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Is this true? I would think the genetic distance between two Europeans to be smaller than that between a European and an SS African. The last common ancestor between any two Europeans is much more recent than between a European and a Sub-saharan African (something like 1,000 years ago vs 80,000 years ago).
I think the person you're replying to is talking about within the US, where supposedly most "African-Americans" have at least some white ancestry, and they seem to be comparing against the largest genetic difference you'll find between white Americans, not the average or most common case. Certainly the context of the larger conversation is about something that primarily applies to the US.
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As a matter of scientific record, yes. I think that Witherspoon 2007 explains the situation nicely:
The very short argument is this: A sub-saharan African will very likely have dark skin color, whereas an European will likely have light skin color, due to selection pressure on Vitamin D und UV protection. You can distinguish populations with this. However, that's about it — most other genes face little selection pressure, or similar selection pressure which is not dependent on population location. Some genes do face selection pressure, e.g. Italy contained many swamps and was prone to Malaria, so the incidence of hemophilia from this location is higher, because that correlates with protection against Malaria.
The versions of homo which did have significant genetic differences to be separate species, such as Neanderthals, have already died out.
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