Quote:
Originally Posted by jalfrezi
Europeans sharing more genes with random Africans than with each other is a well-known expectation of genetic science, and it has been tested on random samples of Europeans and found to be true.
You learned something important today.
This is exactly why ethnicity has a much broader definition than simply genes. Genetic science has shown us that Europeans have a geographically wide spread of genes from all over the place, but the average European is overwhelmingly genetically African, and that includes you.
You didn't say europeans, you said my neighbour which isn't a random european.
It's possible that the genetic distance between the average italian and the average african is smaller than the genetic distance between the average italian and the average finnish person yes. Plausible actually. Nothing to do with the example you provided though as my neighbours aren't random europeans rather italian citizens with 4 italian grandparents.
Italy in particular is a melting pot so genetics here is very mixed (Which is why it's absurd to claim italian ethnicity meaningfully), that doesn't mean other groups mixed the same. Some didn't much and ethnicity in those cases is a clear defining word.
That said people don't use ethnicity to mean what you want it to me *and you know that*. In particular in the USA. Culture has nothing to do with ethnicity and a white claiming black ethnicity because he "behaves like a black" is vilified a lot when he tries that.