Debunking the “million to one,” “black and white twins” obsession
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Let the hysteria begin! The media has yet another set of “miracle” twins to obsess over. An Australian black/white mixed woman with a white husband recently gave birth to twins Alicia and Jasmin, girls that The Daily Telegraph refers to as “one black and one white.” The paper also claims that “experts say the chance of twins being born with such different physical characteristics is about a million to one.” (Thanks to Tariq for this tip!)
This is the not the first time we’ve seen this kind of “million to one” incident though. In February of this year, the media was all aflutter over an English couple - both father and mother were of mixed black and white heritage themselves - who had “black and white twins.”
The fascination with these two cases says a lot about the way we think of race. First, people are still so intent on forcing people into neat little categories. But these children are all mixed - they’re not solely “black” or “white.” Second, it’s amazing how much phenotype - especially skin color - warps people’s perceptions.
On episode 18 of Addicted to Race, we spoke about the English twins with Dr. Joseph L. Graves, the evolutionary biologist who wrote the excellent book The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America
Moreover, Graves said that “to describe the child as simply black because she had darker skin betrays the underlying racist ideology that one has to be either black or white.” I would definitely encourage you to have a listen to his rant about this. You can listen here, and his segment begins around the 15-minute mark.
There’s nothing particularly miraculous about siblings who vary greatly in phenotype. It’s simply a matter of genetic variation. There are plenty of African-American families in which this kind of variation can be found, for example, because of the genetic variation in those families that resulted from the sexual relationships between white slaveowners and their slaves. So the next time you see a story that claims that this is a “million to one” occurrence, don’t believe the hype.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Sandra wrote:
There is another recent case, too.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=412385&in_page_id=1770
Posted 28 Oct 2006 at 12:17 am ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
Whatever else you might say about people’s responses to these cases, I think one thing is becoming clear. According to the one-drop rule, these twins are not black and white, and they are not mixed. They are both black. That means the one-drop rule is not operating in people’s responses to these cases.
Posted 28 Oct 2006 at 9:56 am ¶
Kim wrote:
In response to Jeremy:
Quite true that the one-drop rule would end all discussion in this case, were it able to be applied objectively. It is not, and that is the hitch in the insistence on determining how we will categorize, and value (the root of the whole mess) human beings given our first perception of them.
I was in the doctor’s office with two of my children and the office manager, with whom I was meeting due to some mistreatment by the front office staff, lasped into some part of his unconscious mind and said aloud, “obviously these children are not biologically related.” Of course they are, they were produced by both me and my husband-together. Yet one is a mini Boomer Esiason-type, and the other a caramel Tahitian princess, to give examples.
Some Black person of note said, and this is the defining maxim for many Blacks, “the cab drivers will let you know who you are.”
Posted 28 Oct 2006 at 3:44 pm ¶
MBJ wrote:
“Some Black person of note said, and this is the defining maxim for many Blacks, “the cab drivers will let you know who you are.”
As a parent, I can’t bring myself to let my twins (who could also easily be mistaken for black and white) go around thinking that their race will be defined by the perception of others. I want them to identify as black first, despite their European ancestry, and be proud of it. Teaching them about the one drop theory would probably take care of that (as it did for me growing up). But now we know that race is not that cut and dry.
My husband who is bircial and very light skinned had a great aunt who once said “You’ve got straight hair, light skin, education. If they don’t ask you, don’t tell him.” He chose life as a black biracial person anyway. But he also grew up in Philly, a city with a long-standing and very diverse African American community. Our kids are currently being raised as the only toddlers of color in a tiny upstate NY town. Here, their experiences are bound to be different. We have no extended family around and few friends close by to help bolster their ethnic identity (my husband is a professor up here).
I know this sounds sad, but it’s true. As a result I spend a lot of time worrying about how to help shape their ethnic identity. I’d be curious to know how Kim and other parents with kids with racially ambigous looks and/or cultural isolation plan to address this issue with their children. My twins are barely talking yet, but I plan on being ready (smile).
Posted 29 Oct 2006 at 2:12 am ¶
Kim wrote:
MBJ:
Your children can affirm or confound others’ perceptions of their ethnic identities, or act oblivious and never engage, which requires tremendous fortitude and the willingness to look others in the eye and absolutely refuse to answer “Well, what are you, anyway?”, without resentment bubbling into their eyes or faces.
