Why do people from Africa have black skin, and people from Europe have fair skin?

Question

People from Africa have black skin, and people from Europe have fair skin

Science: The colour "Black" aborbs the heat, and "white" reflects heat.
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so you would expect Africans to have white skin, and the Europeans to have dark skin.
If Europeans had dark skin, then they could aborb the heat more easily.
And if Aficans had white skin they would not absorb the heat so easily.
I am looking for scientific references, or logical reasons why the skin colour is black for Africans.
No rascist bigotry please.
Thanks

Answer 1

Our differences in skin tones is because of evolution. Ultimately the driving force of evolution is reproductive success and while there is a variance in every population the overall tone will drift to what is best suited for each environment over generations. As is seen across the globe, there is the general rule that people who live in equatorial regions are darkest and this blends until artic areas are reached where people are the lightest. Like I said, the reason why this was prehistorically was because of reproductive sucess. For instance at equatorial areas the harsh UV rays from the sun breakdown certain vitamins and chemicals that are active in the operations in the human body. When light toned people are exposed to intense UV their lack of Melanin results in the break down of vitamin B, but the most important chemical that is broken down by sunlight as far as reproduction is concerned is folic acid. Folic acid is crucial to rapid cell development so if an extremely light skinned individuals are habituating in tropical regions the males will experience a reduction in their sperm count, and women would experience more miscarriages because Folic acid is extremely important for foetal development. Conversly, as was pointed out, dark people habituating in northern hemisphere localities where sun intensity is reduced will have a reduced absorption of vitamins A and D, which is also important for foetal development and for general health and this reduction in these vitamins would cause a reproductive discrepancy that would cause this darker toned characteristic to have been selected against.

Another medical condition that is often pointed at in this discussion is cancer, but in fact cancer has very little effect on reproductive sucess because the majority of cancer ocurrs after reproduction, and as of such, would not effect reproductive success in the same way as the previous examples.

Now, earlier I mentioned "in prehistoric times", and that was on purpose. Our knowledge and technology has already deafeated these prehistoric influences on skin colour from having an effect on reproductive sucess in modern times. Light toned people living in tropical areas can simply take vitamin B/folic acid supplements as well as use sunscreen to block the intensity of UV in breaking down the chemicals/vitamins that are important for reproduction and dark toned people living in northern environments don't even particularily need to focus on taking supplements because even in the winter, when their vitamin d deficiency should be the worst, the contemporary supermarket is full of imported fresh produce and milk, both of which allow an ample offset to any loss of vitamin a and d that may be experienced.

So into the future this selective pressure will no longer be an issue and if all populations mixed then we would just be a widely varied mix of colour everywhere around the globe that would be primarily brown in tone and there would be no reason for colour to be selected for in either direction so long as darker toned people continued to eat their produce and lighter toned people remembered to take their folic acid and vitamin B, and wear sunscreen.

Answer 2

Because of melanin. What is beyond me though is why, if it's intended to protect us from the sun, is it presented in all the inner organs as well including plants. It is argued that Africa is hotter than Europe but isn't the middle-east hotter than Africa? Maybe they are going to change skin colour there in about 20 generations time. In East Africa it's seldom hotter than 28 degrees Celcius and that's true.

Answer 3

It's all do to melanin. It's what the body produces when the skin is exposed to harsh sun and high UV rays. That's why you tan during the summer. Well over 100's of thousands of years people in a region pass on this skin darkness trait to their offspring. So in sun belt areas along the equator all people have darker skins than other areas of the earth that have less direct sun.

Answer 4

I can give you several hypothesis on that subject. Number one is that pigment blocks the absorbing of sunlight & also the making of vitamin D produced by sunlight on the skin. Too much sunlight causes skin cancer & too little causes rickets. Women with rickets would die during childbirth, thus giving those with lighter skin a huge advantage & leading to a positive evolutionary selection for lighter skin.
Yet another that "may" have something to do with the extremely light skin of northern Europeans... is the hypothesis that while migrating through the ME Homo Sapiens picked up some Neanderthal genes (90,000 to 35,000 yrs ago) & that Northern Europeans, due to a longer association with Neanderthal, scarfed up more Neandethal genes from a species that'd been adapting to the colder climate for 300,000 yrs before contact with Sapiens. Google Bruce Lahn for information on that.
Edit:
Keep asking questions, but beware of racist & the "politically correct" as they are both enemies of scientific inquiry & human curiosity.

Answer 5

Dark skin PIGMENT protects our inner organs from sun rays ...darker skin ,the more protection because of MELANIN . White skin has a chance of getting cancer if exposed without suncream. White skin people have less melanin and develop eye problem...tiredness quicker than darker skin...and sicknesses because of lack of sun light.

Answer 6

Its all has something to do with the climate. Evolution made African people dark so that they can stand the hot climate there and white people are light because the climate is cooler in Europe and their skin can stand.

As Darwin said, is survival of the fittest. That why different skin types of people are all over the world as evolution put them there as it is the right environment for them to adapt to.

Answer 7

It is not a matter of sunburns but a matter of vitamin (A and D) absorbtion. Please go on GOOGLE and type: The Biology of Skin Color: Black and White. This is an article by Gina Kirckweger about findings by Nina Jablonski. an anthopoplogist from the University of Western Australia. I do not want to reproduce the whole article here, but you will find it interesting and a bit more scientific than stories about melanine.

Hopefully, this will start you on a long and fascinating investigation, since you seem to be blessed with curiosity. Good luck.

Answer 8

As stated above skin color is based on geography. People from Africa and areas closer to the Ecuador have darker skin due to sun exposure. Dark skin protects you in areas of high sun radiation. In northern latitudes, by contrast, there is far less radiation from the sun. While too much radiation causes several health problems, too little results in "Rickets" a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D is required for proper calcium absorption from the gut. In the absence of vitamin D, dietary calcium is not properly absorbed, resulting in hypocalcemia, leading to skeletal and dental deformities and neuromuscular symptoms, e.g. hyperexcitability. (This is why now adays vitamin D is put into Milk).
If your skin is too dark in areas where there is little sun, your body cannot absorb enough vitamin D. Lighter skin thus evolved to allow for Vitamin D absorptions in areas of little sun.

Answer 9

Skin colour depends on a pigment caled "melanin".. melanin helps to reflect the harmful rays of the sun... More melanin more protection from the sun...
Since it's very sunny in the tropical regions of the globe(Near the equuator) People living in the tropics have more melanin...
It is the extra melanin thet gives people darker colour.....
This is why people with fair(less melanin) skin sometimes have to wear sunscreen when they go to the beach..

Answer 10

It's to do with the way the skin absorbs heat. The darker pigment is a way of reducing the impact of the sun's rays. White skin absorbs sunlight better, which is more suited to European climates.