Debunking the “million to one,” “black and white twins” obsession
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Let the hysteria begin! The media has yet another set of “miracle” twins to obsess over. An Australian black/white mixed woman with a white husband recently gave birth to twins Alicia and Jasmin, girls that The Daily Telegraph refers to as “one black and one white.” The paper also claims that “experts say the chance of twins being born with such different physical characteristics is about a million to one.” (Thanks to Tariq for this tip!)
This is the not the first time we’ve seen this kind of “million to one” incident though. In February of this year, the media was all aflutter over an English couple - both father and mother were of mixed black and white heritage themselves - who had “black and white twins.”
The fascination with these two cases says a lot about the way we think of race. First, people are still so intent on forcing people into neat little categories. But these children are all mixed - they’re not solely “black” or “white.” Second, it’s amazing how much phenotype - especially skin color - warps people’s perceptions.
On episode 18 of Addicted to Race, we spoke about the English twins with Dr. Joseph L. Graves, the evolutionary biologist who wrote the excellent book The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America
Moreover, Graves said that “to describe the child as simply black because she had darker skin betrays the underlying racist ideology that one has to be either black or white.” I would definitely encourage you to have a listen to his rant about this. You can listen here, and his segment begins around the 15-minute mark.
There’s nothing particularly miraculous about siblings who vary greatly in phenotype. It’s simply a matter of genetic variation. There are plenty of African-American families in which this kind of variation can be found, for example, because of the genetic variation in those families that resulted from the sexual relationships between white slaveowners and their slaves. So the next time you see a story that claims that this is a “million to one” occurrence, don’t believe the hype.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Meera Bowman Johnson wrote:
I especially appreciate this post - I am the mother of “very” fraternal twins, similar to the ones pictured here and the English twins, Remi and Kian.
My husband is biracial and I am an African American with light skin. We both have all shades/hair textures/eye colors in our African American lineage. SO when the babies were born, their “contrast” was only slightly surprising to us. Even less surprising to our families. But the response of the nurses at the hospital and within our largely white community made me realize how ignorant most Americans are about race.
I’m really tired of hearing that the babies “look so different” (as if we never noticed). They’re fifteen months old now and our pediatrician just stopped chuckling about it. One woman even said “don’t worry, these days most people will just assume you adopted.” All I could think was “which one?”
And sometimes people assume I’m the sitter . I’m thinking about making a t-shirt that says “Not the nanny.” Either that our responding to every nosy question with brief history of American miscegenation.
But even though these things are annoying, on a day to day basis we don’t think about it at all. We’re just so happy to have healthy, happy, beautiful babies. And if you look closely enough, they really do look like brother and sister. Probably because they are.
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 11:46 am ¶
Ben wrote:
On the other hand, if we’re talking about worldwide birth statistics–over 130,000,000 live births per year–one in a million isn’t so rare
Of course, who are these “experts” and how do they quantify “such different characteristics”? Doesn’t matter, call Ripley’s!
Ripe as it is for criticism, I do love that the coverage is there. My blonde-haired, blue-eyed sister loves it too. My dad, even more. (Imagine the stares you get being a young-ish black guy carrying a Swedish-looking baby down a city street in 1982.)
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 12:08 pm ¶
Meera Bowman Johnson wrote:
That’s funny Ben, when my husband - who is sometimes mistaken for white - takes our daughter out alone, he always notices people staring (”like I kidnapped her or something”) With our son, he thinks most people assume they’re both white. Equally disturbing to him.
I’m curious to know how it was for you and your sister growing up (not that I expect you to publicize such personal info). As a parent, I wonder what it will be like for my twins, like if they’ll have to explain things a lot, etc.
I agree with you that the coverage is great. And maybe if more sibs like these pop up in the media, maybe people will start putting their eyes back in their heads.
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 12:36 pm ¶
MPB wrote:
Wow-what a great site! I think I’ve been at it for about three hours. I just can’t stop reading. I find this topic fascinating. I’m a white woman of German descent married to an Asian man of Filipino descent. We have two children. When I go out alone with my kids, some enlightened folks have said things like, “When did you get them?” (I say, “She was born on April 14th) or “I love foreign babies.” (because brown babies obviously can’t be American). I’ve also had the experience of going out with female friends and taking my kids with me, only to have nasty folks utter things under their breath about my “Mexican” kids, I guess with the assumption that we’re a lesbian couple who’ve adopted internationally. Most people, truthfully, just assume I’ve adopted them, until I let them know otherwise.
