Amanda Wanklin and Michael Biggs, a biracial couple, are the parents to twins Marcia and Millie Briggs. What makes the fraternal twins particularly unique is that they were born with entirely different skin colours.
Born in Birmingham, England, Millie Marcia Madge Biggs and Marcia Millie Madge Biggs have similar features, but Millie was born with her father’s black hair and brown skin. On the other hand, Marcia takes after her mother and has light brown hair and fair skin.
Amanda, who is of Jamaican descent, recalls that when the twins were first born, she would get a lot of questions about them. People would do a double take or give the family a bewildered look when they find out that the two girls were actually twins.
Then again, Marcia and Millie’s case is a rare one. Mixed twins is the name given to fraternal twins with different skin colours and racial features. While mixed twins are not common, multiracial couples giving birth to them is not really surprising. This is because a multiracial couple will have a combination of alleles for light and dark skin that their children can inherit.
The traits both twins will receive will be based on the origin of the ancestors of the parents and complex pigment genetics. However, skin colour is not a direct copy of the parent’s colour. It is not a qualitative trait; instead, it is a quantitative trait, which means everyone has their own gradient or level of skin colour. Find out more about DNA, genetics and testing twins.
It has been commonplace in the world that most historic disputes would often pit those of a certain color with a different race of color. The skin color of a person would often define the proxy of a person’s origin or genetic relationships. However, the world has evolved throughout those dark times and the whole concept of race is nothing more than a human invention.
In a technical science field, the researchers have confirmed that most of the visible physical traits a certain race has are more of a result of circumstances than anything. Mutations, migrations, natural selection, and isolation are just some of the results that create our uniquely distinct “racial’ features.
Despite all that, the great Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was still assassinated for the color of his skin. And it has been more than 50 years since that tragic incident has passed and the color of one’s skin is still a fundamental dividing point between people.
This story was made to highlight the significance of race issues and how something so trivial can be the cause of so many great negative incidents around the world.
Amanda adds that they have been fortunate enough not to be on the receiving end of any open hostility or racism. She even calls her twins her “one in a million miracle.”
Twins Or Just Best Friends?
Both of the twins were interviewed about the concept of racism and both explained how they were aware of the problem and how that affects them. Millie herself proclaimed that “racism is where somebody judges you by your color and not by your actual self.” Her sister Marcia added that “racism is nothing more than a negative thing because it does nothing but hurt people.”
The father, Michael, owns an auto-repair business and has openly stated that he faced plenty of hostility at times just because of the color of his skin. He recalled a memory of him back when he was young where he would be stopped by a car full of men just to be insulted for him and his brother being a certain color.
However, Michael believes that the world is different now. Neither he nor his wife, Amanda, have yet to receive any news about their daughters facing any racist behavior towards them. And that both the twins have never sensed any racism towards them just by their unique condition.
In fact, Marcia stated that most people just look at them and think that they are just best friends. Most of the time they would often receive looks of shock when they reveal that they are twins despite their color differences.
However, when people press on about their differences, the girls would just reply with something else entirely such as how Millie is akin to more things that are generally considered girly such as the color pink and such. While Marcia claims that she has a more tomboy style compared to the two. As one can see, even twins can have genetic and cultural differences.
