How did black people come to be?

Question

I'm thirteen but I wonder how our skin color came to be? One story I heard was a curse, the other my brother told me that in the beginning when everyone spreaded around the earth the people that went to the colder parts were to become white skinned and the people who went to the hotter parts were to become black skinned in time, and I just don't know. Can someone tell me?

Answer 1

When God created man in his own image, so that's how black people came to be.

White people don't have the genetic code for dark, black skin. It's been proven that man descends from one woman who live in Africa some 80,000 years ago. Then something in history some of their seeds lost the ability to produce black skin.

Answer 2

The genetic mutation that causes albino's occured and it became inherited as part of some peoples dna. This, through time, lead to 'caucasian' people.

Before this all humans were black and from africa, evolution causes various differences in humans but this was a major one.

Dont listen to anyone that says its a curse. It has nothing to do with temperature either, native South Americans do not have black skin and the Nepalise people are darker than the Spanish.

In short it is a combination of genetic mutation and migration.

Answer 3

Its a permanant sun tan, the colour is caused by melanin the same hormone that makes my pale a** turn golden brown in the summer. It protects the skin form damage by UV rays and in Africa that is a big advantage.
What your brother tells you is partly true however people didnt go to Africa, thats where Neanderthall man evolved and migrated to europe and Asia. Modern humans, Homo Sapiens evolved in Asia from the early humans and then spread across the world and interbred with Neanderthal man. Thats what I beleive form the evidence I have seen, others beleive that Neanderthal man was wiped out by disease or was just out competed by cromagnon man.
You can still features of bith sub species in people today and the best examples are in Africa. People from central and west Africa and stockier, more muscular, have flatter heads, wide noses and strong brows like neanderthal man. People from east Africa are taller, leaner and have a more domed skull.

EDIT: And please dont listen to the biblical nonsense above, races of people didnt evolve when the tower of bable was built as this was beleived to be about 6 thousend years ago and it wasnt built in Africa, it was the middle east in the Mesopoamian Empire but hasnt been found by archeologists yet. In fact the bible claims in many parts that black people are inferior and should serve white people.

Answer 4

The Chinese used to have a nice story to tell the children when they asked this question.

God made all humans and had to put us in the oven to cook. The first batch were a litle underdone and their skins were white. The second batch got badly overcooked so they came out with their skins blackened. The third batch came out just right with light yellow skins.

A nice folk tale but it goes to show that EVERYBODY thinks that they, and only they are right :-)

In passing, the general opinion is that the first humans evolved in the area around the Euphrates - therefore in northern Iraq (bu todays naming). Not in Africa, although not too far away.

Answer 5

skin colour depends on the amount of a substance called melanin, that it contains, the more, the darker.
skin containing large amounts of melanin has greater resistance to sunburn, hence darker people live in hotter climates. it's differences evolved over millennia as the need for protection in colder climates lessened. simple!
(yes innuits/eskimos are darker, but they have a 6 month summer and reflective habitats = sun x 2).
it also explains why dark skinned peoples have pink palms and soles of thier feet, no need to protect what was not in the sun.
you have to remember that people largely never left there proper environment up until very recent times.
if emigration between places stopped tomorrow, we would revert to type within a few thousand years.

just to put your mind at rest, curses are only in the mind of people, not in thier body. if it was a curse, who was cursed, black , white, yellow etc, all would have idiots claiming they were the only ones not cursed.

we all bleed red and
we are all one species.

Answer 6

That's like the "why is the sky blue?" question. Here's a little FYI: don't search for your answer in the book of Mormon... those idiots state just in the first chapter or 2 that black people (originally white people according to the book of Mormon) were basically the outcasts of the world when everything first started and sent to Africa and painted black to mark their "status" I guess you could say. I'll never understand how that screwed up religion has such a following... they either must be illiterate or just plain ignorant.

By the way, YES, I live in Utah (unfortunately)... and NO I'm definitely not Mormon... as if that's not obvious enough already.

Answer 7

One story I've heard is that people were made out of clay. And the person who was making us got some clay and made people then but them in the oven. The coyote came and told our maker that it should be done by now when it was too early in order to trick our maker. So the maker took them out and those were the white people. He didn't want to destroy them so he put them some place. Then he started all over again. When it was time to take them out the coyote told our maker to wait a little while in order to make sure the clay was ready. The maker agreed and when he took them out they were burnt. Those were the black people and instead of getting rid of them he put them some place. Then our maker made more people and didn't listen to the coyote. These were the red people he was trying to make. Ok this is a Native Myth.

Answer 8

It is not a curse! Animals are in all colors, why not humans? It is totally unimportant what color we are on the outside. What does count is what we are spiritually. I think the important issue is how do we treat others. With respect? Certainly! If we do, almost without exception, it will be returned. I have ran this experiment over and over it almost never fails. As to the failures incurred, I didn't they did. Oh well 99.9 is a very good percentage. I know you will be sweet.

Answer 9

One of the descendents of Noah through his son, Ham, was called by a name which translated into "burnt face". He went on to become the ancestor of the Ethiopian people. The idea of the curse comes from the fact that Ham made fun of his father, Noah, when he found him drunk and naked in his tent. When Noah found out what he had done, he cursed him and said Ham's descendents would be the servants of his brothers, Shem & Japhet's descendents. Noah even said that Ham's descendents would be servants of servants. The servant of a servant is usually a slave. Whether right or wrong, this story was used as justification for slavery for many years.

Answer 10

We were taught that darker skins populated the hotter parts of the earth to protect them from the sun - whether that's right or not I don't know - but it made sense when I was a kid. (30 years ago!!!!!)

Answer 11

Same way we did.

We are all sentient beings. Your brother is very close to the truth.

Did you ever see a native black Norwegian.

The more sunlight we get the darker we are as we evolve. ( has to do with skin and other scientific stuff) but we are basically all the same inside.

Yours truly;
Old enough to be your grandpa ... Jonnie
G-night ... and I hope I helped answer your question.