Flight From White
by Steve Sailer
May 15, 2019
James Holzhauer has won 22 straight games on Jeopardy! Meanwhile, baseball slugger Christian Yelich is leading the National League with 16 homers. What do they have in common besides being young men enjoying vintage 2019s?
For one thing, Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler in Las Vegas, has likely won some money off betting on Yelich, last year’s National League Most Valuable Player.
And for another, both are three-quarters white and one-quarter Japanese.
Yelich, with his black hair, looks ever-so-slightly East Asian. At 6′ 3″, he has his Balkan ancestors’ height, but once you realize his maternal grandfather was Japanese you can kind of see it in his face.
(Or maybe not. If you’d told me Yelich was John Travolta’s nephew, I might have believed you.)
On the other hand, Holzhauer, with brown hair, doesn’t look at all nonwhite. …
Every year, there are more Americans like Yelich and Holzhauer who are three-quarters white and one-quarter East Asian.