SO HOW MUCH AFRICAN IS IN THE AVERAGE AFRICAN AMERICAN?

Exactly How "Black" Are Black Americans?

* According to Ancestry.com, the average African American is 65 percent sub-Saharan African, 29 percent European and 2 percent Native American.

* According to 23andme.com, the average African American is 75 percent sub-Saharan African, 22 percent European and only 0.6 percent Native American. 

* According to Family Tree DNA.com, the average African American is 72.95 percent sub-Saharan African, 22.83 percent European and 1.7 percent Native American.

* According to National Geographic's Genographic Project, the average African American is 80 percent sub-Saharan African, 19 percent European and 1 percent Native American.

* According to AfricanDNA, in which I am a partner with Family Tree DNA, the average African American is 79 percent sub-Saharan African, 19 percent European and 2 percent Native American.

 [The numbers above describe "admixture" And] what exactly is admixture?

I asked a few prominent geneticists to define it for this article. Dr. George Church, a professor at the Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in the mapping of the human genome, defines it this way: 

"Genetic admixture is the breeding between two or more previously isolated populations." 

[The second  thing] these findings show that the common claim that many African Americans make about their high percentage of Native American ancestry is a myth. Joanna Mountain broke down to me our low amounts of Native American ancestry in this way: "Eighty percent of African Americans have  less than 1 percent Native American ancestry. 

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You can't throw a stick in a room full of black people hit somebody that does NOT claim to have a Cherokee or two in their blood line. So that last quote is surprising.

But I have a theory.

I think it was easier for black slave women to say to their light-skinned children, "Your Daddy was an Native American that was killed" than it was to say "Your Daddy is a white rapist that lives in the big house and will kill you or sell you if you say it out loud to anybody, ever." How is small child supposed to remember not to say anything. And "Who is my Daddy" is not a question that goes away.  I think a bunch of us were lied to about Great Great Aunt Sophie that was a full Cherokee with hair length down to the back of her knees. 

Read More

http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/02/how_mixed_are_african_americans.html?wpisrc=root_lightbox 


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