Mixed Kids are not “Prettier”: Blowing Up Hybrid Vigour

“Pure-breeds”?  Artificially, selectively-bred animals?  These are animals that have been forced to breed together for many many generations to enhance some specific physical characteristics – at the cost of a lot of health problems.  These are not real-world animals.  Outside of the domesticated world, “pure-breeds” simply do not exist.  Because, in the real world, “pure-breeds” would die out within a couple generations because of all their problems.  All that remains in the natural world are cross-bred animals.

So comparing races or ethnicities to “breeds” is just stupid, and poor science.  Every racial and ethnic group out there is a result of “cross-breeding.”  Our human gene pool is all mixed up – because we have been (mostly) avoiding the inbreeding and artificial selection that creates domestic animals.  Our DNA is more varied within any particular “racial group” than it is between them.    Which then suggests that – if any of this “science” can be applied to human beings – then, perhaps, so-called “mono-racial” offspring would be more likely to have the advantage of “hybrid vigor” than multi-racial offspring.

Of course, that would also be abusing the science, but I hope you can see my point – there is no such thing as “purity” in race.  Every “race” is the result of hundreds of thousands of years of inter-breeding, cross-breeding.  We’ve survived as long as we have because we are not “pure.”

Mixed kids?  The result of exactly the same reproductive processes and selection pressures as the rest of humanity.  Flat-out.  (*5)  Some of us are super-hot or wondrously intelligent (or both), for sure.  But, sorry, some of us just have to pull on inner beauty or wouldn’t exactly astound others with our coherence of thought (or both), as well.

B.S. “positive” stereotypes like this are just as damaging as negative ones (on a large scale).  Allowing ourselves to be reduced to the equivalence of domesticated animals?  Hell no.  Let somebody “other” you in a “positive” way, and you’re just setting yourself up for the negative stereotypes and prejudice to follow suit – and trust me, it’s going to happen.

And, finally, for those anecdotalists (*6) out there who want to say, “but, really,  all the mixed people I know really are beautiful,” I’ve got some things for you to ask yourself:

First off – are they “beautiful” simply because they’re “different” and “exotic?”  That would be my first guess if they literally all are so gorgeous, in your eyes.  And I don’t need to go further into that one about why that’s not okay.

Second – honestly, how many normal, everyday mixed people do you make note of?  What does it take for you to even get to the point where you know for sure that we are mixed?   Chances are, for us to be noticed on that level, we either have to be in the media (which is going to obviously over-represent the “hot” mixed folks), or else we just have to stand out from the backdrop of everyday life.  And if we’re good-looking, that’s one way to do so.

I mean, how often do you think about or even ask some “below-average” guy or gal, “wow – you have such an interesting look, what is your racial background?”  Right.  You don’t.  So you likely aren’t even aware of the thousands of mixed people you walked right by on the street that were not “beautiful.”

It’s Confirmation Bias, people – look it up.

And that’s it.  I’m done.  I’ve gotten it out there now.  I feel confident in my breakdown of that particular line of “othering.”  And, even if I didn’t, I tired myself out.

Mixed folks are great – GO US – but it’s simply not due to our genetic difference from the rest of humanity.  We are not aliens; we are not dogs or other domesticated animals.  We’re just another socially-defined group of people, and a force to be reckoned with – like the rest of our species.

And if you still don’t believe me . . ?  Well, sh–, please don’t make me fully throw my extended family under the bus and send you photos . . .

(*1) In general, if I say “Chinese” without specifying another country of origin, then I mean born and raised in China and of Han (majority) ethnicity.

(*2) For perhaps the only time on this blog, I’m working off a general, shallow-as-Hell societal concept of physical “beauty” here, because that’s the level on which I mean to take this stereotype down.  If people were talking about mixed-race folks being “beautiful” within a completely different framework for beauty, then we’d be living in a better world than we do.

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