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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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So it is not any more unusual for a black mom to give birth to a white child than it is for a white brunette to give birth to a ginger child.

Gingerness is caused by a single recessive gene which (in double dose) causes the production of pheomelanin instead of eumelanin, so it is as genetically significant as skin colour. The gene is associated with specific white ethnicities (Scots, Irish, Udmurts) and seeing it in someone not from those ethnicities is unusual. So it is not normal for a white brunette to give birth to a ginger child unless both her and her male partner have ancestry from one of those ethnicities.

When my wife gave birth to a ginger IVF baby (I have Irish ancestry, she thought she didn't) we had a DNA test done. The testing company was most confused as to why we were asking for a maternity test and mostly unconcerned about paternity. After discovering that the clinic hadn't made a mix-up, one of my wife's relatives admitted that an Irishman might have been involved somewhere in her family tree.