The High School Musical actress is Filipino, Chinese, Native American, and Irish.
Mixed race is more common historically than we might think. And it appears to be beneficial genetically. According to Aeon, “What is new is the rate of mixing currently underway. Globalization means that our species is more mobile than ever before. International migration has reached record highs, as has the number of interracial marriages, leading to a surge of multiracial people …. While genetic differences between human populations do not fall neatly along racial lines, race nevertheless provides insight into the extent of population hybridization currently underway. This reshuffling of human populations is affecting the very structure of the human gene pool.
“…..About 10 per cent of all marriages today occur among close relatives, defined as second cousins or closer. The highest rates are in North Africa and the Middle East, and among immigrants from these regions, where marriage among kin is often encouraged for religious or social reasons. Although genetic counseling is needed to determine the precise risks, in general, the more closely related the parents are, the more likely their children will have birth defects or genetic disorders. The children of first cousins are 2-3 per cent more likely to have certain birth defects, including deafness and heart defects, and 2-4 per cent more likely to have recessive genetic disorders.
“While marriages among relatives remain common in certain regions, the worldwide trend is in the opposite direction. When both parents are very distantly related, as happens when their ancestors come from different human populations, the chances of both having a recessive allele for the same gene is extremely low. Consequently, as the world’s population becomes increasingly mixed, some genetic disorders will become less and less common.” Click here for the full article.