I would say begin to familiarize them with the images of family members from both sides of the family, and immerse them in the shared history of Whites and Blacks in this country. Their cultural identity is organically American-full of the history we want spoken of and the whispers of those aspects we do not.
Do not whisper. Look for books by Julius Lester as well as Arnold Adoff, get coffee table books by Kwaku Alston full of the varied faces and achievements of Blacks, read Rebecca Walker, children’s books by the Pinckney family, a great book by a woman whose last name is Lazarr (”Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness”), and talk, talk, talk to your kids about the shared legacies they have inherited.
I am four children into this thing, and constantly surprised and pleased at the whole-person appreciation my children have for others as a result of the respect they have for themselves.
Posted 29 Oct 2006 at 6:40 pm ¶
MBJ wrote:
Thank you, Kim. So very, very much…
I suppose the most important thing is that they know who they are, regardless of other people’s assumptions. Your sage advice will help me with that a lot.
BTW- At one time Kwaku Alston was a neighbor of mine (…long before I could even imagine this life as a mom!). He’s a rare breed - politically conscious AND conceptually brilliant - so I’m sure his book is amazing. I had no idea it was even out, but I guess that’s because I’ve been “a little busy” lately! Thanks.
Posted 30 Oct 2006 at 2:45 pm ¶
Steve wrote:
“to describe the child as simply black because she had darker skin betrays the underlying racist ideology that one has to be either black or white”
I like that quote. Very succinct.
Posted 02 Nov 2006 at 2:32 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
MBJ: “I want them to identify as black first, despite their European ancestry, and be proud of it. ”
This hit me because I’m not sure about claiming any one race first, if the person is multiethnic and the family raises the child to acknowledge that.
What I mean is, is it impossible for you as a parent to see your children as both/all?
Of course, as kids develop their own self-identity, they may choose something opposite or even slightly different than the parents’ intentions, based on experiences, preferences, phenotype, and often enough, personal conviction.
Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 12:32 am ¶
MBJ wrote:
>What I mean is, is it impossible for you as a parent >to see your children as both/all?
Not at all. I was expressing concern that I didn’t want my son (or any of my kids) to feel that just because they could “pass”, they should. I’ve been concerned that raising them in a white, homogenous community might further encourage them to do so.
In my experience, most multiracial people who have taken that route generally feel uncomfortable in African American social situations, regardless of the class or education of the people they’re around (ie. the person could have a degree from say, Yale, for example and still feel out of place around a group of black students from Columbia. I’m not talking about their comfort level in the ‘hood.).
I’m not comfortable with my kids identifying this way because no matter how I look at it, it seems that they would be denying a central part of who they are. Lenny Kravitz has said publicly that although he is half Jewish, he sees himself as a black man first. My husband, who is biracial (black/white) feels the same way. He definately could have taken the passing route, but chose not to.
My son has an Irish first name (after his great grandfather) because we want him to be proud of all aspects of his history. Coincidentally, he’s the one who has blonde hair and hazel eyes.
Many thanks to Jeremy for pointing out the obvious.
Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 7:40 pm ¶
Kim wrote:
MBJ: I work at trying to see them as they came to me: part of both of us. My youngest also has an Irish first name, and we all have the Irish last name. He is the child who will need to show a picture of his mother to join the BSU.
My husband once told me a story of an Asian woman whose children were Asian-American and she said her parents sought to comfort her distress at how to help others view them and their heritage, and the Grandmom chose to say the children were ‘double,’ not half of anything, but the full complement of both parts of their lineage.
Granted, my intentional instruction and open dialogue helps them to understand what they take from me, but we have never lived near any of my family, and all of their aunts and uncles look like their Dad. All of their cousins, their known set of Grandparents, and nearly all of their friends are White (sigh).
I am interested in seeing how they work it all out, and I listen to them seeking to work it out, and help them out if they seem off-track.
Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 9:25 pm ¶
Crystal wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 4:32 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Crystal: Your “science” is WRONG.
The paler child is very likely NOT an albino. Nor are the other fraternal twins that we’ve been reading about. Albinism IS a genetic trait, and a recessive one at that (so you are partially correct) - there are also different forms and degrees of albinism that result in an individual with very pale blue eyes and minimal pigment (instead of the PINK eyes and minimal pigment), but the child in the above photo doesn’t appear to have EITHER version of those eyes.
