Ebony and Ivory

Paraphrased conversation between Legal Counsel and myself:

Legal Counsel: Everybody says that Barack Obama might be the first black president, but really he's only half black. They just ignore the white half. Why don't they say he'll be our 44th white president - he's just as much white as he is black.
Montgomery: I wonder which half is his white half. I hope it's not in the trousers area.

As usual, Legal Counsel makes and interesting point and I say something ridiculous and borderline offensive. But it raises an interesting question: if I was half black, what pieces would I want of each race? So I got lost in thought for the next several hours about disease prevalence and races. I call it lost in thought, Legal Counsel calls it catatonic.

Here's the breakdown of how I would design my half-black/half-white self (the parantheses describe the disease more prevalent in the other race:

Black Pieces
Pancreas (Type I Diabetes)
All skin except palms and soles (most melanoma)
Intestines (IBD)
Chloride ion channels (cystic fibrosis)
HFE gene (hemochromatosis)
ATP7B protein (Wilson's Disease)
Liver (autoimmune hepatitis)
Thyroid (hypothyroidism)
Brain (glioblastoma multiforme)

White Pieces
Palm and sole skin (acrolentiginous melanoma)
Insulin receptors (Type II diabetes)
Bone marrow (sickle cell disease)
Heart (HOCM, ischemic heart disease)
Stomach, esophagus (gastric, esophageal cancer)
Eyes (glaucoma)
Kidney (chronic kidney disease)
Lungs (asthma)
Prostate (prostate cancer)

As you can see, it's a fairly even split. But biracial Montgomery would be protected from so many diseases! Excellent. Now I just need to figure out how to do genetic modification and I'm set! Also I want x-ray vision and the power to turn invisible. Sweet...