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 3:28 pm ¶
bertie wrote:
This is interesting. Not so much the “biological miracle” aspect of it–but more the social aspect. I’d be curious if Ben and his sister, and these new twins had/or will have vastly different social experiences based on what “race” others percieve(d) them to be?
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 3:50 pm ¶
EndUnkind wrote:
I agree, this is overblown (though the kids are really cute! All kids are cute, I admit my weakness…)
I watched ABC News in their coverage of this. At least the did the numbers (and the right ones) in their report (by way of the Human Genome Project):
Every human has 25,000-35,000 genes.
Only 10 play a major role in determining skin color.
Except for gender, people are 99.9% uniform genetically, and becoming even more so, thanks to intermixing.
With two kids, parents will pass most– but not all– of their genes to each, that allow for substantial differences to occur.
The race and nationality of the parents is less important than the overall point: there was no purely “black” and purely “white” parent involved in the first place. SO I agree, it’s not that unusual and not that impossible, given the way genes are passed along.
Given that, I would strongly urge, however, you and others to start clarifying one huge assumption that’s just been thrown out there.
While there are, indeed, variations among African-Americans of genetic combinations that can account for some physical differences, not all are traceable to those resulting from the sexual relationships between “white slaveowners and their slaves”. I owe all my genetic mash to the ol’ plantation, huh? Well gol’daam…
And here I thought that there were all these genetic combinations among different groups of Africans, as well as Europeans and American Indians– each of whom made contact with Africans. All those biology courses down the drain…
Look, we now know that fewer than 10% of African-American mitochondrial DNA sequences, at present, can be matched to any single African ethnic group there is more genetic diversity among Africans than among people from any other continent.
That makes a much stronger case when you consider Africa has the longest track record of people living and migrating across the continent than anywhere else in the world. Until somewhere else lays claim, no?
It’s no wonder, then, that there would be more diversity across genetic combination even within one place, ancestral tribe, etc.– assuming you could pinpoint it with that level of accuracy and everyone stayed in one place before they traveled through West and West Central Africa en route to slavery. But they didn’t…
So which groups and which combinations of “pure pre-slavery African” Americans you’re implying genetically by that comment at the end?
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 4:18 pm ¶
Meera wrote:
I think that inevitably the twins and other sib sets like them will be treated differently in regards to their skin color. There are certain societal advantages and limitations each one is likely to face based on having darker or lighter complexions. But as troubling as it is, I really feel that’s just a reality of growing up as a person of color, regardless of having siblings.
I’d be curious to see how the experiences of the twins in Australia and the UK will differ from those of twins like my own who will grow up in the States, where our racial dynamic (and history) is so different.
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 6:01 pm ¶
Meg wrote:
“I’d be curious to see how the experiences of the twins in Australia and the UK will differ from those of twins like my own who will grow up in the States, where our racial dynamic (and history) is so different. ”
In Australia there’s not the history of slavery/jim crow to deal with in terms of black/white and all the issues that come with that. However, racism is racism and it unfortunately exists despite ppl claiming to be “colourblind”. I can see the questions/comments not differing too much from the states e.g. assumptions of adoptiong, etc. The closest link i can think of is with indigenous australians where there was (forced) mixing with the white pop because genetically it was figured you could “breed them out” and make them white within a couple of generations. If you look at communities/families there’s a lot of variation in terms of skin colour/facial features/hair and white aust can’t always “tell” that someone is indigenous. This causes A LOT of issues (e.g. one kid looks white, other looks aboriginal) and there would be discrimination towards both. For the one who could “pass” they’d spend their life defending their right to claim their identity, and the other kid would prob get more overt racism (e.g. try to rent a house that magically goes off the market when you arrive). That’s my somewhat cynical view, but as an Aussie I’d love to think that the kids would get a fair go no matter what they or their parents looked like.
