My son came out black? Is this due to 'recessive genes'? Hi. My beautiful baby boy is black. I am a white male and my wife is actually a red headed Irish gal. Well you can imagine my surprise! My wife says that people have recessive genes that can pop up after being dormant for several generations. So two blondes can have a baby with dark hair and so forth. I feel so dumb!!! Even Jerome our lawnboy says he has heard of this in his middle school science classes. Someone please explain this to me in plain English!!!