Personally - I do believe everyone descended from ape-like animals, and most likely the same one, or very close to the same ones. it is possible human life did originate in africa, or not. we've already seen evidence of 2 of the same type of animal evolving in completely different lands with different climates.    But white skin could have came first to; if we were covered with hair, there would be no need to have skin that dark to protect against the sunlight, especially in colder climates where full body hair would have been a necessity for survival, prior to clothing -- and even then clothing could augment it to keep them warmer. so it is 50% possible that black races could have come later. but does it really matter who came first? all that really matters is which race is better off than the other, more civilized and smarter than the other.     Blacks could have very well came first, or last, but what we do know is that because of the climate in africa, they had darker skin to protect from the sun. but sun light on our skin also produces vitamin d, which leads to a darker pigment. if one part of humans were more exposed to vitamin d, they would not have needed to produce as much vitamin d through their skin, which would lower their pigment. this probably took many generations before a pigment change was noticeable.     since whites were usually in 'cooler' climates, such as thick forest areas, there was less contact with the sun, and with the invention of clothes, that would have blocked the sun light even more so the body didn't use as much sunlight to make vitamin d.    I could keep going on and on, but all of that aside, some people try to discredit the black race by denying any relation to us in evolution. I think in the end all that matters is that the white race is the most inventive, civilized race of all, with culture that far surpasses any african culture, and is at least on par with asian culture. even if we did come into existence only 6000 or even 12000 years ago, we've got our numbers in population to rise up quickly.     I've said it before, even if blacks did come first all that would mean is whites are the next stage in evolution. meaning blacks are yesterdays held-back obsolete model. we already know that not all animals that we evolved into humans from, evolved together. some stayed stuck in their evolution, or even went backwards and un-evolved, which is why we have the apes of today still around. whether you like it or not, apes are our closest ancestor in the animal kingdom, with only a 2% difference in DNA. but I'm willing to bet that black dna is probably a little less of a difference.    what I'm trying to say is don't try to find ways around science fact to discredit the black race...they've already done that to themselves.    black brains are on average 8% smaller than any other race's. this has to count for something and not be a trivial characteristic. of course, smaller brains don't necessarily mean you're completely dumb, but it also doesn't mean you are smarter either. it means there is fundamental differences in their brains that makes them significantly different than us on a genetic scale. some people believe skin is the only difference between races, but they are sorely mistaken. if a race can have different skin color, different physical looks, and a different brain size, obviously their difference is more than skin deep.     even only a few hundred years ago, blacks in africa were almost all living in tribes and huts, with no technology beyond hand made hunting weapons, while whites were building castles and empires. now some might say 'what about the pyramids and Cleopatra', well I hate to break it to you, but those pharaohs were not black, they were tan skinned, and much more like arabians/iranians than blacks. the point is, if africa was cut off from the world even a few hundred years ago, it wouldn't have progressed at all. which it really hasn't much anyways, plenty of people still live the same way their ancestors did 100's of years ago, except now they have american clothes on and a bit of technology, which none of their race invented. the extent of black culture is a few masks, some colored designs and carvings, and dancing around a fire to banging drums. not quite so rich.     In conclusion, the black race is a violent primal driven race that has contributed the least amount of knowledge and technology compared to all other races. they are basically the human version of a cockroach, that lives where you don't want it to, and takes your resources, but gives nothing worthwhile in return. One thing I do wish never happened was slavery, but for different reasons. if we have kept the blacks away from our race, the world would be a much better place. couple that with religion, and we would have already colonized mars.