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 7:27 pm ¶
Andrew wrote:
LOL, EndUnkind, I’m a first year Biology student, and I just came here to post that. Thanks for saving me the time, LOL!
Posted 28 Oct 2006 at 1:44 am ¶
kim wrote:
The late Social Anthro/Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould repeatedly said there is more variation within any one group we choose to classify as a racial group, than between the so-called different races (intraracial variation vs. interracial variation). People often become incensed when I mention this, so I choose wisely.
Really liked your breakdown, EndUnkind.
Posted 30 Oct 2006 at 3:07 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Kim: Mmm.. you mentioned one of my cultural heroes!
I brought that up in a racial IQ debate, and oh yeah, people FREAKED OUT.
Why people argue with genetics is beyond me.
Posted 31 Oct 2006 at 12:47 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Mixed-race families are well acquainted with children with different hair and skin color but the rest of the world isn’t as well educated. I think it freaks out more white people, especially one-droppers who are afraid of “secret Negroes.”
Posted 02 Nov 2006 at 12:13 am ¶
Ziba wrote:
I truly appreciate this article because the terms “million to one odd,” and this is a “fluke” according to ABC News, is ridiculous. This has been going on for centuries and there are also twins with different fathers.
This definitely dismantles the theory that you can breed the “black” or “aboriginal” gene out, that was attempted in Australia during the times of the “Stolen Generation.”
When “half-caste,” children where stolen from their parents, told to abandon their aboriginal heritages and continuously breed with whites to get rid of the half breed population, that in most part,not all, was created by the “rapings” and invasion of the European in Australia.
We are all one. I like how the color of the human race is broken down in the book “one blood,” which can also be found on the http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/oneblood.
Unfortunately, due to the history of racism and white supremacy, we still live in a black and white world. These skin variations are evident in Latinos, however, it becomes a phenomenon, sort of speak, not when you have one child who looks more European and one child who looks more African/Black, but when you have “twins.”
It is a beautiful site to see because it just goes to show you that we are one people, one has melanin (dark brownish pigment) and the other produced little melanin (inherited mutation).
Let’s get over it already and hope that these parents are conscience enough to raise their children with integrity and pride in who they are, without shame and with exposure to both races/cultures, not just one.
Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 1:49 pm ¶
jane wrote:
Thanks for pointing this out Carmen. i was beginning to think i was the only one that thought that was crazy. Both babies are beautiful and both babies are mixed. i only hope to God that they are not tormented their whole lives and seen as freaks of nature.. when they are just an example of what we all are to each other.. a slight variant of the same.
Posted 06 Feb 2007 at 10:03 pm ¶
monkey_attack wrote:
Let people be amazed!
Yeah, yeah, I understand the assembly of our gene structure makes this an unremarkable occurrence; sure, it’s all so commonplace. It’s certainly wrong to label this a “fluke”, and what exactly are the statistics for this degree of melanin variance in phenotypes among twins? It’s probably not something you can make an accurate statistic of, considering all the variables.
So I know it can happen. I know it’s not too uncommon. But have I every seen it? No! And I think it’s neat! In fact, I’m amazed!
Maybe next time I see it, I won’t be so amazed. But I’ll still think it’s pretty neat. It will still fascinate me.
Most people don’t see every article about everything ever, so if people missed the last 20 or 100 articles about twin babies who look like they come from different sides of the world, so be it.
Hopefully they get to see at least one, so they can know how arbitrary skin color really is.
Let them be amazed.
Amazed that skin color really is just what it is.
Skin color.
Posted 14 Mar 2007 at 7:58 pm ¶
Polyana Nielsen wrote:
I love this article! I get insulted on a daily basis when I go out with my little daughter and people keep assuming she isn’ t mine because she is so light skinned and has straight hair. People look at me and only see a black person, they can’t see my genetic heritage. I have Polish and Native Brazilian in me, I am not 100% black. It is in no way ”a miracle” that my daughter turned out as she did.
Posted 23 Apr 2007 at 4:25 am ¶
Keke wrote:
When I first heard another story about twins where one was “black” and one was “white” and all the pseudo-scientific explanations for how such a “rare” thing occurs, I almost wanted to pull my hair out in frustration. It happens all the time. The human race is not composed of neat little pockets of separately categorized beings. We are all “mixed.” As a former biology student the idea of race itself is a bit absurd. But, we love to make everything into a category.
