# Why are the vast majority of African-Americans lighter than black Africans?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-vast-majority-of-african-americans-lighter-than-black-africans/220340>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 21, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-vast-majority-of-african-americans-lighter-than-black-africans/220340 "2003-12-21T18:08:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-vast-majority-of-african-americans-lighter-than-black-africans/220340/41 "2003-12-24T21:54:49Z")

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I’ve been thinking about what I asked. It would be pretty hard to quantify “blackness” or “whiteness”, wouldn’t it. You can’t really say that someone’s twice, or half, as black as someone else.  
Forget I asked. It sounds kinda rude anyway. 😉

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