Are mixed race children healthier, stronger or brighter than children who have parents of the same race?

Question

all enviromental factors being equal

Answer 1

There is only one species of human - Homo sapiens.
"Race" as a concept is meaningless. We have around 98% of our DNA in common with chimpanzees, how could there be any significant differences between "races" of humans?

Answer 2

people on this site annoy me. this is obviously a biological question.

its a good question becasue it is clear that black people and white people are physically different from each other, so according to mendelen genetics that would mean that if a black and white person reproduced than the dominant genes from both races would go to their offspring, creating a more superior person.

I think this is a legitimate hypothesis, but unfortunately we live in a world where politics gets in the way of genuine scientific research, so noone will research this becasue they will be immediately hounded down and called a racist or whatever.

Im very curious to know myself also. Another thing that interest me is that genes are not suppose to mix, except in rare cases. What happens is the dominant trait will win over the recessive trait, for example brown eyes are dominant over blue, so a person will not have both coulours combined if their mum was blue and their dad was brown. they will likely have brown eyes ONLY. The only time when genes blend are when two dominant genes code for the same trait. an example is straight and curly hair, they are both dominant genes so if you recieved both, youre hair would be a mixture of straight and curly.

My point is, if black and white blends together, that that could suggest that they are both dominant traits (because the colours clearly blend in mixed race people), which would than suggest that the genes for black and white coulour are both dominant traits, so both strong. So if we want to get political we could say that black and white poeple are equally as strong and we can all hug each other and racism will end (but thats not going to happen)............... so science will svae the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But im just an A level student - what do i know (and mixed race)


.................im back, just read someones answer had to comment. She said that insects are less numerous than humans!!!! what a stupid thing to say... are you mad? you clearly no nothing about biology, ill give you an example of how dumb that is. some scientist from the 40s estimated that one acre of land in cambridge area had 400'000'000 insects. That is the population of almost double the United States - u doughnut. insects make up 95% of the whole worlds animals, and it is impossible to estimate how many species there are, so many weve found a million, but there are a LOT more. anyway better get back to my studying

Answer 3

I can only think you are mixing "hybrid vigor" with race. Hybrids are a mixing of genes in such a way that the offspring are sterile. Mules are an example of mammalian hybrids. Mules are the offspring of two different species: horses and donkeys. They have certain hybrid vigor, but they are sterile.

The comparison you are trying to make between what are called "races" of humans is closer to mating a Kentucky race horse with an Arabian horse from Arabia. That would produce a horse, not a hybrid like a mule.

In this day and age, everyone should accept that "race" is not a meaningful distinction for humans. Genetically, the difference between so-called races is no more than the difference between widely separated members of the same "race".

Answer 4

I can't think of any reason why they'd be all that different, but I guess they would take on aspects from both races, that we're not "supposed" to discuss.

For example, black people are known to have denser muscle mass, which means that mixed race children with a black heritage could possible be fitter in this respect.

Answer 5

Of course not, it would depend on the individual child, i find most mixed race children grow up to have a chip on there shoulder as they are neither one race or the other,which is an awful shame for them, as they could use both cultures and benefit from them two.But having said that it all depends how the parent bring them up.

Answer 6

No.
There are tons of people in every race, so the gene pool is huge. Further, "race" is not pure - there has been intermixing of all races, so it's not as though they've kept the same genes around.
You're talking about hybrid vigor. This applies to many organisms, but definitely NOT to humans. Most natural populations (except insects, bacteria and archaea) are much less numerous than we are, so they are more inbred than we are. That may mean that an intermixing of organisms from different populations of the same species might be more viable (not always true, since different populations have different environmental pressures). Inbreeding in humans is much rarer, so intermixing is just like reproduction in the same race.

Answer 7

This is an interesting question, but I am not aware of any specific research that addresses it. In terms of strength or intelligence, I am not going to speculate. But in terms of health, people of mixed racial backgrounds are likely to be a bit healthier. This is for two reasons I'll discuss, but first I'll give some background in genetics.

You are probably aware that we get one copy of each gene from each parent. This means that we, mostly, have two copies of each gene, but that overall we all have the same genes. The genetic variation in people comes from the fact that the copies of the genes are sometimes not exactly alike.

So, for example, we all have a gene encoding a protein called globin. And we each have a maternal copy from our mom and a paternal copy from our dad. The globin gene, though, is variable among the population of humans, so that our maternal copy might not exactly match our paternal copy and our two copies might not match our neighbors two copies.

It is this way with many of our genes: we all have two copies of each gene, but the copies vary among the population and so we are all different from each other.

Also, as noted by some of the other answerers, race isn't really a concept that biologists believe in, but still, when people are of different races, they are from populations that are divergent genetically and geographically. So, a child with two Finnish parents, for example, gets all the copies of their genes from a Finnish background, but a child with a Finnish mom and a Samoan dad gets their genes from two widely divergent genetic backgrounds.

So, back to why people of mixed race might be healthier ...

1. Our immune systems rely on a large number of genes to function. Part of what makes them effective is when the two copies of each immune system gene are more different from each other and can therefore respond to a wider variety of pathogens. If a person has two parents from the same geographical area, then they are less likely to get copies of their immune system genes that are widely different. If, however, their parents are widely separated genetically and geographically, like say a Finn and a Samoan, then they are likely to get gene copies that are divergent.
So, I expect that interracial people will have better immune system function in terms of combating pathogens because of the greater genetic diversity their immune systems are built from.

2. Different racial populations have different endemic genetic diseases. For example, Africans and African Americans carry sickle cell anemia, Caucasians carry diseases like hemachromatosis and cystic fibrosis, Ashkenazi Jews carry Tay-Sachs, and so on. For the most part, these diseases are due to recessive mutant copies of genes . Thus, if a person has two mutant copies for the CFTR gene, they develop cystic fibrosis. But since these disease gene copies are often limited to specific races or geographical areas, if someone is bi-racial, then they are much less likely to carry two mutant versions of these disease genes.
So the second way in which I think people of mixed race will be healthier is that they will be much less likely to develop any genetic diseases.

I do think that these are two genetic results of having bi-racial parentage that might make a person healthier, but again, I don't know of any research that specifically addresses such issues. Then again, there are much more important things to be spending our research dollars on, so maybe we don't need to worry about pursuing these avenues.

Answer 8

They are certainly supposed to be generally healthier as they have a wider range or 'menu' of genes to work from in regard to immunity proptection.

I'm mixed race I have three university degrees, so that answers the intelligence bit.

Don't know about the strength question, though...

Answer 9

why? the only difference is their skin colour or is there some new gene that has been found in mixed race kids to make then brighter than non mixed race?

Answer 10

I don't know, but I have heard that when mixed race children are conceived they take their pick of the best genes from either race. And that's why most mixed race people are attractive.

Don't know for sure if it's true, but that's what I've heard and most of the mixed race people I have met have been exceptionally pretty.

Answer 11

The site below appears to give no as the answer to your question. Of course, this is just one theory. I am sure that there must be opposing thoeries.
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the_health_consequences_of_race_mixing/