As to how 2 very different phenotypes can come out of a “black vagina” as you put it, I ask you, what does “black” mean, and what color is that anyway? There are 6-7 human genes, found in different combinations within human populations globally, that result in MANY phenotypes. Skin color is not one gene and one gene, it is up to three different genetic pairs (6 alleles) that produce different results in various combinations.
If you have taken genetics past an elementary school level (That’s not a slam, just an acknowlegement that not all high schools teach the same things in bio), you should have learned about polygenic inheritance. It goes beyond Mendel’s Peas types of crosses into what happens when multiple genes interact in an individual. It also is best explained by polynumerals (i.e. Algebra).
Case in point: There are 3 genes that control a trait. As, Bs, and Cs. Capital “A, B, C” is dominant. Lower case “a,b,c” is recessive. “AaBbCc” is a perfect combination of the 2 types.
BUT: That’s not always how it goes.
Someone who inherits AaBBcc (3 dominant alleles) can have the same phenotype for this trait as AABbcc (3 dominant alleles). Someone with AABBcc (4 dominant alleles) may show more dominant traits, and someone with aabbCC (only 2 dominant alleles) may show more recessive traits.
That’s assuming that there is no difference between how each type of gene pair is expressed in the body. I hope this helps clear up how you CAN get 2 fraternal twins (who are in reality, just regular genetic siblings who just happened to share a womb at the same time, instead of being months or years apart) with very different phenotypes. It all comes down to which sperm hit which egg, and how the genes that MADE that sperm and egg happened to divide.
For more information, PLEASE read:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/lmexer5.htm
http://www.albinism.org/publications/what_is_albinism.html
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 12:38 pm ¶
Kim wrote:
Now, don’t make me say it, woman.
You know I want to.
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 9:09 pm ¶
Alfred wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 11:26 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
AlfreD: you have as much bad “science” as Crystal (if you’re not the same person).
Let me say this clearly, since obviously you did NOT read my post re: skin color genetics.
PEOPLE OF EUROPEAN DESCENT ARE NOT ALBINOS.
PEOPLE OF EUROPEAN DESCENT DID NOT COME FROM ALBINOS.
There is a spectrum of human skin, hair, and eye color, based on different levels of naturally occurring melanin and other pigments. Let me now put too fine a point on it: “white” people ALSO have pigment. Therefore, by definition, they are not albinos.
Again, the children in this and other stories are fraternal twins. I.e., they can look radically different from each other becuase they did not originate from the same exact set of genes given to them by their parents. I know 2 fraternal white boy twins. One is blond, the other is brown-haired. Are you going to actually tell me that the blond one is albino? Or both are?
The POINT of this post was to show that this is not a freakish thing, or really all that medically unusual - it’s only the “race” thing that gets in the way of people seeing that these kids are siblings.
Your (and Crystal’s) post about albinism is trying to put these kids back into the “freak” category, for whatever ulterior motive you have. Get some real science, and please, read the links (and use Google too - there are tons more, I just posted the ones written in layman’s terms).
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 11:38 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
BTW: Where the heck is this “white people are albinos” drivel come from? Am I missing a whole internet conspiracy thing?
Posted 19 Jan 2007 at 11:40 pm ¶
Alfred wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:19 am ¶
Crystal wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:23 am ¶
Crystal wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:35 am ¶
Crystal wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:36 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Alfred:
1. I did NOT call people with albinism freaks. I said, “this is not a freakish thing” referring to the ORIGINAL ARTICLE and post on this site…. that the media is portraying these twins and others like them as medical miracles, “one in a million” etc., and while unsual, medical science says that they are not that unusual, unique or freakish.
2. You are still wrong on albinism, which is a specific set of genetic mutations unrelated to the 3-4 alleles that control the range of human skin tone. That is what my scientific information tells me. Somewhere on the SciAmerican website is an excellent thing about the human genome and how skin colors evolved.
3. “My family history of albinism produces reddish skin, hair, and eyes” I’m willing to say this is possible, if you say so. But red hair by itself is a mutation of BROWN hair, and is unrelated to albinism.
