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Human Skin Color Variation

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WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF HUMAN SKIN COLOR VARIATION? ABSRTACT This research paper deals with the causes of human skin color variation. A brief and clear explanation of skin color is first explained. Skin color is caused by a pigment called melanin. Therefore, a dark skin implies more melanin while a light skin is considered to have less melanin. In equatorial region where UV radiation is of high intensity and period, people tend to have a dark skin color. It acts as a protection against harmful sun’s rays. Near the tropics, people tend to have light colored skin. This is because they need sunlight to penetrate through the skin and enable them be able to acquire enough vitamin D which is essential to prevent diseases such as rickets. Hence since …show more content…

Melanin itself is an organic polymer built from oxidative tyrosine derivatives. Both light and dark complexioned people have melanin. However, two forms are produced; pheomelanin, which is red to yellow in color, and eumelanin, which is dark brown to black. People with light complexioned skin mostly produce pheomelanin, while those with dark colored skin mostly produce eumelanin. In addition, individuals differ in the number and size of melanin particles. The latter two variables are more important in determining skin color than the percentages of the different kinds of melanin. In lighter skin, color is also affected by red cells in blood flowing close to the skin. To a lesser extent, the color is affected by the presence of fat under the skin and carotene , a reddish-orange pigment in the skin. Hair color is also due to the presence of …show more content…

Only in the last decade or so has it been realistically possible to address this question experimentally using population genetic approaches. On the basis of earlier studies in mice, and on studies in humans with various Mendelian disorders, many of the genes underpinning population variation in skin color have been identified. More recently, genome-wide approaches have identified other loci that appear to contribute to pigmentary variation. The ability to study sequence diversity from world populations has allowed examination of whether the observed variability is due to random genetic drift or is a result of natural selection. The genetic evidence taken as a whole provides strong evidence for natural selection, functioning so as to increase pigment diversity across the world's populations. Future larger studies are likely to provide more details of this process and may provide evidence for exactly which mechanistic pathways have mediated selection (Jonathan & Rosalind, March 2012). DISCUSSION OF THE CAUSES OF HUMAN SKIN COLOR VARIATIONS The variation of human skin color is a complex phenomenon which have not yet been researched and studied conclusively. However, various researchers and academicians have given insight about the possible causes of this important trait. Different researches using people

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Two human receptor-making genes are similar to those in other mammals. This implies that human color vision began when one of the genes in other mammals duplicated and copies specialized over time for different light sources. The switch to color vision correlates to a switch from a monochromatic forest to one with a multitude of colors in

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Here Sanchez compares skin color to bronze metal. The color bronze shows that people with brown skin tone are strong, valuable, and beautiful. Bronze is strong like Chicanos who fought in the Chicanos Rights Movement. Bronze and brown skin tone are valuable and beautiful. It is valuable and beautiful because it shows royalty.

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Scientific reasons for race and how it doesn’t correlate to race is shown in Document 5 that different human species should be divided into four groups based on their alleged characteristics and mark themselves with certain things like paints or garments. The document is trying to explain race and categorization of races through the people’s supposed characteristics and only using four groups, proving the correlation between race and scientific reasoning doesn’t work. Also, in Document 10, it’s explained that the four race categories are all “degenerate” forms to “God’s original creation,” and were classified biologically into different groups who were non-Caucasian. This document also explains that race and scientific reasoning does not correlate because it talks about how other races are “downgraded” versions of white and just split them into groups just by looks using colors, creating these unrealistic races with colors, without taking into account any physical scientific reasoning, proving there’s no correlation between race and scientific reasoning, that it was just led on by social and economic reasons. Lastly, in Document 11’s section, it explains that race doesn’t explain human variation and that us humans have a

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People do not get to pick the color of their skin, yet skin color has caused great hardship for people in the world. Nobody gets to pick who they are, what their race is or what kind of environment they will come into when they are born, if they could I 'm sure the world would not be filled with hate or or discrimination. The novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by author Mildred D. Taylor, is an excellent example of historical fiction which despises the many struggles blacks endured in their fight for civil rights. There were many unfair schooling complications between white and blacks. During a conversation between Little Man and Miss Crocker, Little Man shows such disgust with Miss Crocker and argues with her book choice between the color

