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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - II. Race - 5. Race and Ancestry - 9. Present and Future Genetic Composition Trends
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Chapter 5. Race and Ancestry 133
physical traits. This does not constitute proof of representativeness, how-
ever, because it is likely that each group of Negroes (from each section
of the country) is an upper class group, and Herskovits does not define
the degree of closeness of trait which constitutes similarity. Too, the list of
traits which were compared does not include color or other important
differentiating traits. It is likely that Herskovits’ sample contains too many
upper class Negroes who are known to have a disproportionate amount of
white ancestry." The fact that many Negroes may not know of white
ancestry of several generations back®® may, however, counterbalance the
selective factor in Herskovits’ sample and leave his figure of 71.7 per cent
with white ancestry not too inaccurate. Thus, while we cannot say that
existing research permits a definitive answer to the question as to how many
Negroes have some white blood, the best available evidence and expert
opinion point to a figure around 70 per cent. This figure must tend to
increase with time, if for no other reason than that full-blooded Negroes
intermarry with mixed bloods and their offspring become mixed bloods.
Herskovits’ other important conclusion—that in many physical traits the
present American Negro population shows less variability than its parent
African Negro, American white, and American Indian populations, and so
are rapidly forming a genetically homogeneous group—cannot be accepted
as demonstrated.®’*’
A forecast of the future trend of genetic changes must, in its very nature,
be highly conjectural, and, if stretched beyond the next few decades, it
cannot possibly be more than an amateurish guess. Even for the immediate
future it can amount to little more than an enumeration of the relevant
factors and a consideration of their interrelations. Any statement concerning
the resultant effect of the forces at play has no greater validity than the
specific premises stated concerning the primary factors at work.
Miscegenation between American Negroes and whites is commonly be-
lieved to be on the decrease. Even if it is not certain that sex relations
between members of the two groups are decreasing, there is more reason
to feel confident that children of whitc-Negro unions arc becoming rarer,
in both absolute numbers and relative proportions. Information on, and
accessibility to, contraceptive devices is increasing j
and their further
technical perfection is generally expected among population experts. A
decreasing rate of birth of offspring with parents representing the two races
will not, of course, decrease the proportion of white genes in the Negro
people but will slow down their further increase and postpone the distant
possibility of full amalgamation.
Passing is becoming easier in the more mobile and anonymous society
of today and tomorrow. The more recent immigration of darker peoples
* It also seems that Herskovits^ sample contains too many Negroes from the Atlantic
seaboard states, who are known to have a disproportionate amount of white ancestry.
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