Italy was for centuries a bridge across the Mediterraneum Sea among Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the past there was a strong immigration and passage of several etnic groups through Italy. Today Italy is no more a country of immigrants, but we are experiencing immigration from Africa, Asia, and Est Europe. In the past, Italian regions have been also conquered by several people, as Normans or Spanish, for example. So in Italy you can find as many "looks" as you like. More than 30 languages are currently spoken in Italy, included Ancient Greek, Catalan, and Walser. The assumption that, if you are Italian, you should have colored skin, black and curled hair, is similar to assume that all Americans are W.A.S.P. By the way, science demonstrated that human races do not exist. People can be classified by etnic groups, which are characterized by social and cultural factors, not fisiological or genetic ones. Furthermore characteristics that make people look very different, like the colour of skin, are, from a genetic point of view, secondary with respect to other physical diversities. For example, the genoma of a "black" man and a "white" man (whatever black and white might mean) are more similar with respect the genoma of a tall man and a small one. The concept of black itself is related to difficulties of "white" people in the past to distinguish among different African tribus. There are many differences among the various African tribus, and differently from American "black" people, they are not "brothers" at all. Some tribus are fighting each others since prehistory, and they hate each other. There are several "forgotten" wars in Africa, and a lot of people, especially children, suffers because of those wars. So the term afro-american is related to a "black brotherhood" that is meaningful only in USA. DdJ

"Dario de Judicibus" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > Italy was for centuries a bridge across the Mediterraneum Sea among Europe, > Asia, and Africa. In the past there was a strong immigration and passage of > several etnic groups through Italy. Today Italy is no more a country of > immigrants, but we are experiencing immigration from Africa, Asia, and Est > Europe. In the past, Italian regions have been also conquered by several > people, as Normans or Spanish, for example. So in Italy you can find as many > "looks" as you like. More than 30 languages are currently spoken in Italy, > included Ancient Greek, Catalan, and Walser. The assumption that, if you are > Italian, you should have colored skin, black and curled hair, is similar to > assume that all Americans are W.A.S.P. > > By the way, science demonstrated that human races do not exist. People can > be classified by etnic groups, which are characterized by social and > cultural factors, not fisiological or genetic ones. Furthermore > characteristics that make people look very different, like the colour of > skin, are, from a genetic point of view, secondary with respect to other > physical diversities. For example, the genoma of a "black" man and a "white" > man (whatever black and white might mean) are more similar with respect the > genoma of a tall man and a small one. That said, I believe it is possible to determine a person's "majority population affiliation" (i.e. Indo European, Sub-Saharan African, East Asian or Native American) and admixture (27% Indo-European, 59% East Asian) through genetic analysis. http://bioforensics.com/conference/Racial%20Identification/ http://www.hhmi.org/cgi-bin/askascientist/highlight.pl?kw=&file=answers%2Fgenetics%2Fans_011.html Those in the field seem to have a real concern for the potential misuse of genetic information. > > The concept of black itself is related to difficulties of "white" people in > the past to distinguish among different African tribus. There are many > differences among the various African tribus, and differently from American > "black" people, they are not "brothers" at all. Some tribus are fighting > each others since prehistory, and they hate each other. There are several > "forgotten" wars in Africa, and a lot of people, especially children, > suffers because of those wars. So the term afro-american is related to a > "black brotherhood" that is meaningful only in USA. > > DdJ > >