White Parents Black Baby

I have a student that insists that his grandma was black but that the parents were both white.

After looking into this for a while now I have found some articles but nothing scientific confirming that this is possible. Anything can be possible, I guess, but this seems beyond impractical.

Does anybody know anything more about this and can you provide evidence that it can happen.

Thanks,

Bodi

Your student "insists".

What kind of conversations are you having with this student that he feels he needs to be insistent about the race of his parents and grandparents?

Arguing with students about their race or that of their parents and grandparents would generally be frowned upon here.

The possibilities are endless. His grandma could have adopted a white baby, his grandma could have had a few white ancestors and give birth to a very light skinned baby that passed; that child could have married a white person and they became parents to your student.

Why does this bother you?

Amelia said:

Your student "insists".

What kind of conversations are you having with this student that he feels he needs to be insistent about the race of his parents and grandparents?

Arguing with students about their race or that of their parents and grandparents would generally be frowned upon here.

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I'm assuming the other kids are bringing it up not him as the teacher. Although maybe things are a bit different over there.

Bodhisattva said:

I have a student that insists that his grandma was black but that the parents were both white.

After looking into this for a while now I have found some articles but nothing scientific confirming that this is possible. Anything can be possible, I guess, but this seems beyond impractical.

Does anybody know anything more about this and can you provide evidence that it can happen.

Thanks,

Bodi

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I heard recently two black people had a white baby.

It only takes five thousand years for everybody to be related.

Skin color is only one gene, so it is possible for a dormant gene to find the right combination in fact it happens often.

In a sunny location this trait would lend toward it's survival and proliferation and in a cold climate the other example would do the same.

The slave trade distributes the genes, all you need is for your descendants to have two or more children often enough.

Amelia said:

Your student "insists".

What kind of conversations are you having with this student that he feels he needs to be insistent about the race of his parents and grandparents?

Arguing with students about their race or that of their parents and grandparents would generally be frowned upon here.

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Who said I was arguing with the student?

Bodhisattva said:

Who said I was arguing with the student?

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I'll ask again, what kind of conversations are you having with this student that he feels he needs to be insistent about the race of his parents and grandparents?

Bodhisattva said:

I have a student that insists that his grandma was black but that the parents were both white.

After looking into this for a while now I have found some articles but nothing scientific confirming that this is possible. Anything can be possible, I guess, but this seems beyond impractical.

Does anybody know anything more about this and can you provide evidence that it can happen.

Thanks,

Bodi

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Well you see there is this thing called adoption

ajn678 said:

I'm assuming the other kids are bringing it up not him as the teacher. Although maybe things are a bit different over there.

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He is bringing it up. I am the teacher. He is also bringing up how his mother was a drug addicted homeless person and how his great grandmother hated her own child, his grandma, because she was black. It is quite an interesting conversation. Kids are now researching homelessness and discussing various aspects of the issue. A couple of kids are looking into genetics.

Amelia said:

I'll ask again, what kind of conversations are you having with this student that he feels he needs to be insistent about the race of his parents and grandparents?

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He brought this up and some thought it was not true so he "insisted" and then we got into a class discussion about it. Not that difficult a concept.

DiAnna said:

The possibilities are endless. His grandma could have adopted a white baby, his grandma could have had a few white ancestors and give birth to a very light skinned baby that passed; that child could have married a white person and they became parents to your student.

Why does this bother you?

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Why do you think this bothers me and not that I am simply interested in learning something?

NeverTrumpGOP said:

Well you see there is this thing called adoption

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Not in this case...

Bodhisattva said:

Not in this case...

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They could be lying to you and even him. :shrug:

Weird. If I were the teacher in this situation, I'd have just said, "kids, let's not focus on a person's skin color. It should not be what defines that person. Let's now drop it, and go back to the topic of today's lesson."

If you go on and on about this, I won't be surprised if parents complain to the principal and you get reprimanded.

Oh, I just noticed, you live in New Zealand. No idea how these things are seen there. Here in the United States where I am, a teacher wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole.

NeverTrumpGOP said:

They could be lying to you and even him. :shrug:

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I told him his mom musta been ****ing a black man on the side...




j/k

Bodhisattva said:

Why do you think this bothers me and not that I am simply interested in learning something?

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Some people like to call everyone racist now. Its apparently a good debate tactic in 2018.

GreatNews2night said:

Weird. If I were the teacher in this situation, I'd have just said, "kids, let's not focus on a person's skin color. It should not be what defines that person. Let's now drop it, and go back to the topic of today's lesson."

If you go on and on about this, I won't be surprised if parents complain to the principal and you get reprimanded.

