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Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A01

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...121501728.html

Excuse me for being so blunt, but you gotta be shitting me! What, may I ask, is now new and amazing about that information? That has been known and confirmed for almost 20 years. Cheikh Anta Diop wrote about that in his book "Civilisation or Barbarism", the Universities of Oxford, Hawaii and California-at-Berkeley, each conducting independent experiments, had pointed this out.

Now I'm not throwing this out at you personally, but it seems to me that the Western culture of schooled illiteracy is worse than I first thought, if indeed this is some big announcement.

Well we always knew there was some sort of mutation involved. Didn't know there were two different ones, but not surprised. I think the article is misleading though. There really isn't 'white skin' Just skin with less melanin on the surface. The capacity to produce melanin and even the melanin inside the body is plenty. Cases of Nelson's Syndrome show this.
http://backintyme.com/rawdata/robins183.jpg
http://backintyme.com/rawdata/robins125.jpg

Sandra Laing is a famous South African case that some have claimed was a throwback, but others are now considering might have been a case of Nelson's Syndrome.

http://www.suntimes.co.za/2000/01/02...nium/mil03.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-17-2003-37452.asp
http://www.geocities.com/kempcountrymen/sandralaing.htm

Also showing the capacity to produce melanin was the famous case of John Howard Griffin, "Black Like Me" who used psoralens to induce hypermelanization.



Griffin found an invaluable guide in Sterling Williams, proprietor of a shoeshine stand. He shared his secret with Williams, who nevertheless remained skeptical that Griffin was really white.

Better images

I was just about to post the same thing... not as bluntly tho.

Doh mind Ananci... is part of his own brand of charm.

*sigh* blue, take it easy. He clearly and specifically said his comments had NOTHING to do with you.
Let's not fight in here.

The power establishment is our common enemy

Read the article carefully. It does not claim they have discovered that mutation causes skin variations, but that they have identified a specific mutation that may be the original mutation that caused light skin speciffically in Europeans versus other groups.

The Honourable Elijah Muhammad Messenger of Allah
told y'all way back in 1965 in his book "Message to the Black Man" that the White Race was created by a Black Scientist called Yakub thru a process know as "Grafting":
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStre...KINGWHITE.html

I heard about that. It went down a treat, when my friend deicded to enlighten the all white crowd by telling them in no uncertain terms that they were freaks. Then backing it up with science. Dey was real lost for words

A bit testy are we?

Yeah, along with the Mothership.

I guess that makes all those with Cycle cell anemia freaks as well. Many of humanities traits come from mutations.

Cheikh Anta Diop didn't prove anything...he offered a hypothesis that many anthropologists both black and white have suggested for decades. The only thing new about this is that finally they've discovered what appears to be the cause of the mutation. That the mutation existed wasn't an issue...anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Genetics would see that.

Black people frustrate me sometimes with their level of unsophistication...we are the only ones making a big deal of this 'white people finally admitting that they mutated from us'. Uhm...no, that admission took place fairly early on, scientists just never were able to conclusively show how or why the mutation took place...until now.

The claim that 'they mutated from us' is still preposterous. All humans have gone through evolution and change, and yes various genetic mutations. NONE of us look like the original people. The closest are genetically are the KhoiSan but we don't know how much their phenotypes have changed. Anthropometrically, the closest facially are the Aborigines of Australia, but we don't know how much things like hair, skin color, etc have changed. This one mutation that accounts for European skin lightening does not account for all the other skin shade variables out there. If anything, it just shows the European light skin look is more recent, a fact that has been known for a long time.