White men, for hundreds of years, raped Black women and then sold the product of their own loins.
Growing up, looking at the ever lightening complexions of some Blacks, which seemed to straddle the razor thin divide between Black and White, I thought to myself. "one day, we'll all look like some hodge podge mixed raced creation."
At that young age, what I failed to appreciate is that this process had been taking place for so long, and on such a large scale, that today, millions of Whites, are of African descent, but do not know it.
As successive generations of slavemasters raped ever whitening African women, who, seeing as they were still recognizably Black, were by law, "Black" there were many who had experienced complexion revolutions to the point that in all possible visual interpretation, they were "White"
These "slaves" were often set free, and allowed to move north, with a bit of money and perhaps some paperwork to show that they were "White" and then they started lives as free Whites.
Today, it is estimated that no less than 20% (in Western & Northern States) and up to 30-35% (in Southern & Eastern States) of "Whites" are actually of Black descent, yet, call themselves "White" despite this nations designation of anywhere from "1/20th" to the "one drop rule" as a definition of "Black".
Please refer to the Genetic Study by Robert P. Stuckey of The Ohio State University.
Robert P. Stuckey Study Results:
The data in table 1 indicate that approximately 21 percent of the persons classified as white in 1950 have an African element in their inherited biological background. The percentage of persons classified as white having some degree of African ancestry was extremely small in 1790. The percentage figures for successive censual years increased most rapidly between 1790 and 1850. Although this is partly a function of the computational methods used, it is characteristic of interbreeding populations. The figures for the period 1850 to 1890 were comparatively stable. Between 1900 and 1930, the percentage declined slightly. These two shifts were primarily the result of large-scale immigration from Europe. With the curtailing of this immigration,again in 1930.
Study Abstract:
ROBERT P. STUCKERT
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus.
Defining a racial group generally poses a problem to social scientists. Adefinition of a race has yet to be proposed that is satisfactory for all purposes.This is particularly true when the racial group has minority group status as doesthe Negro group in the United States. To many persons, however, the matterof race definition is no problem. They view humanity as being divided intocompletely separate racial compartments. A Negro is commonly defined as aperson having any known trace of Negro ancestry or "blood" regardless of howfar back one must go to find it. A concomitant belief is that all whites are freeof the presumed taint of Negro ancestry or "blood."The purpose of this research was to determine the validity of this belief in thenon-Negro ancestry of persons classified as white. Current definitions of Negromay have serious limitations when used as bases for classifying persons accordingto ancestry (Berry, 1951). The terms African and non-African will be usedrather than Negro and white when discussing the ancestry of an individual. Eachof the former pair of terms has a more specific referent which is the geographicpoint of origin of an individual. At the same time, the two pairs of terms areclosely related. Hence, this paper is the report of an attempt to estimate thepercentage of persons classified as white that have African ancestry or genesreceived from an African ancestor.This raises a question concerning the relationship between having an Africanancestor and receiving one or more genes from this ancestor. Since one-half ofan individual's genetic inheritance is received from each parent, the probabilityof a person with one African ancestor within the previous eight generations receivingany single gene from this ancestor is equal to or greater than (0.5) 8 or 3.9063 x 10 3 .It has been estimated that there are approximately 48,000 gene loci on 24 chromo-some pairs (Stern, 1950). The probability that an individual with one Africanancestor has one or more genes derived from this ancestor is equal to l-(l-3.9063 x10-3)24,ooo o r g rea ter than 0.9998. Having more than one African ancestor increasesthis probability. One final remark needs to be made. Some degree of Africanancestry is not necessarily related to the physical appearance of the individual.Many of the genes possessed by virtue of descent from an African do not distinguishthe bearer from persons of non-African ancestry. They are the genes or potentialsfor traits which characterize the human race. Nevertheless, these genes representan element in the biological constitution of the individual inherited from anAfrican.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The research methodology of this study involved constructing a genetic prob-ability table. The primary function of this type of table is to ascertain the dis-tribution within a known population of a variable that can not be observeddirectly. It is frequently used to estimate the changes that occur in the geneticcomposition of a population over a period of time. There are three basic stepsin the computation of a genetic probability table.1. A series of assumptions which serve as a basis for the table is made. Theseassumptions may refer to the initial distribution of the variable within the popu- *Revision of a paper read at the annual meeting of The Ohio Academy of Science held inBowling Green, Ohio, April 19, 1957. THE OHIO JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 58(3): 155, May, 1958.
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