There's a little bit of black blood in everyone

[saxy_jag]

My Indian colleague reckons that if we trace our ancestry back far enough, there's a little bit of black or Asian blood in all of us. If that's the case, it includes Nick Griffin.

Has anyone ever traced his lineage? Wouldn't it be the ultimate irony if he had some black ancestry?

[modeller]

There is the other arguement that we became whiter as we moved north not just because we didn't need the pigment for protection but that we need the sun to mantain our vitimin D levels and a dark skin would reduce that ability. I believe that more dark skinned people in this country suffer from D deficiency more than white.

[Bbbananas]

I had a bit of Irish in me once.... he wasn't black though.

[Twenty20]

Surely we're all just humans, our colour is irrelevant?

[anotheoldgit]

As more and more black people move into Northern Hemisphere regions, could they turn white, thousands of years into the future?

[Zeuhl]

No. With an average life expectancy of 75-85 years they'll all be dead.
.

[saxy_jag]

Yes, Ankou, I guess I was talking genes.

AOG, I think it's fairly well known that if one, or maybe two black people had 'bred' (sorry, I can't think of a suitable word) with white people then, without any further black genes being introduced to the lineage, those born several generations along will betray no outward sign of their black ancestry, except, perhaps, for the isolated that pops up once in a few generations (a bit like the 'ginger' gene).

Modeller, I've read about the vitamin D theory elsewhere. Apparently melanin filters out the sun's rays. As you've said, we need sunlight for our bodies to make vitamin D, and in this part of the world we have to make the most of what little sunshine we get. With dark, melanin-rich skin, this is going to be more difficult, hence the deficiency.

It would stand to reason that those with the most suitable genes for our climate will be the ones whose children are stronger and healthier in it - viz. the fairer skinned ones.

To go back to my original question, though, do we know whether Nick Griffin has any black/Asian ancestry - maybe some slave or Raj genes? Would he be allowed to be a member of his own party? Or would he, as he wants so many people to do, have to return to his own country?

[evedawn]

anyone heard the true story of SANDRA LAING a black girl born to white parents in 1955? So the gene can skip generations. Interesting. Also on the topic...is it true that Hitler had a Jewish grandmother?

[evedawn]

oh and to complicate matters...this sandra Laing was born in south Africa to staunch afrikaaner parents in the height of the apartheid era!

[Old_Geezer]

IMO the most obvious affect on what we look like must surely be the local sexual preferences of the opposite sex. Live where locally a black skin is preferred, and the local folk gradually get darker generatino after generation. White preference ? Local folk get whiter. Yellow, yellower; red, redder. Most be more important to having offspring than any other influence. That said there may be a good reason why local preference in hot regions is for a dark skin whilst in cooler regions it's for a light one.

[saxy_jag]

There was a post on here just the other day about a black couple who have just given birth to a white, blonde-haired daughter - who is not an albino. I wonder whether the parents may just have the odd white gene in both their genetic lines.

HItler's father was illegitimate. There was a claim that the son of the mother's Jewish employer was the father of the child but this is disputed, not the least because all Jews had been driven out of the town in the 1400s.

[spudqueen]

I have been working on my family tree, but after a while you just end up with names, no photos or anything (especially if you're going back two or three hundred years), so how would you know what these people looked like? You can't always tell from a name where someone comes from or what they look like. And I should know as I have an Indian first name, even though there is no obvious Indian connection in my family. When tracing a family tree you always end up hitting a blank wall, there is always a point at which you cannot find any more information. This may be because someone was born abroad, but it could just as easily mean that they came from 20 miles down the road.
After having said all that though, yes, it would be interesting to do a 'Who Do You Think You Are' type thing on Nick Griffin.

[Theranged]

So we've ascertained that whites have black Dna but do blacks have white Dna?