I am African American and within my own family there are a wide variety of colors and a few of my family members were born with blonde hair and blue eyes, while some of my cousins have skin that is very dark and very straight hair. I even had a friend who looked like her parents (who were both brown skinned African Americans)–except she wasn’t brown skinned at all, but had red hair, white skin and freckles. It happens. I can never understand why it is such a big deal.
Posted 14 May 2007 at 3:47 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Just an answer to this:
>what exactly are the statistics for this degree of melanin variance in phenotypes among twins?
They’re fraternal twins, so the variance is the same as there would be for any full sibling. Genetically, frats are siblings that happen to be conceived at the same time. Ultimately they should share anywhere from 25% to 100% of the same exact genes, depending on how much recombination happened with each parent’s genes when the sperm and eggs were being made.
Since skin color is determined by about 6 different alleles, but I’ve never read anything that says WHERE in the genome they are, I’d assume that these frats share less of the same skin color alleles in common for whatever reason. That said, the facial shape, head shape, cheekbones, etc. look similar to me (in this pic anyway), so those are probably governed by genes they have in common.
Posted 15 May 2007 at 2:52 am ¶
Arnold Smith wrote:
I am the father of two twin boys AND a younger single. I have Jamaican and mixed heritage while my wife is pure white Scottish.
And we live in my home country of Canada.
One twin is black, the other white. Their little brother is even whiter. But you know what, we never made a big deal about the twins’ colour difference, nor did our friends or family. Everyone was just excited for us because we had twins. One of our Scottish friends even swore he couldn’t tell them apart. When this English couple started milking the crap out of their ‘miracles’, I was aghast. Couldn’t they just be happy that the girls were healthy and happy instead of parading them all over the world like the next Ripley’s Believe It or Not exhibit?!
Posted 04 Jul 2007 at 12:34 pm ¶
Elisa wrote:
Hi, I’d like to respond to this story as I am in a similar situation. My mom is a white woman and my dad is a VERY dark skinned latino (Native American-black) man. My older sister looks caucasian with light hair, light eyes and skin. I on the other hand look closer to my father with brown skin, black hair and brown eyes. She has always just assumed to be white by society, but if she tells someone she’s latino then she is accepted as both white and latino. I on the other hand am thought of as just a brown person and even if I tell someone I’m half-white they will say “no you’re not” even if they have met my white mother. My mother says to tell whomever asks my background to include the fact that I am of Eastern European heritage. It’s just frustrating that as some people have already mentioned people want to put you in a neat little box.
Posted 14 Jul 2007 at 9:04 pm ¶
tina wrote:
So far, I am very impressed with the comments I’ve read on this web site! I am a Black American woman married to a Spanish-Mexican man. We have three, yet very different looking beautiful children. My oldest son and youngest daughter looks just like their father: Straight dark hair, light skin, and below average height. Our middle son, on the other hand, looks just like my side of the family: tall (6′4), very dark like me, and he sports a very large Afro (Imagine the stares he receives when we visit our relatives in Mexico!). We live in a Midwestern city in the US, so we have grown accustomed to people staring. My husband and I decided a long time ago to prepare our children for the questions, looks, etc. they were sure to encounter as they got older. Each of our children has developed a strong sense of who they are and they comfortably identify with both heritages. We never told our children they were “different.” Instead, we taught them to understand the ethnic landscape is changing in our country and they are a huge part of it! Everyday we see more racially mixed couples with young children and it is just wonderful. My husband and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this year and my heart sings knowing there are so many more families being created to add to the diversity of our planet!
Posted 30 Jul 2007 at 9:21 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:
I am very encouraged by this site. There are a lot of great commits. I am a twist on the bi-racial siblings story. I want to have my own children and adopt. I want to be able to give a home to ANY child who needs one. My husband and I are both african-american and were considering adopting white, black, or latin children. We were however concerned that it would be too much for a child to have to explain why they are adopted AND why they are white or latin with black parents. We just want to be a complete and loving family and all your comments have given us hope for that.