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In the video, The Biology of Skin Color, Dr. Nina Jablonski explains “that the variation in skin color that evolved since our human ancestors migrated out of Africa can be explained by the tradeoff between protection from UV and the need for some UV absorption for the production of vitamin D” (Dr. Jablonski). What I found most interesting was that genes can influence skin and hair pigmentation in many ways. The overall color of the skin results from both the number of pigment-making cells which are called melanocytes and their level of activity. Nearly all skin types possess the ability to tan. Tanning is caused by an exposure to UV radiation which results in the simulation of melanin production in the body.

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Since people moved around and spread their genes, our genetics are non-concordant, which means that they are not determined by one gene. If the colonial view of race was true, then everybody in the same race would have the same exact genes, but in reality, you're more likely to have more genetic similarities with somebody outside your race than within your race. Race is a construct that was made by colonial rulers in order to gain power over their subjects, but it still has very real consequences for those it has been used against. Race is a social construct that is still being used to maintain power over groups of color, although the time of colonization has come and gone and scientific advancements have come on to prove it untrue.

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Because of this, knowing the genetics behind our ancestors through genetic markers, it’s safe to say that “we are all African under the skin.” The concept of different races and segregation is only an idea that the human population has somehow managed to create over the years; while people may be of different colors and have recent ancestors who were born in different places around the world, we all have one ancient, common ancestor, the

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Furthermore a study by the Genetic Society of America, weakens the myth that race is caused by genetic differences by stating that there is a “larger Genetic Differences Within Africans Than Between Africans and Eurasians” meaning “blacks” are more genetically similar to “whites”

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Have People ever thought about different color people? Have people ever wonder about slaves and how they were treated? Think about adults, children, and baby hands piling up. For example, people color like blue, green, and purple.

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Keep in mind that some clients have sun tanned areas, freckles, or white patches known as vitiligo. The variations are due to different amounts of melanin in certain areas. A generalized loss of pigmentation is seen in albinism. Dark-skinned clients have lighter-colored palms, soles, nail beds, and lips. Freckle like or dark streaks of pigmentation are also common in the sclera and nail- beds of dark-skinned clients.

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George Best describes in his document how people often misunderstand what race is, thinking it to be the fault of the sun, but he describes in his novel that the dark skin of those who live to the south of him was actually a punishment direct from god for being cruel during the biblical flood, (Doc. 2) [B]. While this explanation relies heavily on simple stories, the attempt to describe why some are different through religion is a way to have people widely conform to modern conceptions of race; people always look to god [C]. In another document, David Hume describes that he believes those with white skin are inherently better than those with darker skin, stating questionable and untrue facts about there never being a major African civilization, see Ghana or Mali.

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The genes for skin color have nothing to do with genes for hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic

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Vitiligo is a disease that causes the loss of skin color in blotches on the body. It is a condition where the extent and rate of the color loss is unpredictable and can depend greatly on the person with the condition. Vitiligo can affect any part of the skin on the body, and there are no limits on where or how much of the disease can spread (Mayo Clinic). Vitiligo is not frequent in the global population. Studies show that vitiligo has a frequency of 0.1-2.0% in the various populations (Spritz 2003).

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This means that the closer two peoples ancestral groups lived to each other, the more similar there skin color will be. This concept is not isolated to skin color, but is nearly universally constant among biological variation. It is difficult to argue that race is based upon biology when

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The origins of human skin colour: The origins of human skin colour remained an enigma that was to generate a multitude of misconceptions. The true source of human pigmentation was finally revealed with the discovery of the melanocyte in the 19th century. Once the amino acid tyrosine was identified to be the key enzyme in pigment formation, attention focused on elucidating the chemical structure of melanin, an enterprise that remains incomplete.

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