Acting White: Blacks and Blue Eye Color

In an earlier and surprisingly most popular post (here), I explained why it is very uncommon for people of African ancestry to have blue eyes. What I did not say in that post is how some Blacks today, nevertheless, come by their natural blue eyes. I did not mean to imply that Blacks cannot have natural blue eyes. This topic applies to all light-colored, non-brown eyes, including green and hazel, but remember that there is a hierarchy of gene color dominance.

If a Black person has White ancestry (17% on average) on both sides, the genes that produce blue eyes can lay dormant for many generations, before suddenly appearing, ‘out of nowhere’. No, blue eyes does not prove that mom was stepping out on dad. However, if you look back in the family tree for a few generations you should see other examples of blue eyes popping up.

The other way, albeit more rare, to get blue eyes is by gene mutation of the OAC2. The idea of a recurring mutation runs counter to those researchers who believe that all blue-eyed people are related to one person with the mutation, who lived 6-10,000 years ago. Not sure when the issue will be resolved. I tend to believe the recurring mutation theory.

It seems that away from the equator, however, that colored eyes confers sexual advantage within dark-skin people, similar to that experienced by those with light skin. All people seem to be attracted to colors. I remember, as a kid, how the Black girls cooed over a dark brown-skin neighbor boy, with green eyes. He was the only one in his extended family with such eyes (that I saw). If only Smokey Robinson's eyes could talk (here).

So, are Black people color-struck when it comes to eye-color? If yes, is this a bad thing? Please be thoughtful, as these comments are likely to get a lot of reads.

Update: Check out this post (here) if you are interested in why people find blue eyes attractive. Interesting theory.

James C. Collier

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