Posted 03 Sep 2007 at 11:51 am ¶
Misha wrote:
Everyone is overlooking the real miracle here. Those are some astoundingly beautiful babies (or that was one incredibly gifted photographer). I normally find ‘grubs’ more than a little off-putting, but I’m almost charmed by these.
Posted 26 Oct 2007 at 10:31 pm ¶
NlGHTgirl wrote:
Misha wrote:
Everyone is overlooking the real miracle here. Those are some astoundingly beautiful babies (or that was one incredibly gifted photographer). I normally find ‘grubs’ more than a little off-putting, but I’m almost charmed by these.
———
“grubs”???!!!! are you implying that these babies are less than human???!!!
Posted 02 Dec 2007 at 11:04 am ¶
Renee wrote:
The babies are adorable!
Posted 07 Dec 2007 at 12:02 pm ¶
fifita wrote:
Very Beautiful !! Thanks for putting up site as this one
Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 12:22 am ¶
Michele wrote:
I am “white” I have Irish blood in me and my husband is pure Filipino. We have two beautiful babies, twins, a boy and a girl. It is so frustrating when i take them to the store because every one thinks i am they’re babysitter. I look younger then my age but still, is it so incomprehensiable that i’m married to some one other than my race and mabey, just mabey, my children will look more filipino than white?!
Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:28 pm ¶
Dee wrote:
I am a woman of color, Native American. I have 12 adopted children, and we are an inter-racial family. My children range from Black American to Mayan to inter-racial heritages of Black/Native American and Black Cherokee.
My son who is Native American/Black is not accepted by his Navajo grandparents. People are frequently asking horribly intrusive questions when we are out in public. Just a year ago my son then aged, five and I were chased out of an AZ store at gunpoint by a card carrying member of the KKK.
I’ve been raising a trans-racial family for more than 30 years, and when I brought my first adopted (mixed race) daughter home the KKK burned a cross on my front yard while my neighbors stood around and no one stepped forward to defend or support us.
I’ve watched a lot of things change in the last 30 years, some for good and some for ill. But in honestly, since the horrible events of Sept. 11, so many folks who had hid their racism in their closets felt they had approval to yank it out and again put it on display.
My son (who was chased at gunpoint) has developed an internal sense of radar for racism. He remains unafraid, but is so aware of it. Folks around us often claim it’s a ‘natural curiosity’ or ‘they didn’t mean harm’. But harm can and does occur when good people stand around and fail to speak out at those who shot gun their attitudes so loudly.
I am proud of my family and my children. I wish that more schools would integrate anti-racial programs into their classrooms, but far too often people just won’t stand up when it happens. Having grown up with racism as a woman of color, I do my best to teach my children how to be proactive, to behave respectfully, and still, what to do if authorities should question them.
The attention these twins have gained only shows how much work we still have to do. Color blind is NOT reality and in claiming it, we do a great disservice to those who strugge with the effects of racism and prejudice.
This blog is a good thing. Thank you.
Dee
Posted 02 Apr 2008 at 5:00 pm ¶
Carolyn wrote:
I was born to “white” parents and have 2 siblings all 3 of us born within 2 1/2 yrs of each other. Not one of us three look like each other and people always wanted to know which of us was adopted. We would point to the other and say “she/he is!” and then laugh like crazy!! Hopefully these people will raise children with a sense of humor too!
Posted 28 Apr 2008 at 12:01 pm ¶
Folklore Fanatic wrote:
Thanks for posting this.
Being a part of a six- or seven- generation multiracial family, the only thing that strikes me as unusual is the fraternal twins aspect of the case. This is an everyday fact of life for many people of Caribbean / S.A. Amerindian descent.
Sometimes I just want to slap people and say, “Dude. Just because a kid’s phenotype is different from the parents’ doesn’t = adopted.”
Add to that the fact that your skin color can and will change as you age or move to a different climate (happened to my Dad), and it’s just a huge sign over our heads that says “HELLO! PLEASE ASSUME FACTS NOT IN EVIDENCE BECAUSE YOU’RE TOO IGNORANT TO EDUCATE YOURSELF.” *headache*
Posted 03 May 2008 at 11:51 pm ¶