[mcjon77]

One thing that I don't hear talked about in many of these discussions about the genetic components of race is how the mixed racial ancestry of many "black" people in Europe and the Americas impacts these studies.

MANY blacks in the Americas and Europe have significant European DNA. For example, even though my family identifies as black, my mother and her siblings are almost 50℅ European according to DNA tests.

How does this factor in when making medical decisions based on assumptions regarding race?

[LordKano]

As I remember it, something like 80% of people who we identify as African Americans(or black) have significant amounts of European ancestry.

Outside of Africa, that's probably to be expected.

I too am "black", with two "black" parents but my mother had red hair and green eyes. My son has blonde hair and blue eyes.

[blurbleblurble]

Unfortunately, western medical practitioners and researchers often aren't aware of the complexities of race and racial identity. I spoke with my cousin recently (who is almost done with his pharmacy PhD) and was flabbergasted at how ignorant he was about race as a social, cultural and spiritual phenomenon. Yet he casually spoke of race as a simple demographic category with genetic basis. He'd never heard of "epigenetics", though when I explained it to him, he admitted that it was a plausible idea.

Racial identity translates very poorly into actual population genetics, let alone epigenetics.