New official Census results for Detroit's Inner ring suburbs

[Gistok]

The U.S. racial classifications, and racial classifications in general, have no scientific basis. The U.S. Census bureau's classification of Arabs as white was just some person [[or persons) making a decision, rather than a scientifically substantiated study of whether Arab people have a close "genetic" relation to Europeans.

Yes, but it's not like they just made it up... they followed the standards of the times. Here'sa 1932 German Lexicon page that it shows some of the racial subdivisions [[that they believed at the time):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Europaeid_types.jpg

Before the modern age of Gene research, learned people followed the practices and believes of the era. Back then pigmentation was more important than it is today for determining race. The Beduin's pictured in this Lexicon are the Arabs of today.

For example today we know that African Ethiopian's and Somalian's are not racially related to the other blacks of sub-Saharan Africa. Back in the earlier 20th century they were considered black.

[iheartthed]

Yes, but it's not like they just made it up... they followed the standards of the times. Here'sa 1932 German Lexicon page that it shows some of the racial subdivisions [[that they believed at the time):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Europaeid_types.jpg

Before the modern age of Gene research, learned people followed the practices and believes of the era. Back then pigmentation was more important than it is today for determining race. The Beduin's pictured in this Lexicon are the Arabs of today.

I like to think of it as someone's opinion got cemented into fact. And until the modern era, that sort of "science" was used as a way to confirm biases rather than challenge conventional wisdom.

For example today we know that African Ethiopian's and Somalian's are not racially related to the other blacks of sub-Saharan Africa. Back in the earlier 20th century they were considered black.

Well, there is a lot of variation within sub-Saharan Africa -- it's the most genetically varied region of humans on Earth, so no surprise there. Also, I know it's a hard habit to break, but we really shouldn't be referring to human sub-groups as races when we're talking about genetic differences. People of different "races" can be more closely related, genetically, than people of the same "race".

[iheartthed]

People of different "races" can be more closely related, genetically, than people of the same "race".

Ironically, this story about a pair of twins in England, one "white" and the other "black", was just published recently:

The two teenage boys sitting on the sofa opposite are different in almost every way. On the left is James: he's black, he's gay, he's gregarious, and he's academic. He's taking three A-levels next summer, and wants to go to university. Daniel, sitting beside him, is white. He's straight, he's shy, and he didn't enjoy school at all. He left after taking GCSEs, and hopes that his next move will be an apprenticeship in engineering.

So, given that they are diametrically opposed, there is one truly surprising thing about James and Daniel. They are twins. They were born on 27 March 1993, the sons of Alyson and Errol Kelly, who live in south-east London. And from the start, it was obvious to everyone that they were the complete flipside of identical. "They were chalk and cheese, right from the word go," says Alyson. "It was hard to believe they were even brothers, let alone twins."

The boys' colour was the most obvious, and extraordinary, difference. "When James was born he was the spitting image of Errol, and I remember seeing his curly hair and thinking – he's just like his dad. It was another two hours before Daniel was born: and what a surprise he was! He was so white and wrinkly, with this curly blond hair."

...

So how does it happen that a white and a black partner – who would usually produce, as Alyson and Errol did in their other children, black-skinned offspring – have a child who is as white as his mum? I spoke to Dr Jim Wilson, population geneticist at Edinburgh University – and his first question was, "What is Errol's heritage?" Errol is Jamaican – and that, says Jim, is the basic explanation.

"It wouldn't really be possible for a black African father and a white mother to have a white child, because the African would carry only black skin gene variants in his DNA, so wouldn't have any European DNA, with white skin variants, to pass on," he explains.

"But most Caribbean people, though black-skinned, have European DNA because in the days of slavery, many plantation owners raped female slaves, and so introduced European DNA into the black gene pool.

"The thing about skin colour is that even a bit of African DNA tends to make a person's skin colour black – so to be white, the child must have inherited more of the father's European DNA with its white skin variants. Added to the mother's European DNA, this led to a child with white skin – while his brother, who is black-skinned, inherited more of his father's African DNA.

"The Caribbean father will have less European DNA than African DNA, so it's more likely he'll pass on African DNA – but rarely, and I've worked it out to be around one in 500 sets of twins where there's a couple of this genetic mix, the father will pass on a lot of European DNA to one child and mostly African DNA to the other. The result will be one white child and one black."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...ns-black-white