Racism and Skin Colour Issues
Hating people because of their colour is wrong. And it doesn’t
matter which colour does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.
— Muhammad Ali
Nature is judicious; human skin has amended over centuries as our early ancestors migrated across planet. There’s a direct relationship between skin colour and latitude. The closer to the Equator, the darker the skin of those populations – the body creates a shield to protect itself from ultraviolet rays. In areas where winters are more extreme, and sunny days are limited – like in London where I live now – a whiter skin helps produce more vitamin D.
All people alive today are Africans – like it or not, that’s how everything started. The Homosapiens evolved in Africa. Modern genetic research has shown that all humans are closely related. We all have the same collection of genes, but slightly different versions of some of them. The colour of our skin has nothing to do with race – it’s a by-product of adaptation.
Nature is judicious; human skin has amended over centuries as our early ancestors migrated across planet. There’s a direct relationship between skin colour and latitude. The closer to the Equator, the darker the skin of those populations – the body creates a shield to protect itself from ultraviolet rays. In areas where winters are more extreme, and sunny days are limited – like in London where I live now – a whiter skin helps produce more vitamin D.
All people alive today are Africans – like it or not, that’s how everything started. The Homosapiens evolved in Africa. Modern genetic research has shown that all humans are closely related. We all have the same collection of genes, but slightly different versions of some of them. The colour of our skin has nothing to do with race – it’s a by-product of adaptation.
Science has proven that the different types of skin are a consequence of how our ancestors dealt with sun exposure. However, when we think about race, the first thing that comes to mind is skin colour. And, what’s even worse, not all are equal– white skin seems more special than the rest.
This hierarchy is artificial though. Someone got the science wrong, and many people conveniently took it as true. Hint: it helped start a war. In the decades before the American Civil War, Morton’s ideas were used to justify slavery. Also, his belief that Native Americans could not integrate into modern industrial society was central to Andrew Jackson’s policy of Indian Removal.
Modern science has debunked the myth that certain races have more gifted brains than others. However, many people still take that belief as true. Our society is still paying a high price for it.
About the Author
Anushka Arora
Anushka Arora is Celebrity Anchor & Actor
