Is it better to be mixed race?.

Geneticist Aarathi Prasad explores the possibility that mixed race people might have a biological advantage. She has a mixed race child herself and briefly recounts the history of prejudice against mixed race people. Professor Bill Amos from Cambridge Unversity Zoology Department talks about how races mix naturally in the animal kingdom and how these mixed race animals are at an advantage particularly in fighting infectious diseases. Prejudice against mixing races led to eugenics programmes in the past and today many scientists are not keen to tackle the issue of race in terms of genetics. However, certain diseases are proliferated by inbreeding within races such as the neurodegenerative disease, Kay-Sachs disease, amongst the Ashkenazi Jew population. Various other researchers confirm Pradad's premise that to be mixed race is beneficial to physical and mental health - therefore, old beliefs that racial purity led to strength and longevity, can be considered a myth.