considered “white”? And, are we considered “white” or not depending on where we are? ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576/52 "2014-05-06T00:46:00Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Huh? This came from where? > […] I think that **JRDelirious** ’s post is accurate, if a trifle obfuscated. As several other posters note, the OP apparently fails to understand that the two groups “white people” and “Hispanics” have _significant_ overlap. As Wikipedia notes, the largest racial subgroup of “Hispanics” is white, followed by the indigenous peoples of the Americas (i.e. - brown). To me, his failure to grasp this makes his question regarding the future of the white race somewhat nonsensical, if not unanswerable as presented. Not to say, of course, that there are not other aspects of the described situation that can and have been factually examined. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-all-the-white-women-in-the-world-disappeared-and-only-white-men-were-left/687576.md?page=2)