Mixed race twins: Different skin colors

Posted by Ria, 18 Jul

twins-black-white.jpgmomdad.jpg

Most things aren’t always in black and white. But these twins, born on July 11, to an interracial couple in Germany are – one Black, the other White. Stephan Gerth is German and white. His wife, Florence Addo-Gerth, is from Ghana and has dark skin. The first baby, Ryan has light skin and blue eyes; the second, Leo is dark-skinned with brown eyes.

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"None of us could believe it," said Birgit Weber, the maternity ward's head doctor. "Both kids have definitely the same father."

The odds one in a million, but it is possible for fraternal twins if the genes combine in a certain way. According to Peter Propping, former director of the Institute for Human Genetics at Bonn University the Florence may have had some white ancestors, or Gerth may have had black ones. Very occasionally, the roll of the DNA die may cause the baby of biracial parents to inherit only the genetic coding for one color.

blackwhite.jpgSimilar occurrences have happened before. In 2005, a British couple Kylie Hodgson and Remi Horder, both born to mixed-race parents, had twin girls – one blond, fair skinned and the other dark skinned. nigerianwhite.jpgIn 2006, Kerry Richardson, Nigerian and her partner, who is white, got twins who were both born light-skinned. But as they got older, one got darker while the other got lighter.

Just like all siblings, their differences are more than skin deep. They also have different personalities; Leo is quieter and Ryan temperamental. The parents seem to have taken all this well. Gerth told the German newspaper Die Welt that it was a real surprise but added that the most important thing to him isn’t color, but that everyone is healthy. His wife says her children were born looking exactly as they should. "God has decided that my children should have different skin colors."

Wonders never cease. Congrats to the family.

43 responses to "Mixed race twins: Different skin colors"

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  1.   mandee34 says:
    Posted: 19 Oct 10

    That's nothing new in the black communities. Most black americans are a melting pot of everything anyways.

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  2. Posted: 30 Mar 10

    If Tippy2 is "educated", I would love to know where this "education" was acquired. I would then suggest that everyone avoid this educator-forsaken place since Tippy cannot spell to save his/her life...(I apologize for this dig but something in the tone of his/her comment rubbed me the wrong way). By the way...one of the main reasons people whose families evolved in America are not referred to as African (some blacks are reluctant to take on the "African-American" tag), but rather black, is BECAUSE there was the common instance of intermixing with other races (perhaps most commonly, the white slave master). This fact gives flesh to the argument by some scholars that Black people's situation may be unique in that...because they have this physical (due to circumstance of the "s" word--slavery), ancestral and cultural (dig deep and you'll find that it exists--in some good ways and not so good ways, depending on your personal perspective) gulf between their African forefathers, this "new" and almost...seperate culture evolved. The argument is that this is what gave rise to the tag "black". Or something like that... (forgive me, scholars, if I didn't quite get the jist of the argument right--but this is why it is crucial to check into things for ourselves and not just swallow anything someone feeds us) :-)

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  3. Posted: 21 Nov 09

    Doesn't this simply prove that "race" doesn't exist in the first place? Since when has it been possible for two animals of different species to mate and give birth two animals of two different sub-species. It's preposterous. These children were born with different SKIN COLORS which happens all the time. To ratchet up different skin color into "races" is patently absurd. If a black cat and a white cat have kittens together, and some of their offspring are black while others are white, does that means that the kittens are from different species or sub-species. NOBODY with any sense believes that you can look at the color of two kittens from the same litter and distinguish their species or sub-species. "Race" is a disproved hypothesis, not a fact. Rather than trying to fit the above photographs into your concepts of "race", you should learn from the above photographs that "race" simply does not exist. These are two children from the same "litter" with different skin colors. There's nothing unusual about that, but there is something pathological about our obsession with skin color and our belief that skin-color equals "race." Google the word "race" you'll find over 500 million hits over the last year alone. Now Google the phrase skin color. You find less than one one hundredth as many hits. That's because, when it comes to skin color, we prefer to believe in "racial" hypothesis that are disproved instead of skin color, which is obvious for the eye to see.

