Melanin theory
Encyclopedia
Melanin theory is a pseudoscientific theory, founded in the distortion of the known physical properties of melanin
, a natural polymer and organic semiconductor
. In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. People whose ancestors lived for long periods in the regions of the globe near the equator generally have larger quantities of eumelanin in their skins. Melanin theorists assert that the possession of greater quantities of melanin causes an inherent superiority of black people
. Conversely, its lack demonstrates the alleged inhumanity and inferiority of white people
.
Some black supremacists justify supremacist assertions by assigning dubious properties to melanin based on pseudoscience and distortions of scientific fact or speculation. Scientists consider melanin theory pseudoscience
; it has no credibility in mainstream medicine or science.
. Some assert that it can absorb electromagnetic radiation
; others that it can convert light and magnetic fields to sound
; that it can process information without reporting to the brain
; and, further, that it is the chemical basis for what is commonly called "soul".
It is also claimed that, because neuromelanin, which is found in the substantia nigra
(in Latin, literally "black substance") of the human brain, plays a role in the transmission of neuronal impulses, higher levels of melanin in skin enable nerve synapses to fire more quickly and efficiently as well, thereby enhancing the natural athleticism of dark skinned people. However, no direct correlation between skin color and the level of melanin in the substantia nigra has been observed. There is, however, a correlation between cutaneous melanin and the substantia nigra vis-a-vis Parkinson's disease, a neurological disease condition in which there is a loss of melanin-pigmented cells of the substantia nigra. Blacks have a significantly lower incidence of Parkinson's than whites, and it is believed their higher cutaneous melanin levels act as a preventative against developing the disease.
One of the notions of melanin theory is that white people are "mutants", that white skin is an aberration, a form of albinism
. Melanin theorist Wade Nobles takes this notion even further, stating that only Black people are fully human because of their higher levels of skin melanin:
Others, such as psychiatrist and writer Frances Cress Welsing
, express the same idea by their use of the term "hue-man" instead of "human,". Welsing is the author of "The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation" and "The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors", which in part ascribes certain purported, inherent and behavioral differences between black and white people to a "melanin deficiency" in white people:
Welsing also posits that, because it is so easy for whiteness to be lost genetically during interracial breeding, light-skinned peoples developed an aggressive colonial urge, and their societies militaristically dominated others in order to preserve this light-skinned purity.
Melanin theorist Carol Barnes writes in his book Melanin: The Chemical Key to Black Greatness:
This hypothesis is supported by black academic Leonard Jeffries
, who was dismissed in 1992 from his post as chairman of the Harlem's City College Black Studies department for having allegedly made antisemitic statements. Jeffries claims that the pigment melanin is the source of intelligence and creativity. He divides humanity into African “sun people” and European “ice people,” the latter being not only melanin-deficient but born cold and greedy, militaristic, authoritarian, and possessed of a host of other racially determined defects.
It is true that melanin binds with cocaine, but skin melanin is not linked to the mechanism of addiction. However, it has been argued that when hair samples are used to test for drug use, people with darker hair may may be more likely to test positive for cocaine use, because the binding with melanin ensures that traces persist for a longer period. This would apply to people with dark hair of any race. A 2005 study by Tom Mieczkowski and Michael Kruger suggests that the binding effect is minor.
Despite such apparent discrepancies, and while there is no evidence of a White conspiracy to compound addictive substances in order to target Blacks, there is an established link between one aspect of melanin-related biology and drug and alcohol addiction. However, this refers to melanin in the brain. Correlation between skin pigmentation and melanin quantities in the brain are not fully understood. No evidence exists that the amount of melanin in internal organs correlates with melanin in the skin; albinos, who have no skin melanin, have normal levels in the substantia nigra of the brain. The evidence is that melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) binds chemically to receptors in the brain to amplify addiction response. A 2008 study of cocaine addiction in rats conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found:
Additionally, researchers in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior concluded that, while the mechanism for nicotine addiction is not fully understood, melanin has a "biochemical affinity for nicotine," and that the "greater the amount of melanin people have, the harder it could be for them to quit smoking." Other evidence indicates that "even though African Americans smoke fewer cigarettes than some other groups, they have a higher intake of nicotine from each cigarette."
