Are some african americans pitch black but have 3 percent of european ancestry?

Question

Are some african americans pitch black but have 3 percent of european ancestry?

Answer 1

Yes, sort of.

You can't judge ancestry by skin color to exact degrees. You can tell when someone is of mixed race, but they may be 50/50 or some combination, like 7/16ths or 5/8ths. The old adage that only pitch-black people were 100% Black is wrong, as you can see if you look at old National Geographic articles about Africa. Pure African Blacks have a range of skin color. None of them could pass for Danes, but some of them are lighter than others. By the same token, there are very dark people in the US with  one great great great grandfather who was white.

The old math teacher in me warns you that all ancestry is in powers of 2;

1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.

Someone with one ancestor who was [Black / Cherokee / Chinese / Huguenot]  would be this percent of that ancestor:

Parent - 50%

Grand parent - 25%

Great Grand parent - 12.5% (1GGP)

2 GGP - 6.25%

3 GGP - 3.125%

4 GGP - 1.5625

5 GGP - 0.78125%

3.125% - 1/32nd - is as close to "3%" as you can get, realistically.

Answer 2

Percentages are a slippery slope. There is no way to judge a persons heritage based on skin tone or even physical characteristics. Genetic characteristics have too many possibilities.