There is a very common misconception that offspring of European American parent and an African American parent are half black and half white.
This stems from the following:
Race (human categorization)
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society.[1] The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations.[2] By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations. Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)
Miscegenation
Miscegenation (/mɪˌsɛdʒəˈneɪʃən/ mih-SEJ-ə-NAY-shən) is the interbreeding of people who are considered to be members of different races.[1] The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms miscere ("to mix") and genus ("race") from the Hellenic γένος.[2] The word first appeared in Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro, a pretended anti-abolitionist pamphlet David Goodman Croly and others published anonymously in advance of the 1864 U.S. presidential election.[2][3] The term came to be associated with laws that banned interracial marriage and sex, which were known as anti-miscegenation laws.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscegenation
hypodescent
In societies that regard some races or ethnic groups of people as dominant or superior and others as subordinate or inferior, hypodescent refers to the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union to the subordinate group.[1] The opposite practice is hyperdescent, in which children are assigned to the race that is considered dominant or superior.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypodescent
the one drop rule
The one-drop rule is a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the 20th-century United States. It asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood")[1][2] is considered black (Negro or colored in historical terms). It is an example of hypodescent, the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups to the group with the lower status, regardless of proportion of ancestry in different groups.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule
Social constructs of race, slavery, rape, some consensual mixing of different continental backgrounds, and the hypodescent concept figured into the creation and great diversity of African Americans and their black identities.
The average African American is around one quarter European. During the American slavery period, European American slaveowners/male relatives and overseers raped the African American female slaves. That is why around 1/3 of African American males have European Y Chromosomes. This was actually depicted in Roots mini-series that showed Kizzie being raped by her owner which led to their son Chicken George being born. There is a 1977 version of Roots that I watched before I was in my teens. There is a 2016 version of Roots. European admixture in African Americans as the result of African American female slaves being raped should be common knowledge among Americans with all the recent genetic studies in the 21st Century that we currently live in. Raping of female slaves with the result of children being born was a big part of slavery in the Americas, and it is something that I learned about as a kid in the 1980s. No American should be ignorant about it. Before I learned about what slavery entailed, I always thought that African Americans had some European ancestry with a bit of variation.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25529636/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22295064/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTaFavHwbiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iby1C7bADno
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/historical-foundations-race
https://bioanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/
https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(18)30363-X
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/africans-have-greatest-genetic-variation/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVxAlmAPHec&t=547s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3BIIIPlahw&t=413s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWrwexw-To&t=671s
One person at reddit posted the following:
"Always thought I was just biracial (white/black). Parents don’t know much of their history. Do you guys have any insight?
My dad’s side must be more complex than we thought (only thought he was purely black)."
The poster's 23andme Ancestry composition shows 60.2% European, 38.4% Sub Saharan African, 0.9% Trace Ancestry
https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/zpcdl7/always_thought_i_was_just_biracial_whiteblack/
Another person a reddit posted the following:
"My Results. My mother is white and my father is black. I’m surprised by the high European percentage. Also, where could the Asian ancestry have come from?"
The poster's Ancestry Composition showed 71.1% European, 27.9% Sub Saharan African, 0.5% Indigenous American, 0.4% Trace Ancestry
https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/zwogjg/my_results_my_mother_is_white_and_my_father_is/
The following Celebrities are considered biracial black and white and were on the show Finding Your Roots.
Maya Rudolph is an American film and television actress and comedian. She has appeared in the films A Prairie Home Companion, Grown Ups, and Sisters, and on Saturday Night Live, among many other works. She is the daughter of producer Richard James “Dick” Rudolph who was Ashkenazi Jewish and soul and R&B singer Minnie Riperton (Minnie Julia Riperton) who was African American.
Her 23andme Ancestry Composition show:
67.3% European
31.8% Sub-Saharan African
0.7% Southeast Asian
0.2% Unassigned
Maya Rudolph learned that her Southeast Asian ancestry is Malagasy in Madagascar.
https://ethnicelebs.com/maya-rudolph
Derek Jeter is an American former professional baseball player. A shortstop, he played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees.
