Sometimes a story comes along that is so inspiring and special that we just have to share it – this one is about black and white twins. Yes, you read that correctly, these little girls share the same biological parents, making them a set of biracial twins!
Twin sisters Kalani and Jarani Dean were born in Quincy, Illinois, in April 2016. Their parents are Tomas Dean and Whitney Meyer, and they are both incredibly proud parents to both their beautiful daughters. Thomas is black and Whitney is white.
What a Surprise!
As if having twins isn’t enough of a surprise, imagine what a shock you’d have if you gave birth to biracial twins! That’s exactly how both mom and dad found when their black and white twins were born.[1]
The girl’s mom said; “Kalani was as white as can be. I was just in denial because you know the odds of this?” she said. “I would never think I would have a black and white twin. That’s why I asked if she was albino because she was just so white.”
Thomas agreed, he was very surprised; “I was like, ‘Yeah, she’s a little light,’ but I thought maybe babies are that way when they’re firstborn. But then a couple of minutes later, her sister came out a little darker. In a million years, I never thought I’d have a girl with blue eyes. I didn’t think I could pull that one off!”
Nobody Believes They are Black and White Twins
Whitney explained how nobody believes the girls are actually twins – even dressing them in matching outfits to make it more believable.[2]
“They look alike in their smiles, but I have to dress them the same because nobody believes that they are twins. I mean, nobody.”
It’s not hard to see why, having different colored skins would make it quite hard to believe. The girls look quite different from one another in other ways too, eye color and features.
Interestingly, both girls have a huge resemblance to their older brothers, Jarani looks just like Thomas’ other son, Pravyn. Sadly, Pravyn was never able to meet his black and white twin sisters. He passed away while at daycare while swimming. Kalani is similar looking to Talan, he loves reading to his twin sisters at bedtime. His dad says that he is an amazing big brother to both of his sisters.
Dr. Bryce, a medical geneticist at the University of California said “The physical traits you can see in a person are just a very small sliver of the genetic diversity across human populations. “A lot of times we only focus on the things our eyes can see, but what we see is a tiny tip of the iceberg of the actual genetic diversity in everyone.”
“While certain physical traits may be more common in certain ethnic groups, the genes for most physical characteristics are usually present in all ethnicities“
“When you flip a coin eight times, sometimes it’s going to be heads all eight times. And it’s kind of like that when you have a bunch of genes. They’re all randomly shuffling, and you can get all kinds of outcomes.”
This Family Also Has Black and White Twins
Kirsty Cunningham from Ohio also has a set of beautiful biracial twins. One boy, one girl.
Kirsty says she didn’t mind the media attention her twins brought along with them and hoped their family would be an inspiration.[3]
Speaking to TODAY, Kirsty said;
“We did feel that we were obligated to share our story with others. We felt we were given these two beautiful children for a positive purpose — that purpose was to educate those who are ignorant of the fact that these things are possible, and to initiate a conversation on race in America.”
“Being a certain color is not an ‘accomplishment,’ or something to be ‘proud of.’ No one on this Earth gets to stand in line to pick their skin color. It is only by chance we are brown, or black, or white.”
Dean, the father of these twins says; “I hope that a lot of people can see that color really isn’t a big thing. What’s important is love. Mysterious things can happen and life is a blessing.”
Inspiring Love
We live in a world where racism still runs rife. You’d think by now we would know better and love everyone equally.
Today, we wanted to show you something so beautiful and unique to remind every one of us of something we are clearly forgetting as humans – to love and respect everyone, no matter their race.
Keep Reading: Grandparents wear polar bear costumes so they can finally hug their grandkids after 9 months
References
- Mom hopes rare biracial twins encourage people to ‘love everyone equal’. Today. Eun Kyung Kim. January 25, 2017.
- Super Rare Biracial Twins Born In Illinois, And “Nobody Believes They’re Twins”. Bored Panda. Greta Jaruševičiūtė.