Oh, I just noticed, you live in New Zealand. No idea how these things are seen there. Here in the United States where I am, a teacher wouldn't touch this issue with a ten-foot pole.

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It came up because the topic we are studying is racism... and these aren't little kids, they are an advanced high school class.

And I taught in the USA for years and we talked about race issues all the time... never had a complaint or an issue... well, once a Muslim girl started screaming at me when we were talking about Gandhi. She was furious screaming that Gandhi was a terrorist and her Imam was going to talk to the school. Nothing came of it.

Bodhisattva said:

Why do you think this bothers me and not that I am simply interested in learning something?

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Because you said the student "insisted"; because you said you spent time researching the possibility (since clearly didn't believe it was possible); and because you are now asking anonymous folks on an internet board, appearing to fish for some proof to dangle in front of your student that "uh-uh, someone's lying to you, kid."

That's why.

DiAnna said:

Because you said the student "insisted"; because you said you spent time researching the possibility (since clearly didn't believe it was possible); and because you are now asking anonymous folks on an internet board, appearing to fish for some proof to dangle in front of your student that "uh-uh, someone's lying to you, kid."

That's why.

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Jesus you are ****ing negative... "Appearing"... "Dangle"? It sounded improbable and I want to find out if it is possible and if so how likely. What kind of **** teachers did you have where they did stuff like that? Insisting means that some doubted it and he demanded he was correct. Not that big a deal.

ajn678 said:

Some people like to call everyone racist now. Its apparently a good debate tactic in 2018.

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Yeah, I forgot about that for a minute...

Bodhisattva said:

Jesus you are ****ing negative... "Appearing"... "Dangle"? It sounded improbable and I want to find out if it is possible and if so how likely. What kind of **** teachers did you have where they did stuff like that? Insisting means that some doubted it and he demanded he was correct. Not that big a deal.

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Oh, cool your jets, Bodi. I just answered your question first, then finished reading the rest of what you posted afterward. If you'd given that information in your OP, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.

DiAnna said:

Oh, cool your jets, Bodi. I just answered your question first, then finished reading the rest of what you posted afterward. If you'd given that information in your OP, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.

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Fair enough... I reverted to our old dynamic. My apologies DiAnna.

Bodhisattva said:

It came up because the topic we are studying is racism... and these aren't little kids, they are an advanced high school class.

And I taught in the USA for years and we talked about race issues all the time... never had a complaint or an issue... well, once a Muslim girl started screaming at me when we were talking about Gandhi. She was furious screaming that Gandhi was a terrorist and her Imam was going to talk to the school. Nothing came of it.

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When was that? Things have changed. Our society is now more radicalized and adversarial, and more divided. These days, the kind of talk you've described in your OP could get a teacher in trouble.

Similar issue: one of these days a non-flamboyant, discreet gay male teacher, legally married to another man, in a state that recognizes the legality of same-sex marriage, had some flowers delivered to him (which took him by surprise; not his initiative, he was merely the recipient of the gift). One of his students asked, "are they from your wife?" He merely responded with a truthful short statement "no, from my husband." The student then said "eeewww" and he said "it's not respectful to say eeeww when people mention their spouses." The kid countered "but you are a man and you said you have a husband, at home my dad has a wife." The teacher added "there are families out there with two dads." Period, full stop, then he went back to the topic of the class. That was enough for this teacher to get in trouble, accused of advocating for the gay lifestyle (which is not something he did, by the way - he never implied that this arrangement is superior to any other, and he he didn't pass any judgment of value; just replied truthfully, taught the kid a lesson about respect, and acknowledged the fact that there are gay couples out there). He was reprimanded by the principal (which is quite preposterous, in my opinion - I see nothing wrong in how he handled it, and he would never have been reprimanded if his spouse was a woman - what did they expect, that he'd lie and say "yes, they are from my wife"???).

Anyway, wary of this divisive political climate, I've seen teachers saying that they avoid any controversial topic when they are teaching their classes.

I prefer wonder bread for bait.

But been eating whole grain for around 5 years now.

Bodhisattva said:

I have a student that insists that his grandma was black but that the parents were both white.

After looking into this for a while now I have found some articles but nothing scientific confirming that this is possible. Anything can be possible, I guess, but this seems beyond impractical.

Does anybody know anything more about this and can you provide evidence that it can happen.

Thanks,

Bodi

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It is absolutely possible. But skin pigmentation is the result of several genes interacting, so there is no one simple reason.

Eye color or hair color are single gene traits.

Didn't you do either the fruit fly or pea plant experiments in school? Most high schools do one or the other in biology class. Both experiments prove beyond a doubt the predictability of both dominant and recessive genetic traits. They are actually pretty cool.

You can actually predict exactly how many offspring in any generation will carry a trait.