Derek is the son of Dorothy (Connors) and Sanderson Charles Jeter. His father is African-American, and also has some English, and remote Native American, ancestry. Derek’s mother has Irish, and smaller amounts of German and English, ancestry.
His 23andme Ancestry Composition showed:
59.4% European
39.4% Sub-Saharan African
0.5% Indigenous American
0.3% North African
0.4% Unassigned
Derek Jeter has a European Y Chromosome. He found out that his father's patrilineal ancestry is from a European American slaveowner. He didn't know that his father had European American ancestors.
https://ethnicelebs.com/derek-jeter
I identified as biracial black and white. I also had referred to myself as mulatto. I altogether stopped doing that after I found out that both my parents had multi-continental ancestry after I did 23andme genetic testing in 2011. On my mother's birth certificate, both her parents were recorded as white. On my birth certificate, my mother was recorded as white. My mother was told by her father that she is Caucasian in response to her telling that she marked down "other" for race on forms. My mother did tell me that my maternal grandfather had some Black Portuguese ancestry. My maternal grandfather never claimed to be part black. His Cape Verdean, Puerto Rican, and Puerto Rican ancestors and relatives were recorded as White in US Censuses. I grew up being told that my father was from New Orleans and that his mother had some French Creole ancestry. Therefore, I thought my African American father had some European ancestry. I thought it was because of an African American slave being raped by a European American slaveowner since watching Roots mini-series when I was a kid. Later on in the 2000s, I was open to the possibility that my father was full Sub Saharan African.
My 23andme Ancestry Composition shows:
49.7% Sub Saharan African
47.5% European
1.7% Indigenous American
0.6% Western Asian
0.3% Chinese/Southeast Asian
0.2% Unassigned
My mother's 23andme Ancestry Composition shows :
86.3% European
10.1% Sub Saharan African
1.9% Indigenous American
1.2% Western Asian
0.2% Broadly Western Asian & North African
0.3% Unassigned
parental inheritance derived from my DNA phasing between my mother's DNA and my DNA
Sub Saharan African: 43.4% is paternal, 6.3% is maternal
European: 43.2% is maternal, 4.3% is paternal
Indigenous American: 1.0% is maternal, 0.7% is paternal
Western Asian: 0.6% is maternal
Chinese/Southeast Asian: 0.3% is paternal
Unassigned: 0.2% is maternal
I inherited Sub Saharan African, European, and Indigenous American from both my parents due to both of them being continentally mixed with the vast majority of my Sub Saharan African coming from my father, the vast majority of my European coming from my mother, and the Indigenous American from my parents being almost the same amount. I inherited Western Asian and Unassigned DNA from only my mother, and I inherited Chinese/Southeast Asian from only my father.
Genealogical Ancestry
4th generation Californian on mother's side and father was a 7th generation Louisianan.
paternal grandfather's father: African American born in Southern Louisiana
paternal grandfather's mother: African American born in Southern Louisiana with other roots in Missouri and Alabama
paternal grandmother's father: African American born in Southern Louisiana with other roots in Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky
paternal grandmother's mother: African American with English and Acadian (French in what is now known as Nova Scotia) born in Southern Louisiana with colonial roots in Southern Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina
maternal grandfather's father: American born in California and son of immigrants from Cape Verde (Portuguese and Sub Saharan African)
maternal grandfather's mother: American born in California with a father from Puerto Rico (Spanish, Sub Saharan African, and Taino) and mother that was Hawaiian born daughter of immigrants from Madeira (Portuguese with Sub Saharan African)
maternal grandmother's father: European American born in Oregon of mainly English ancestry with German, Swiss, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, and Frisian with colonial roots in Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island as well as other roots in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana
maternal grandmother's mother: Ashkenazi Jewish American born in Nebraska with father immigrated from Romania and mother immigrated from Courland (in what is now known as Latvia) in Russian Empire
Because of the Transatlantic Slave trade, I don't know anything about my Sub Saharan African ancestry, but I am sure that it's mainly from West and Central Africa. Most of the Sub Saharan African slaves were brought from West and Central Africa. Africa has over 3,000 ethnic groups. My Sub Saharan African ancestry is highly likely to consist of many Sub Saharan African ethnic groups. I don't know what kind of Indigenous American ancestry that I have on my father's side.