The tobacco industry has been criticized by civil rights and health advocacy organizations for "aggressive" advertising and promotional campaigns targeting African-Americans, but there is no evidence of formulation of cigarettes in order to target Blacks for addiction and lung disease. Furthermore, research also indicates that people with darker skin as a result of suntanning, regardless of inherited skin color, also have an increased risk of nicotine addiction. People "with the darkest skin tended to smoke the largest number of cigarettes."
Melanin
Melanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...
, a natural polymer and organic semiconductor
Organic semiconductor
An organic semiconductor is an organic material with semiconductor properties. Single molecules, short chain and organic polymers can be semiconductive. Semiconducting small molecules include the polycyclic aromatic compounds pentacene, anthracene, and rubrene...
. In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. People whose ancestors lived for long periods in the regions of the globe near the equator generally have larger quantities of eumelanin in their skins. Melanin theorists assert that the possession of greater quantities of melanin causes an inherent superiority of black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
. Conversely, its lack demonstrates the alleged inhumanity and inferiority of white people
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
.
Some black supremacists justify supremacist assertions by assigning dubious properties to melanin based on pseudoscience and distortions of scientific fact or speculation. Scientists consider melanin theory pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
; it has no credibility in mainstream medicine or science.
Science and the melanin theory
Extrapolating from known scientific properties of melanin, adherents of melanin theory claim the substance bestows upon people of color superhuman abilities, with some contending that melanin is a superconductor. It is, in fact, a semiconductorSemiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
. Some assert that it can absorb electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
; others that it can convert light and magnetic fields to sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
; that it can process information without reporting to the brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
; and, further, that it is the chemical basis for what is commonly called "soul".
It is also claimed that, because neuromelanin, which is found in the substantia nigra
Substantia nigra
The substantia nigra is a brain structure located in the mesencephalon that plays an important role in reward, addiction, and movement. Substantia nigra is Latin for "black substance", as parts of the substantia nigra appear darker than neighboring areas due to high levels of melanin in...
(in Latin, literally "black substance") of the human brain, plays a role in the transmission of neuronal impulses, higher levels of melanin in skin enable nerve synapses to fire more quickly and efficiently as well, thereby enhancing the natural athleticism of dark skinned people. However, no direct correlation between skin color and the level of melanin in the substantia nigra has been observed. There is, however, a correlation between cutaneous melanin and the substantia nigra vis-a-vis Parkinson's disease, a neurological disease condition in which there is a loss of melanin-pigmented cells of the substantia nigra. Blacks have a significantly lower incidence of Parkinson's than whites, and it is believed their higher cutaneous melanin levels act as a preventative against developing the disease.
One of the notions of melanin theory is that white people are "mutants", that white skin is an aberration, a form of albinism
Albinism
Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
. Melanin theorist Wade Nobles takes this notion even further, stating that only Black people are fully human because of their higher levels of skin melanin:
That in the evolution of the species, in what some people call the Ontogenetic evolution of humankind, that in the evolution of the species the human family separated in a sense that one branch of the family stopped its evolutionary path and simply depended upon the central nervous system as the total machinery for understanding reality. Whereas, the root of the family continued its path and not only evolved a central nervous system but developed what I called at that time an essential melanic system. And that I even went so far as to try to develop a little formula and suggested that CNS + EMS = HB. CNS (Central Nervous System) + EMS (Essential Melanic System) = HB (Human Being). That the central nervous system combined with the essential melanic system is what makes you human. That, in fact, to be human is to be Black. To be human is to be Black. (Nobles 1989).
Others, such as psychiatrist and writer Frances Cress Welsing
Frances Cress Welsing
Frances Cress Welsing Frances Cress Welsing Frances Cress Welsing (born March 18, 1935 in Chicago is an African American psychiatrist practicing in Washington, D.C.. She is noted for her "Cress Theory of Color Confrontation", which explores the practice of white supremacy...