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  4.   chauntel says:
    Posted: 18 Oct 09

    got three children all girls Charlotte 5 months and her identical twin sister Tanaka and my boyfriend which is their father is a black American and i am white and Charlotte came out white looking and Tanaka came black looking but my seven year daughter Runisha 7 looks just how she meant mixed race looking when take the children places people love to stare and think am i the mother of the children but the thing one took after me and the other one came out black just like her father at first me and my partner did no what to do and my older daughter become very confused but our doctor told us our babies were normal and healthy i think its lovely because all my children are good looking but next month we fly over to America to do a chat show and will be on the radio so look at for us being on tv

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  5.   shamie says:
    Posted: 19 Aug 09

    God's work

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  6.   toungejob says:
    Posted: 28 Jul 09

    ESAU AND JACOB IN THE BIBLE WHERE 2 DIFFERENT NATION ONE DARK HAIRY AND THE OTHER LIGHTER. THIS CASE IS FROM OLD IS NOT A NEW THING.

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  7.   aliekatt2 says:
    Posted: 22 Jul 09

    Its very common, (good answer about dominant and recessive gens.) just look at Vin Diesel and His brother. lol

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  8.   homesteader says:
    Posted: 20 Jul 09

    They will be growing up in an Ever change ing World / Bless them .

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  9.   trinichic35 says:
    Posted: 20 Jul 09

    this is so cute. praise God for them.

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  10. Posted: 27 May 09

    And for those that ASSSUME that mixed children must APPEAR mixed in appearance, please sign up for the next Genetics class at your local college and get acquainted with the Punnett Square and recessive/dominant genes. Then we can have a real discussion instead of the half-assed, uneducated comments that seem to find their way up here. And life is lived in extremes, exactly how GOD intended it to be. Case in point, while my sister is of mixed race, she appears like a black woman. Very course hair, large lips, large eyes, long lashes. Don't get me wrong, she's beautiful, modelesque but you'd never mistake her for anything but a black woman. Her first two children were by a Puerto Rican man that appeared more Caucasian than anything. Her children appear white/hispanic in every sense; hair is soft and wavy, white, translucent skin, small lips, etc. You would not know that they were her children unless you saw their eyes which are inherited from her and their noses which are a family trait. Very extreme case and her children do not APPEAR mixed, but their parentage is not in question. All I'm saying is that after all this time on earth and all these differences in race that we know of and the miracle of life, God, and cross-breeding, it is really STUPID to assume that something can't happen or it is extreme. It can and it does. And it's not Extreme,dammit! Its beautiful!

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  11. Posted: 27 May 09

    I'm not surprised at the outcome of these pregnancies. Having fraternal twins is akin to having two separate pregnancies at one time so it would not be reasonable to assume that both children would come out similiar. This is when attending a Genetics class can be very beneficial.

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  12.   BrownB09 says:
    Posted: 18 Apr 09

    Please sweetie never hate the way God created you to be. We are all made in his eyes to look a certaing way because it's what he intended. Please love yourself and know that you are truly blessed

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  13.   sean says:
    Posted: 18 Apr 09

    im mixed race but i look white i hate it though

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  14.   MsRose says:
    Posted: 23 Feb 09

    I heard about the parents who had a second set of black/white twins and found it interesting so I decided to google the site. I didn't realize that there were so many from all over the world. What a BLESSED event. All of the kids are cute. That being said, first, of all, in GOD, all things are possible. Second, what is with some of the negative comments (calqueen and genelade)? And third, is puprlelover(?)right? Is it true that some of you are looking for the person of your dreams on this site? Wow!! Any way, the best of blessings for all of the parents and their twins.

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  15.   lala2qz says:
    Posted: 09 Dec 08

    why is this even a big deal, both babies look black anyway. One just looks considerable lighter. When my sister was born she was and still is way lighter than the one thats supposedly white. That color is common for black babies when they are born.

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  16.   paris123 says:
    Posted: 15 Nov 08

    unique

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  17.   tasteykoko says:
    Posted: 29 Sep 08

    Wow, i never heard of that before

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  18.   genelade says:
    Posted: 28 Sep 08

    First, yes all children are a blessing from above... Now to the point: This type of occurence is not all that improbable as we have seen. What I'm talking about is one couple giving birth to twins of considerable feature differences. However, this here is EXTREME. The darker baby (cute as can be) is not even remotely caucasoid in features. His hair does not look like the soft, downy, wavy/straight hair of newborn multi-racial babies(which may change later). Also, the tips of his ears are very dark (like nigerian ebony) indicating that by the time he is six months, he will have turned a couple shades darker. Any black person understands this. Most likely, the darker twin of mixed race twinings will be no darker than the color of a dark fillipino. This baby's daddy is supposed to be white? I dont think so. Regardless of whether this child inherited a dark skin gene from his momma, he is still supposed to "look" mixed race. In example, SOMETHING LIKE WHITE PEOPLE. Hope you guys know that is possible for a woman to give birth to twins with different daddies. Let's see the results of the DNA test, though...