In February of 2022, I connected with a man Mclain that turned out to be my paternal half brother through 23andme. The African American father that I grew up not knowing had another son 5 years after I was born. I already knew that our father Lawrence Nolan Scott had a daughter before he met my mother. My brother's mother was European American.
His 23andme ancestry composition shows:
58.4% European
40.9% Sub Saharan African
0.2% Indigenous American
0.3% Unassigned
Mclain's Ancestry Composition is quite similar to Derek Jeter's Ancestry Composition. He is clearly not half Sub Saharan African and half European due to our father having non-Sub Saharan African ancestry like African Americans in general. My brother inherited more European, less Sub Saharan African, less Indigenous American than I did from our father. He didn't inherit any Chinese/Southeast Asian from our father like I did.
I grew up being told that our paternal grandmother Mary Alice Gaines had some French ancestry, and that had been confirmed by DNA testing/relative matches. I was surprised that the French ancestry that Grandma Mary had came from Acadians. Her French Creole was actually Cajun and was in connection with Anglo-Americans. The vast majority of my paternal European American matches are matching through Acadian ancestry on my European segments on paternal chromosomes 5, 15, and 20. Even though our father's maternal half sister Carrie is African American whose AncestryDNA Ethnic Estimate shows 84% Sub Saharan African, the longest segment I share with her is around 90 cM segment that seems to be my whole European segment on paternal Chromosome 5 in the same location where I am sharing segments with people that have Acadian ancestry. She and I also share a segment that consist of both European and Indigenous American on Chromosome 6 which revealed that Grandma Mary had some Indigenous American ancestry. Mclain's 0.2% Indigenous American is a single segment in the same location where I have Indigenous American Chromosome 6 segment that I share with Aunt Carrie. Mclain does share a segment with me in the same location that Aunt Carrie and I share the European/Indigenous American Chromosome 6 segment. My longest Indigenous American segment is on paternal Chromosome 9, and I found only African Americans share the segment with me. Some have Louisianan roots, but some don't. Therefore, my paternal Indigenous American Chromosome 9 segment originated outside of Louisiana. One of the African Americans that share the paternal Indigenous American Chromosome 9 segment with me has a family tree that show marriages between Colonial British Americans and Indigenous Americans in Georgia and Virginia. According to US Census Records, my father's African American maternal ancestors were born in Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. Aunt Carrie doesn't share the paternal Indigenous American Chromosome 9 segment with me, and so I don't know which of my paternal grandparents had the segment.
Grandma Mary's maternal grandfather James Cross was the son of African American woman Laura (born in Virginia) who was a slave and a European American man (born in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana) who was one of the sons of Anglo-American Benjamin Cross (born in Gates County, North Carolina) and three quarter Acadian Anastasia Bourgeois (born in Assumption Parish, Louisiana). Benjamin had a plantation with slaves in Lafourche Parish. His father Elisha Cross and maternal grandfather Tristram Bethea had plantations with slaves in North Carolina. Priscilla was the first name of Benjamin's mother, Benjamin's daughter with Anastasia, and Grandma Mary's mother.
