CNN: 1/3 Of Black American NBA Players Descend From White Man

[FIBA Europe Basket]

On the CNN show Campbell Brown, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (yes, the same one that is Barack Obama's friend - the one that got arrested)....

at the 6:00 minute mark of the video

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2010/03/03/cb.intv.louis.gates.cnn.html

[rikhardur]

That comes to me as no surprise, although the word "descend" is not very well picked. It conveys an idea which has nothing to do with the issue in question. If we analyse NBA players considered black one by one we'll see many have mixture. And also the contrary, in which case Jason Kidd is the easiest example
By now with all the globalization going on I guess there are little absolutely pure (if such thing ever existed) races in the world.
I think Amerindian ancestry could also be mentioned, some typical cases are those of Ron Artest and Scottie Pippen. Amerindian all over their faces.

[Dtown]

Not much of a shock, as you can probably apply the same ratio to all African Americans. Just any black person who's family stretches back four generations in this country is bound to be a mix of something. I myself put black on my census though I can trace european and native american in there as well.

[Federoy]

This is a rather random topic, and I'm not sure what the reasoning is for bringing it up.

No one should be surprised by these results. It wasn't as if black male slaves had the freedom to choose white females as partners. Nor did black female slaves have the option to decline a white male slave master's sexual advances.

Certainly, there are "whites" (those that identify themselves as Caucasian/European) in America that have black maternity DNA that can be traced through their bloodlines, although some would deny it (the Sally Hemmings/Thomas Jefferson controversy comes to mind). What's more, African-Americans are not just interracially mixed with Europeans and Native Americans but also inter-ethnically mixed with various West African groups/kinships, spanning from modern day Senegal to the north to Angola to the south, and interior portions as well.

America's beautiful ethnic rainbow is no different than the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and undoubtedly, around the world. We're all mutts and better for it.

[sinobball]

This is only relevant from a basketball standpoint if these black players can trace their ancestry definitely and get a passport from a European country like many Brazilians and Argentinians.

I know they would be asked to trace their genealogy if they look Filipino (j/k)

[demonyito]

I know they would be asked to trace their genealogy if they look Filipino (j/k)

so true and i cant blame you for that

[prtzn]

And the entire human race originates from Africa...

On a (little) more serious note:
1 generation back you have 2 direct ancestors (your parents)
2 generation back you have 4 direct ancestors (your grandparents)
.
.
.
40 generations back (that generation lived probably less than (40x25 =) 1000 years before you)
you should have (2 to the 40th =) more than 1 000 000 000 000 direct ancestors...

Of course there weren't 1T people inhabiting the Earth 1K years ago, and there are a lot of places to be filled in your bloodline.
Most people that filled some of those 1T ancestor places, filled more than 1 place.

The people that actually lived 1K years ago had a lot of ancestor places to fill. And in case a person from that time is your direct ancestor, he's probably a direct ancestor to a lot of us too...

So, probably more than 1/3 of Black NBA players descend from White man...

[mvblair]

=We're all mutts and better for it.

Here, here!

As DTown suggested, race isn't as much about your "bloodline" as it is about how you identify yourself or how other people identify you.

[panamafan]

by no means shocking.