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  19.   kenyanito says:
    Posted: 16 Sep 08

    congrats to the parents...children are God's blessing and its only him who knows why the colour has to be different. They are so cute

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  20.   Rae56 says:
    Posted: 28 Jul 08

    My brother and sister are twins. Our parents are both a medium dark brown complexion, but until the twins were approximately three months old, one was dark and the other light. A family acquaintance tried to convince my father that he was not their father, but that their father had to be white because of the coloring of my sister. At 61, they are now both a beautiful shade of deep chocolate.

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  21.   Calqueen says:
    Posted: 28 Jul 08

    In the picture the darker twin is looking at his brother like WTF??

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  22.   SIXFT1976 says:
    Posted: 27 Jul 08

    I have always been fascinated when reading the attacks on fellow man opinions of these topics. It kills me when individuals claiming dominance and intelligence have a million typos and grammar errors. I would hope spell check is available in some countries.

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  23.   SIXFT1976 says:
    Posted: 27 Jul 08

    I have always been fascinated when reading the attacks on fellow men opinions of these topics. It kills me when individuals claiming dominance and intelligence have a million typos and grammar errors. I would hope spell check is available in some countries.

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  24.   blkbeauty31 says:
    Posted: 27 Jul 08

    This is an amazing story!

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  25.   raven3658 says:
    Posted: 26 Jul 08

    I have fraternal twins and my husband and I joked during pregnancy "wouldn't it be funny if we have one black baby and one white" well guess what? we do have one black baby and one white. Our daughter is very light with auburn hair, very petite and look like her father's side of the family who is white. Our son is very dark, always 10 lbs heavier than is sister and look like my side of the family which is black. I guess I don't see the phenomenon in all this...it seem natural to me.

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  26.   thick_lover says:
    Posted: 26 Jul 08

    Too cool! Ain't humanity amazing?

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  27.   Tiffany says:
    Posted: 24 Jul 08

    I have fraternal twins who are very different in coloration. We are a white/hispanic mixed couple but the differences are there. My husband is always asking me how my "white" genes took the dominate position in our boys.

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  28.   Minosa says:
    Posted: 24 Jul 08

    Divine beauty! Here in the Caribbean this phenomena is o so very common. We are all so mixed with indian, european and african blood that any miracle can come out. Whole generations of green and blue eyed black people out here. The color of our blood makes us realize we are one and the same no matter what color the skin has. Lovely pictures, thank you! Minosa

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  29.   puprlelover says:
    Posted: 23 Jul 08

    I can only hope I am lucky and blessed to be in a loving relationship and have beautiful twin children like these couples.no matter what color they end up.in my opinion it would be just fine with me if my twins did not look alike it would certainly make life more intersting.I HOPE THAT I WILL BE ABLE TO FIND A NICE GENTLEMAN ON THIS SITE TO HAVE A SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP SO THAT WE WILL BE BLESSED TO HAVE HEALTHY CUTE CHILDREN.AFTER ALL THAT IS WHY WE WERE ALL AT THIS WEBSITE TO FIND THE MAN OR WOMAN OF OUR DREAMS.GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE PARENTS AND BABIES ABOVE.

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  30.   bdogbill says:
    Posted: 23 Jul 08

    Well I dont find it surprising considering the fact that I, myself am mixed but look white. most people think I am joking when I tell them this but it is true. I mean look at Obama he's just darker than I am so it is possible for this to happen with fraternal twins:)

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  31.   incredible says:
    Posted: 21 Jul 08

    Praise God ,They are healthy .If we were all color blind then would we as a whole love unconditionally ??

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  32.   one2c says:
    Posted: 20 Jul 08

    I have a set of twins and my ex husband is white and I am black yes one of our son was lighter and the other is darker.

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  33.   one2c says:
    Posted: 20 Jul 08

    I have a set of twins and my ex husband is white and I am black yes one of our son was lighter and the other is lighter.

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  34.   Nandi says:
    Posted: 19 Jul 08

    I have fraternal twins, so this is not surprising..my twins looks nothing alike because fraternal twins are basically two seperate pregnancies, so two different dna spins..... Tippy..I really do not get how you speak of "educated" to mocha, when your spew is totally uneducated and no not every black person is mixed with european genes...I hate to bust your bubble, however even in Africa there has always been many shades of black...So the "dark gene" BTW...no such gene called by that name is a stereotype...Recessive genes has nothing to do with slow and lazy...absolutely ridiculous... However dna spins when one gets pregnant can go back 3-4 generations...possibly even longer, since one can trace their heritage/admixture genes 500 years through dna... Now if these were identical twins...then this would be intriguing or another medical wonder resolved..Fraternal twins means nothing..since their dna is different...So of course their features would be different as well....

