Backintyme Cuts Ties With Amazon.com

November 10th, 2008

Backintyme Publishing no longer participates in the Amazon.com “Search Inside the Book” program, in the Amazon.com “Associates” Program, nor in the Amazon.com “Advantage” Program. There are no longer any links to Amazon.com from any Backintyme web page.

Backintyme Publishing now discourages customers from buying our titles from Amazon.com for two reasons: First, Amazon.com has adopted a policy of falsifying and vandalizing information about Backintyme titles on their web pages. Second, Amazon.com has threatened to stop selling certain Backintyme titles but refuses to say which titles are targeted for elimination, nor to give a reason for their threats.

Can DNA Tell What “Race” You Are?

September 6th, 2008

Molecular anthropologists are often asked if DNA markers can tell what “race” you are. The short answer is “no.” Mitochondrial DNA and Y haplogroups can tell from which continent your matrilineal and patrilineal ancestors came. And if you live in the Americas, autosomal mapping can tell what fraction of your ancestors came from Africa as slaves, what fraction came from Europe as colonists, and what fraction were Native Americans. But no DNA can tell your “race.”

The U.S. Black/White Color Line

August 15th, 2008

The United States is the only nation on earth that has preserved for over three centuries a genetically discontinuous enclave of mostly African ancestry within a larger population of European ancestry. The phenomenon demands study.

Redbone Heritage Foundation Conference – 2007

November 1st, 2007

The Redbones are a triracial ethnic community centered between the Sabine and Calcasiue rivers in western Louisiana. Like the terms “Melungeon,” “Brass Ankle,” and “Jackson White,” the name “Redbone” originated as an ethnic slur spoken by mainstream society, and the label is still considered an insult by many residents of the region. This report covers the third annual Redbones Heritage Foundation conference, held in Lake Charles, Louisiana, from October 18 through October 20, 2007. It is divided into three sections: continuity and change, interesting presentations, and memorable moments.

Personal Observations on Bliss Broyard’s One Drop

October 1st, 2007

Let me say right off that we at Backintyme Publishing enjoyed the book and recommend it without reservation. But do not be fooled by the misleading marketing blurb (more about this later); One Drop is not a book about a White woman who suddenly discovers that she is “really” Black. It is not about Bliss Broyard’s father. It is not even about her search for her father’s roots among the Louisiana Creoles. The book introspects Ms. Broyard’s feelings about what she found while searching for those roots.

So You Think You Understand the Black/White Test-Score Gap

September 1st, 2007

Few “racial” issues are as politically charged as the U.S. Black/White test-score gap. Over the past two decades, scientists have amassed a wealth of data about the phenomenon. And yet despite their findings, many American political and academic leaders continue to ignore reality and espouse counterproductive solutions to non-existent problems based on discredited theories. Conservatives claim that the gap is caused by the childhood peer pressure of Black oppositional culture. The evidence contradicts this notion. Liberals claim that it is due to class differences. The evidence contradicts this also. Many on both sides insist that the gap is at least partly genetic. This notion has been the most thoroughly demolished of all. The U.S. Black/White test-score gap is a topic where facts are ignored by powerless and powerful alike, by unlearned and academics alike, and by conservatives and liberals alike. The only people who admit to being baffled by the phenomenon are scientists who have spent years studying it. Here are the known facts about the U.S. Black/White test-score gap for those more interested in reality than in ideology.

Sexual Selection and the Color Line

August 1st, 2007

Is the extraordinary paleness of the natives of the Baltic region caused by sexual selection? Are the different skin tones of men and women caused by sexual selection or are they a side-effect? Many women believe that a pale skin attracts men. Is this genetic? The answers are presented in seven topics: (1) Nature selects among competing alleles, not among species, nor individuals. (2) Selection can help an allele but hurt its host species. (3) Sexual selection happens when two alleles conspire. (4) The five hallmarks of sexual selection. (5) Is the Baltic paleness adaptation sexual selection? (6) Was skin-tone dimorphism caused by sexual selection? And (7) do current fashions prefer paler skin?

Timeline of U.S. B/W “Racial” Determination

July 1st, 2007

U.S. racialism is dichotomous. You are legally either White or Black with no in-between. But real people are culturally and biologically continuous. Millions of Americans have grandparents of both cultures, and millions more have DNA markers from both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. How has the U.S. legal system resolved the contradiction in order to decide whether a person of dual heritage is White or Black?

Slavery is Irrelevant

June 1st, 2007

When trying to explain or to understand U.S. “race” relations, most Americans seem to focus on slavery: ordinary Americans, politicians, even many professional historians focus on slavery. And yet slavery fails as an explanatory paradigm. Slavery was ubiquitous but only the United States has a color line with all its implications. The people who forged African-American ethnicity were not slaves. U.S. racialism is dichotomous today, but it was not dichotomous where slavery was common. Slavery is irrelevant; racialism itself is the explanatory paradigm.

Myths Across the Color Line

May 1st, 2007

In this context, “myths” are counterfactual beliefs taught to the young in order to exemplify social standards that they will be expected to follow in adulthood. The U.S. endogamous color line is a rich source of such myths, believed by African Americans and non-Blacks alike. Ten color-line myths follow. Some come in two versions: Black and White.