Skin Diversity Reflection

Geographical isolation in the past has caused a variation in skin color; natural selection selected specific skin pigments depending on environmental factors. Early humans who moved to Europe were introduced to a place that had less sunlight than their former place of residence. Overtime, light skin (skin with lower levels of melanin) was selected for since there were not as many UV rays that the skin needed protection from. But, what was wrong with having dark skin in Europe? How is extra melanin a disadvantage in this case? One thing to remember is that even though the sun can provide UV rays, sunlight is also a great source of natural vitamin D (Jablonski; Kirchweger). Vitamin D helps bones absorb calcium and is particularly essential for developing embryos in pregnant women. The adaptation for lighter skin was important because the skin needed to absorb as much sunlight as it could in order to receive optimal amounts of vitamin D (Kirchweger). However, too much vitamin D can be fatal. So as high amounts of melanin protected the skin from excessive UV rays in Africa, they also protected it from excessive vitamin D (Kirchweger).

Anthropologists and geographers have studied and overtime come to the conclusion that distribution of skin color is not random. Darker skin color has been found to typically come from near the equator and lighter skin colors are typically coming from closer to the north and south poles. Over the years, researchers have found that darker skin colors has protected the

16. Human populations living in areas of intense sunlight tend to be darker skinned because of the

5. In the film, Dr. Jablonski explains that melanin, located in the top layer of human skin, absorbs UV radiation, protecting cells from the damaging effects of UV. Genetics determines the type of melanin (i.e., brown/black eumelanin or red/brown pheomelanin) and the amount of melanin present in an individual’s cells. Based on this information, write a hypothesis for where in the world you would expect to find human populations with

Oppression starts in the home. Despite its omnipresence, we don’t even notice its influence. And how could we? It is normal. It is all we know. We were raised, quite literally, in the domestic lair of oppression. People of color, in particular, face a particularly insidious type of oppression, one that is rationalized, one that forces households to strive endlessly to reach an ideal that is unattainable. Queer of color theory and intersectionality serve as frameworks through which to discuss the relationship between domesticity and gender, race, and sexuality for people of color.

In a film of “Race the Power of an Illusion, Part I The Difference Between Us”, it talked about the differences of races such as skin, eye, hair color. However, in our genetic, the human is not very different than we think but we had a similar genetic code. In the 1950s, the athlete champions were all black, and they were much better than any other. Maybe because of that some people think there are different structure bodies than other races. In this case, I think it could make sense that black people have better body structure than white. However, it is the wrong stereotype about skin color. The skin tone is continuously changing, and the reason why a human has different physical appearances is that of different genes we have. Depends on the

There is also a great deal of research done on genetic differences versus perception. It was even proven that the concept of race is merely a social construct and not nearly as scientifically in-tune as many believe it is. A study conducted by Eric D’Arcy of Harvard University in 2002 on alleles revealed a substantial observation on genetic differences between races and a socially constructed perception. Scientists found that, while alleles that were region-specific did show up, they really only appeared and occurred in numbers barely enough to construct any sort of trademark. In fact, they were found only in about 1% of the people of that specific region.

The PBS series “Race: The Power of an Illusion” effectively works to expose race as a social construct and deconstructs the false notions that race is a biological marker. The series first discusses that all human beings originated from Africa but dispersed about 70,000 years ago to various places in the world. As a result of this migration, people were spread to different locations throughout the world with different environmental conditions that affected their physical traits. It was many years after the migration in which people began to display these new physical traits such as slanted eyes, fair skin, and differing hair textures. While the series notes the physical changes that occurred during the migration it also emphasizes that race while it may seem apparent in skin color and other physical features has no real biological basis.

Disappointingly, this video draws out many valid points of how our society asserts one’s physical appearance or differences with what race they belong to. There’s this social norm to identify people by their physical features such as hair type, skin color,

How has human skin color caused so many problems throughout human history? Skin color is more detailed than it is often described to be. Although pigmentation in the skin does express shades of white, yellow, red, brown, and black, no human has ever been one of these solid colors. The darkest of dark skin is not pure black and the lightest albino skin is not pure white, there are natural variations and undertones because we are natural living beings. However, the perspective that the majority of people conform to is more artificial than natural. How humans view race is dependent on how they have been socially trained to see it. In America, the base power of racial division relies on the cut and dry separation of “whites” and “blacks”. When brown is used to describe a person’s race, Americans tend to ask what nationality the “brown” person is in order to categorize them as more “black or white”. When white is used to describe a person’s race, Americans tend to assume the person is a white American. When black is used to describe a person’s race, Americans tend to assume that they are African American. The fact that Americans still think this way and consider it socially acceptable to refer to light skinned people as “white” and dark skinned people as “black” is a testament to the power of social training through racial propaganda. From Jim Crow to Fox News, we the people have always been more

Race is not a biological reality because there are no indications of some biological DNA that would have a certain outcomes of a race. The variation in skin tone comes from the mix of certain races. For example, the mix of black and white would result a skin color of Latino. However, the mix of white and yellow (Asians) will most likely result a child having more essential characteristics of white people. It is impossible to classify humans into races because human is making a new race every single moment from the combination of two people who come from different races. Light skin and dark skin have a lot to deal with the temperature, latitude and langtitude of the region. It could be characterized by a regions, instead of ethnic groups. Race

We have become so diverse due to our ability to adapt to our surrounding environment. Our physical characteristics have gone from a singular region with fewer variables, to regions across the world where we were forced to adapt in order to survive. When the tribes commenced dispersion to different parts of the world, our biology shifted to suit the varying degrees of need for absorption of sunlight. While this is not the only cause of diversity, it played a major role in how we gather and process food, the climate of the location, and how our bodies change from differing jobs and activities that must be accomplished. We eventually developed mutations that would allow us to thrive all over the world.

The article "How our Skins Got Color" by Marvin Harris mainly talks about how different people get their skin color. He explains that we are all differentiated by color and melanin is the pigment that determines this color. We talked about racism in class and how black people are discriminated because of their color. I feel that I learned a lot about skin color and learnt to appreciate the color of my skin. On page 8 he mentions in two different parts that "White was beautiful because white was healthy" and "Black was beautiful because black was healthy" I although feel that not many people feel this way, people usually think that black is ugly and not pretty.

What does influence skin color variation is the size and distribution pattern of melanosomes as well as other factors.

I am a tall girl with chestnut hair, forest green eyes and sun-tanned skin. My physique sets me apart from the 7.4 billion other people on our planet. If, however, I were an identical twin, physical characteristics alone would not suffice to distinguish between my sister and me. Even though we would look the same, we would clearly be two different people. Therefore, we can conclude that a mere description of our physique cannot be considered a universal and comprehensive response to the question at hand, as it neglects other aspects of our identity.