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  35. Posted: 19 Jul 08

    This is no surprise there is a black woman on the new Big Brother show who has a black twin and a white twin. She is from Spring Texas, her husband is a white man.

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  36.   JR0510 says:
    Posted: 19 Jul 08

    Actually this is fairly common in fraternal twins. It is actually a common theme in any genetics class and this is usually caused by the presence of recessive genes.

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  37.   latrelle says:
    Posted: 19 Jul 08

    I'm not surprised at all. I have come to realize that God has a unique sense of humour. He somehow manages to keep men on their toes when they think they've scientifically figured it all out. Just when they believe they've found the answer... oops!.. there's God, Master Designer and Source of Creativity, being elusive again. Beautiful kids by the way.

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  38.   TIPPY2 says:
    Posted: 19 Jul 08

    NO !!!!! ATIMOCHA..YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT IS NOT SURPRISED. THAT MAY BE BECAUSE I AM EDUCATED. BLACKS,MAILY SPEAKING OF AMERICAN BLACKS ARE NOT AND I REPEAT ARE NOT AS RACIALLY BLACK AND MOST THINK THEY ARE, THEIR BLOODLINES WERE MIXED WITH MANY MANY DIFERENT RACES, CENTURIES AGO. ALL AMERICAN BLACKS CARRY THE GENETIC STRUCTURE FOR PRODUCING OFF-SPRINGS WITH BLUE EYES OR GREEN FOR THAT MATTER, BLOND, RED ANY COLOR HAIR, WHITE SKINNED OF DARK COMPLEXION BABIS/OFF SPRINGS..LIKE U SAID AND YOU ARE CORRECT, THE DARKER GENE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE STRONGEST MOST AGRESSIVE,DOMINATING, WHEREAS THE LIGHTER/WHITER GENE IS SLOW AND LAZY, ALL AMERICAN BLACKS CARRY ATLEAST 25% AND MUCH MORE OF SO CALLED WHITE GENES AND AS MANY MAY SAY, FIGURETIVELY SPEAKING, WHITE BLOOD, IN THEIR BLOOD WHETHER THEY WANT TO ACCEPT IT OR NOT..IN OTHER WORDS..A SO CALLED BLACK MAN AND WOMAN, BOTH AS DARK AS MIDNIGHT ARE VERY CAPABLE OF HAVING A BLONDE HAIRED BLUE-EYED BABY, WHY U DON'T SEE A LOT OF THIS HAPPENING,AGAIN, LIGHTER/WHITER GENES ARE SLOW AND LAZY..I LEARNED THIS YEARS AGO AT THE UNIVERSITY I RECEIVED MY DEGREE AT..ANYWAY REGARDLESS OF THE COLORS OR SO CALL RACE FACTOR...LOVE IS MORE IMPORTANT AND I WISH ALL THESE COUPLES THE BEST IN LIFE AND GOD BLESS THEM ALL......

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  39.   lonelylade says:
    Posted: 18 Jul 08

    Hello, such a beautiful thing..... blessed be and to a happy long life.

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  40.   charmyluv says:
    Posted: 18 Jul 08

    they are so cute

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  41.   girlsixdiva says:
    Posted: 18 Jul 08

    That's cute. I've known of a guy who is black and his twin brother is Filipino. Their mom is Filipino and their dad is Black.

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  42.   atlmocha says:
    Posted: 18 Jul 08

    Am I the only one who isn't surprised by this? It isn't unusual. If you look at black families it happens all the time, even when both parents are black. And lord there is always one that looks like someone no one remembers seeing before but if you go back a few generations of pictures you find them. The thing is that you have black people with flaming red hair, white people with very very kinky hair, blue eyed dark skinned children, and all manner of variation in between. But the nature of a faternal twins is that they share a womb but are completely different. And when you make babies with black people you just don't know what might happen. You might have some idea but really you just don't know. I say the waiting for a beautiful healthy child is the thing not what color they are.

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  43.   queen77 says:
    Posted: 18 Jul 08

    my congratulationg goes to this family that has been blesssed with twins,its quite strange as never seen that befor,the the white gene is stronger than than the black and is expected that the twins are light skinned but this is the will of God and we cannot question it.

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