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- Genetically There Are Only Three Types of People
Genetically There Are Only Three Types of People
Or, at least according to 23andMe. When they show racial breakdowns they only show three categories: African, European, and Asian.
Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area and being nearly fluent in Spanish, I had a simple question:
Perhaps modern genetics doesn’t see Hispanic as a distinct race at all, but rather as a mix of races. Is that the case?
I guess that would add up. We know now that American Indians are basically Asians, and we also understand that modern Mexicans and South Americans are some mix of American Indian and European / African. So it’s actually not too difficult to grasp that other Hispanic people would also be some mix of those primary components.
I simply found it interesting that if a Hispanic person gets a modern DNA test (at least with 23andMe) there won’t be any information in the results about how “Hispanic” they are, since Black, White, and Asian seem to be the primary “races” recognized by genetics.
[ Note: I get the feeling this is the type of information that’s interesting/controversial to people who’ve never heard it before and Grade A boring to anyone who works in the field. ]
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