Why do scientists say that Africans have more genetic diversity than Europeans?

Question

It's pretty obvious that Europeans are the most diverse. Europeans are the only race that can have blue and green eyes, blonde and red hair. If Africans have any hair or eye color besides black/brown it is only due to European admixture. Plus, I have seen plenty of African Americans and they all have similar nose, mouth, and eye shape. Europeans have dozens of different nose shapes, mouth shapes, eye shapes, and facial structures. It's just to obvious to even argue about.

Answer 1

You are just plain wrong. Your "observations" are nothing more than a manifestation of your own racial prejudice and ignorance. It is objectively provable that European whites are in fact much LESS diverse than other races.

"These factors have led to tremendous variability amongst Africans: the continent is home to the tallest and shortest members of our species, variations in cranium and nasal width encompass 80% and 92% of the world range respectively... Africans have both the thickest and thinnest lips, the greatest variation in hair form and notable diversity in eye shape. Broad physiochemical variation, particularly in serological indices also characterize Africans... In fact there appears to be a major tendency to wards morphological and physiochemical polymorphisms in Africans, a trend that is in keeping with the high overall ecological heterogeneity and the general propensity for species to be most diverse in their geographic area of origin.

Jackson, F.L. "Evolutionary and political economic influences on biological diversity in African Americans". Journal of Black Studies. 23:4 539-560

"Caucasians don't show the widest variation in all traits, just certain superficial ones--hair color and texture and eye color, as you point out, along with skin color, which varies from very light to almost black. When it comes to something like height, on the other hand, Caucasians lose out to Africans, whose average stature ranges from 4'8" for adult male pygmies to 5'10" for adult male Batutsis. Similarly, other races show greater variation in nose configuration, distribution of body fat, and so on.

Finally, whatever may be said for Caucasians, all major races show substantial variation in coloration, largely because of adaptation to local conditions. For instance, it's generally conceded that skin pigmentation acts as a filter for the sun's ultraviolet rays, and it's possible to plot out a sort of gradient called a "cline" showing that the closer you get to the equator, whether it's in Africa, Europe, or Asia, the darker the characteristic skin color of the locals. Something similar may conceivably apply to eye or hair color."

Your contention that Africans can only have non-Black hair and eyes has no no basis and actually runs counter to the known facts. Some of the oldest paintings we have from Egypt depict blue-eyed people with red and yellow hair, they date to over 6, 000 years ago, well before any European admixture. And in case you didn't realise it Egypt is an African country.

Your idea that all Africans have a similar eye, nose and mouth shape is just laughable. Africans have far more diversity in eye, nose and lip shape than any other other continent.

For crying out loud San type people have an epicanthic fold and hence a "Chinese" eye shape. Take a look at a photo of Nelson Mandela if you don't believe me. Are you suggesting that all African people have the same eye type as Nelson Mandela?

These things are only obvious to you because you are racist (in the literal sense) and quite ignorant of the diversity of African people.

Answer 2

African Americans are not the same as Africans. Most of the Africans that were brought to America during slavery came from a few specific areas of the western part of the African continent. It makes sense if you think about shipping across the ocean. So- most African Americans have an ancestry linked to a few limited areas of western Africa, slave owners, and sometimes Native Americans.
The very large continent of Africa is a bigger picture. There are tribes that are dark blue black, tribes that are mahogany red, tribes that run a more Cinnamon gold color, short tribes, tall tribes, fat tribes and skinny tribes.
Did you know that there is more genetic variance between a Swede and a Zulu than there is between a chihuahua and a Saint Bernard (Ralph Holloway, Colombia University). I thought that was interesting.

Answer 3

It's basically wrong on all counts. There is no "most diverse" race. There's no natural or genetic basis to race at all.

The genetic differences between two people will be pretty much the same regardless of their races.

You can't actually tell how different two people are genetically by looking at them. Visual characteristics are very obvious to the eye, but they don't count for much in terms of how genetically different you are from someone else.

Answer 4

What leviter said!

Answer 5

because africans are the missing link,and science is afraid to admit the truth