I recently read a fascinating article about Neanderthals in my Discovery Magazine. Recent genetic breakthroughs have answered an old question. Did they interbreed with our ancestors? The answer is yes except for the sub Saharan Africans who never mingled with Europeans and Asians both of which carry from 2 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA.
I’ve always found this possibility humorous because of the prejudice we have for the poor supposedly dimwitted and extinct homo sapien species. It would imply that we “superior” white Europeans are the descendants of the ancient cavemen while Africans carry none of those troglodyte genes. Maybe blacks should have adopted the “one drop” rule to keep their race from being corrupted with our European genes.
Of course its too late to save American blacks from this dire descent into genetic backwardness. White called the shots and, despite rhetoric opposing it, crossbred like crazy with blacks and even kept the offspring as slaves. So blacks were pretty well screwed in more ways than one.
This may not be all that awful however for those blacks who have some choice in sexual partners. Neanderthals may not have been all that backward. In fact the genes that slipped through the human population over the last 10,000 years since the last purebred Neanderthals likely left some survival value to the Cro Magnons carrying them. What’s more the attribution of the hauntingly beautiful cave paintings of France and Spain to Cro Magnons may be incorrect. Recent evidence points to this creative work having been done by Neanderthals. If so, then both black and white Americans can be pleased with this sliver of genetic inheritance. Especially if, as the first Discovery article posits: “…African Americans today may have up to 80 percent European DNA.”
White racism really does go just skin deep. It makes me wonder how many of today’s white southern descendants could pass the one drop rule. They should probably have their DNA tested to find out how much of Africa it contains. We already know they’ve got Neanderthal blood in them.