Aunt Carrie grew up believing that 2nd Great Grandpa James was European American. She straight up told me that 2nd Great Grandpa James was white. She told me that she saw a wall portrait of him and that he looked like an old white man. She told me that she asked Grandma Mary after seeing the wall portrait of him "Who's that white man?" with Grandma Mary responding "That's Papi." 2nd Great Grandpa James was recorded as being black on all the censuses. One of the censuses showed a B written over W in the race category. I learned from one of our father's 2nd cousins (met through AncestryDNA) Linda that James' mother was an African American slave. With the help of the names of 2nd Great Grandpa James' maternal half siblings that she provided to me, I discovered the names of 2nd Great Grandpa James' mother and stepfather as well as other information. I was right that 2nd Great Grandpa James' mother's first name was the same first name as one of his oldest daughters. Our 2nd Great Grandparents James and Mary had a daughter named Laura who was Linda's maternal grandmother. Louise, Laura, and Mary were the children recorded in the Cross household in the 1880 US Census in St Mary Parish, Louisiana. To my surprise, the last name of 2nd Great Grandpa James' Barrow maternal half siblings and stepfather was originally Boney according to the 1870 US Census in St Mary Parish, Louisiana. The greater surprise was that 2nd Great Grandpa James' stepfather Bonnie Barrow was originally named Chas Boney and recorded as white! I learned that two of 2nd Great Grandpa James' maternal half siblings were recorded as mulatto in later censuses before I looked at the earlier censuses which made me wonder if their father was the son of a European American slaveowner. In the 1870 US Census, 2nd Great Grandpa James was the only child in the Boney household recorded as mulatto. All of the other children in the Boney household were recorded as black. The 1870 US Census records also showed that not all of 2nd Great Grandpa James' maternal half siblings were younger. Some were older than him. 3rd Great Grandma Laura was already in a relationship and had children with Bonnie before 2nd Great Grandpa James was born. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that 2nd Great Grandpa James was born from rape. I was skeptical about a European American field hand married and having children with an African American slave in Louisiana, and so I suspected that he was actually the son of a European American slaveowner. I also suspect that 3rd Great Grandma Laura had some European ancestry. I found that Bonnie was later recorded as Boney Bearer and black in 1880 US Census in St Mary Parish, Louisiana. I learned that our 2nd Great Grandparents James and Mary had a daughter named Anna who was their first born child and that she was staying with Bonnie and 3rd Great Grandma Laura at the time of the 1880 US Census. I checked out the U.S. Freedman's Bureau Marriage Records, and I found a marriage certificate of Chas Bone and Laura Ann married on August 20, 1865 in Jefferson, Louisiana.
There may have been some European ancestry on Grandma Mary's father Lawrence Gaines' side. One of his sisters was recorded as Pinky in the US Censuses. I thought that it was an unusual name and that it had to do with her being little, but our paternal aunt told me that Aunt Pinky got her name because of her skin color.
I know little about our paternal grandfather Lawrence Nolan Scott's side which I have never been in contact with. Our Y DNA haplogroup is E-BY101982 (23andme has it as less refined E-M85 aka E2b1) which is a very rare Sub Saharan African haplogroup in the Americas. We have a Sub Saharan African Y chromosome, and so there is no full European ancestor on the direct male line. I am open to the possibility that Grandpa Lawrence's ancestry was all Sub Saharan African. Maybe his mother had some European ancestry that included French. Maybe she had deep Louisiana Creole roots. I was told that she was so superstitious that she put snakes on her house porch to ward off negative spirits, and so I believe that she was a Louisiana Voodoo spiritualist. She got our father taking Louisiana Voodoo so seriously that he would gather up his hair after a haircut so it wouldn't be used against him. He also believed in carrying a lock of hair for good luck. Therefore, I strongly suspect that Grandpa Lawrence's mother had roots in Saint-Domingue which was a French colony in the area of modern-day Haiti. I grew up being told that Grandpa Lawrence had Jamaican roots, and I even thought he was born there. After obtaining our father's birth certificate back in 2003, I learned that both our paternal grandparents were born in Louisiana.
Both my brother and I have European mitochondrial DNA haplogroups. My brother's mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is H6a1b2. My mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is J1c14 (23andme has it as less refined J1c) which is listed among the Jewish haplogroups at jewishdna site.
We humans and our genes are not black and white.
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