Malheur Sunset
The Swallows resting in the tree are considered to be genetically distinct. In evoloutionary terms, they have been evolving for 500,000 to 1 million years. Homo Sapiens are only at the beginning of their genetic journey.

Genetic Advantage
Thousands of people gathered recently in downtown Portland, Oregon representing both the right and left side of the political divide. In general, tempers were civil, though the crowd was on edge and there were moments of disruption. Several religious groups in the pro-Trump camp had posters with slogans proclaiming their adversity to racial mixing. They carried signs that said, “Diversity is Death for White Race.” I decided to do a bit of exploring and find out if there was merit to their claim. I wanted to know if there are there genetic advantages to having a mixed race species and if there was such a thing as a pure race?

According to a UK documentary about the subject, the uncontroversial answer is that mixed species are stronger than monocultures. The program claimed that if Hitler had had his way by genetically designing a purebred Aryan race, the results would not have been superior. The reverse would most likely have occurred, with a weaker biological stock emerging.

For more than a century, biologists have known that mixing diverse strains of plant or animal results in more vigorous offspring. An unrelated partner from a different stock or population can produce what scientists call, Hybrid Vigor? They identify situations where interbreeding in a particularly small community is common. The offspring tend to be unfit with a tendency to die young.

Human beings have 23 pairs of Chromosomes carrying about 30,000 genes. Every once in a while a gene may be bad or broken even though it will not cause a problem in the host organism. However, If two broken genes combine during procreation, they create an unhealthy situation for the descendent. Hybrid Vigor, the result of breeding occurring between unrelated people, avoids the problem of having two broken copies of the same gene likely to meet. 
 It is somewhat difficult to measure the effect of interbreeding because environmental effects are also play a role in the human condition. Being killed in a car accident or having damaged lungs because of smoking overrides the benefits that may occur from selecting a biologically strong mate. Though not a scientific claim, it is interesting to note that in the United Kingdom, mixed race people make up only 3% of the population, yet make up t30% of soccer players. Brazil, with a very mixed race population, has won the World Cup more than any other country.

In America, laws forbidding marriage between people of different races were common until the middle of the 20th century. Writers like Madison Grant, a leading eugenicist, warned that racial mixing was “a social and racial crime” that would lead toward “racial suicide” and the eventual disappearance of white civilization. For instance, he said that the cross between higher (white) racial types with Indians will produce Indians and with Negroes, will produce a Negro child, both unhealthy outcomes. Grant called for purity of blood inheritance. His writings, among others, led to 16 states developing legislation such as Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act . It spurred the growth of Anglo Saxon Clubs and the Ku Klux Klan. Virginia’s original law stated that a person was not white if he or she had 1/64 of Native Ancestry. Interestingly, 16 members of the Virginia General Assembly proudly claimed to be descendants of Pocahontas and objected to the law that was eventually passed. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court struck down the Racial Integrity Act and 15 similar ones in other states.

According to a 2017 Pew Research Center report, 1 out of 10 married people in the U.S. has a spouse of a different race or ethnicity. Part of this accelerating condition is due to mass immigration which is making Americans more tolerant toward interracial marriage. Among women, Asians are the most likely to marry someone of a different race while among men, Hispanic and Black men are the most likely to intermarry.

However, there is a growing group of White Americans opposed to the trend to racial mixing. Those expressing their resistance to interracial marriage are most strong in rural areas. I was surprised to learn that 51 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans do not think intermarriage is good.

Despite negative feelings, the future of society is likely to lead to mixing races as it always has done in the past. In my last blog I mentioned the results of genome testing done with millions of people show that most Homo Sapiens have small traces of Neanderthal their DNA. What has changed from those prehistoric days to now is the speed in which racial mixing occurs. The structure of the human gene pool is dynamically affected by globalization and migration. I am reminded of lessons learned from Darwin’s Survival of the Species, that natural selection requires diversity and that those best suited to their environment will be the best candidates to pass their genes on to the next generation.

Today many of us live in environments that are not biologically well-suited for natural selection. Heating and cooling systems, contemporary agricultural practices and extensive transportation systems make that possible. Movement by mass populations has the advantage of blending genes, providing an opportunity for good traits to make their way into other populations. For example, in Tibet where high altitude creates low oxygen levels Tibetans are well adapted to their environment, but the Han Chinese and Serpas who moved to the area when China occupied the country in were not. When the races started to mix, the beneficial genes of the Tibetans helped the next generation of newcomers become better adapted to the thin air.

When examining dogs to identify genetic disorders, purebreds are found more likely to suffer weaknesses than those of a mixed-breed because same-breed mating can cause unhealthy recessive genes to become dominant. The human condition acts similarly. Studies of Middle Eastern and North African marriages among close relatives show that their children are more likely to have birth defects or genetic disorders than those living in racially mixed countries.

Geneticists explain that we are not as diverse as you might think. New York Times reporter, Natalie Angier, wrote, “Scientists say that while it may be easy to tell at a glance whether a person is Asian, African or Caucasian, the differences dissolve when one looks beyond surface features and scans the human genome for DNA hallmarks of race.” Race is a social construct, not a biological one and accounts for less than .01 of variations in genetic makeup.

It was interesting to learn of the recent discovery in Morocco identifying the skeletons of 300,000 year old Homo Sapiens. However, it was much later that our early ancestors left the content to travel north. “All of us evolved over the last 100,000 years from the same small number of tribes that migrated out of Africa and colonized the world,” says Dr. Craig Venter, head of Celera Genomics Corporation. He, along with others from the National Institutes of Health declare that there is only one race—the human race. There have only been 7,000 generations since the 10,000 or so people who left Africa started migrating north to mix at times with archaic humans. (such as Neanderthals and Homo Erectus). This is not enough time to produce variations of any significance.

The differences in how we are packaged, the visual cues of color, are minuscule when studying the human genome. There is little scientific evidence to support substantial distinctions between groups. Yes, there are genes that control pigmentation and other physical features but the are mostly “skin deep.” Slight variations are caused by the pressure of the environment to carry a certain genes to protect skin against the burning sun. Occasionally an isolated group develops a genetic predisposition due to one ancestor being born with an unusual mutation.

Over time, species either adapt of become extinct. Evolution can not be stopped and as the environment changes so will the need accelerate human adaptations. As sea levels continue to rise, populations will be forced to move and continue to reshape the structure of the gene pool However, it will take hundreds of thousands of generations living in changed and isolated environments before human beings will divide into genetically different groups. You and I will never live to see these differences so I say, let’s stop the racial biases and come together based on our similarities.

References:

Controversial, but True? mixed Race Humans have a Genetic Advantage, 2010,
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/controversial-but-true-mixed-race-humans-have-a-genetic-advantage.192331120/

Lombardo, Paul, Eugenic Laws Against Race Mixing,University of Virginia, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay7text.html

Rosetti, Chris, National Vanguard, 2017, Pew Study:Vast Majority of Whites are Resisting Racial Mixing, http://nationalvanguard.org/2017/05/pew-study-vast-majority-of-whites-are-resisting-racial-mixing/

Slomon, Scott, from Future Humans: inside the Science of our Continuing Evolution, 2016, https://aeon.co/essays/the-future-is-mixed-race-and-thats-a-good-thing-for-humanity

Angier, Natalie, Do races Differ? Not really, DNA Shows. The New York Times, 2000
https://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/science/082200sci-genetics-race.html

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Malheur Sunset, 23” by 27”, $425, Acrylic on Canvas, Black wood frame

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