I have always understood that most Black Americans have some European DNA; a study published in 2016 reported that essentially all Black American descendants of enslaved Africans have European ancestry.

ALL Black American descendants of enslaved Africans would be everybody.

Whether the introduction of European genes in your Black gene pool was the result of the rape of an enslaved ancestor by a White male or your DNA reflects a more recent and/or consensual ingress of European DNA, it’s in there. And I think that is a good reason to dispense with the “Blacker than thou” dismissal of our more obviously mixed-race brothers and sisters who claim their Blackness.

And it’s a really good reason to be dismissive of any attempts to sow discord among the descendants of those Africans scattered along the route from the Motherland by, for example, questioning the Blackness of any 2020 vice-presidential candidate who can claim multiple ethnicities, or suggesting said candidate’s ancestors might have been slave owners. ‘Cause that could be any and everybody.

Do you know who’s in your gene pool?