4. “It is really people that think like you who are afraid that you are really nonmelinated versions of us. Why is it so offensive to be identified with people who look like mankind’s ancestors.”
Who is putting words in whose mouth? Science totally agrees, the human species evolved in East Africa. That does NOT mean that the range of the human phenotype is caused by albinism.
5. “To say that there are just different shades of people is to say that we do not all come from the same origin. ”
No, those 2 things do NOT follow each other. The range of skin tone we see in humanity is most likely attributable to both genetic mutations over time that benefitted specific populations as they migrated (out of Africa) to different climates with different needs for both access to the sun (for production of Vitamins, better absorbtion of calcium, folic acid, etc.) and UV protection from that same sun. It’s called natural selection and variation. Not albinism.
And lest you think I’m “afraid” of being, what, non-melaninated? (not a word)
I’m of African-American, African-Bermudan, and European-American descent, and I have a pretty decent year-round tan. I have melanin. So does my father, AND my mother.
I repeat, look up what albinism is. And isn’t.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:45 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Crystal:
“It is in black and white for all to read. But you will only accept this if you are open minded to what man’s origin really is. ”
OK, give me sources. I gave you mine (which evidently you did not read).
And the comment about whether you and Alfred were the same is meant tongue in cheek, but 1) we have had people post under multiple personas on this site and others, and 2) you both arrived at about the same time with the same argument to a 3 month old post… Can you really blame me for asking?
And read what I said about my use of “freakish” to Alfred. Albinism is a genetic mutation, sometimes but not always passed on. There is no slur on that, written or intended. But skin color genetics doesn’t WORK like albinism, plain and simple.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 12:51 am ¶
Kim wrote:
Lyonside wrote: Where the heck is this “white people are albinos” drivel come from? Am I missing a whole internet conspiracy thing?
KIM: Upon reading the following:
Alfred: about phenotypes, thisotypes,and thatotypes. This is techno babel that scientist use to confuse people…,
I would have to conclude that it sounds alot like the stuff Elijah Muhammed (Mohammed) and the Nation of Islam were disseminating in the early ’80’s, and quite possible before that, on the origins of man.
Crystal: Don’t you know that the girl is bad? B.A.D. - just don’t want to make her think I’m stalking her or anything.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:26 am ¶
Alfred wrote:
This post has been deleted by the moderator. Please do not post under multiple identities - your IP address is a dead giveaway.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:44 am ¶
Alfred wrote:
To Kim:
I am not a Muslim and I am not affiliated with any religious organization. I do not believe in Islam but you can learn alot when you hear different views.
That is another ploy that western culture uses and that is to tie people who think for themselves to extremists to discredit them.
This will guarantee that when people are told the truth, that know one will listen to them.
Alfred
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:49 am ¶
Alfred wrote:
Dear moderator,
This is not multiple identies but rather two people using the same computer. Please be considerate and place my post back.
Alfred
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:51 am ¶
Alfred wrote:
So much for the truth prevailing. So much for freedom of speech. You never thought that two people could be using the same machine.
What I said was heart felt and you took it away.
Please restore
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:57 am ¶
Kim wrote:
Didn’t call you a Muslim. Said the ideas are the self-same as those espoused by the Nation of Islam in their recent history.
I don’t think saying that discredits you, or the comments. Just places them. You would seek to infer that I believe the NOI is an extremist group. You have no reason to hold to such thought.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 1:57 am ¶
Crystal wrote:
Moderator:
I hope in the future that you would be polite enough to let some on e know if you are going to delete. My husband and I were both at this site. You have no respect for freedom of speech. I am appalled and sadden. If you like you may delete mine as well.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 2:07 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Alright, so not the same person but a couple in the same household with the same views. Thanks for clearing that up - it explains 2 people with the same unconventional views showing up sequentially.
Also, it’s 1:30 Eastern Standard Time, and Carmen I believe is also in the same time zone, so multiple posts explaining yourself and making demand after demand will likely not be effective… not because the moderator is ignoring you, but because she (like I should be) is likely ASLEEP.
Sheesh…
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 2:34 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
I’m closing comments on this thread because the discussion has become extremely unproductive. I suggest that you get acquainted with New Demographic’s core beliefs, which you can find here:
http://tinyurl.com/25lvwl
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 9:52 am ¶