, express the same idea by their use of the term "hue-man" instead of "human,". Welsing is the author of "The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation" and "The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors", which in part ascribes certain purported, inherent and behavioral differences between black and white people to a "melanin deficiency" in white people:
On both St. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the white male gives gifts of chocolate candy with nuts…. If his sweetheart ingests "chocolate with nuts," the white male can fantasize that he is genetically equal to the Black male…. Is it not also curious that when white males are young and vigorous, they attempt to master the large brown balls, but as they become older and wiser, they psychologically resign themselves to their inability to master the large brown balls? Their focus then shifts masochistically to hitting the tiny white golf balls in disgust and resignation — in full final realization of white genetic recessiveness.
Welsing also posits that, because it is so easy for whiteness to be lost genetically during interracial breeding, light-skinned peoples developed an aggressive colonial urge, and their societies militaristically dominated others in order to preserve this light-skinned purity.
Melanin theorist Carol Barnes writes in his book Melanin: The Chemical Key to Black Greatness:
Melanin is responsible for the existence of civilization, philosophy, religion, truth, justice, and righteousness. Individuals (whites) containing low levels of Melanin will behave in a barbaric manner. Melanin gives humans the ability to FEEL because it is the absorber of all frequencies of energy. Since whites have the least amount of Melanin, this is why they are perceived by People of Color as generally being rigid, unfeeling (heartless), cold, calculating, mental, and "unspiritual."
This hypothesis is supported by black academic Leonard Jeffries
Leonard Jeffries
Leonard Jeffries Jr. is an American professor of black studies at the City College of New York, part of the City University of New York. He achieved national prominence in the early 1990s for his controversial statements about Jews and other white people...
, who was dismissed in 1992 from his post as chairman of the Harlem's City College Black Studies department for having allegedly made antisemitic statements. Jeffries claims that the pigment melanin is the source of intelligence and creativity. He divides humanity into African “sun people” and European “ice people,” the latter being not only melanin-deficient but born cold and greedy, militaristic, authoritarian, and possessed of a host of other racially determined defects.
Hypertension
Welsing also claims that the prevalence of high blood pressure among African Americans is because melanin picks up "energy vibrations" from people who are experiencing stress. Thus people with dark skin will absorb the effects of stress in others resulting in higher blood pressure. In fact, higher rates of hypertension among Blacks are linked to norepinephrine, a substance that the body produces under stress and which constricts blood vessels. Recent studies by Roger Allen at the University of Maryland show that, after being subjected to stress, Blacks exhibit elevated blood pressure at least ten times as long as do Whites.Drug addiction
Barnes has charged that white scientists deliberately created drugs, such as cocaine, structured to bind chemically with melanin. Barnes claims that melanin and cocaine have a high affinity for each other because both are alkaloids, and that Black people get addicted faster, stay addicted longer, can test positive for cocaine even a year after its most recent use, and suffer more from these drugs because cocaine co-polymerizes into melanin.It is true that melanin binds with cocaine, but skin melanin is not linked to the mechanism of addiction. However, it has been argued that when hair samples are used to test for drug use, people with darker hair may may be more likely to test positive for cocaine use, because the binding with melanin ensures that traces persist for a longer period. This would apply to people with dark hair of any race. A 2005 study by Tom Mieczkowski and Michael Kruger suggests that the binding effect is minor.
Despite such apparent discrepancies, and while there is no evidence of a White conspiracy to compound addictive substances in order to target Blacks, there is an established link between one aspect of melanin-related biology and drug and alcohol addiction. However, this refers to melanin in the brain. Correlation between skin pigmentation and melanin quantities in the brain are not fully understood. No evidence exists that the amount of melanin in internal organs correlates with melanin in the skin; albinos, who have no skin melanin, have normal levels in the substantia nigra of the brain. The evidence is that melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) binds chemically to receptors in the brain to amplify addiction response. A 2008 study of cocaine addiction in rats conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found:
Drug addiction is mediated by complex neuronal processes that converge on the shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAcSh). The NAcSh receives inputs from the lateral hypothalamus (LH), where self-stimulation can be induced. Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is produced mainly in the LH, and its receptor (MCH1R) is highly expressed in the NAcSh. We found that, in the NAcSh, MCH1R is coexpressed with dopamine receptors (D1R and D2R), and that MCH increases spike firing when both D1R and D2R are activated. Also, injecting MCH potentiates cocaine-induced hyperactivity in mice. Mice lacking MCH1R exhibit decreased cocaine-induced conditioned place preference, as well as cocaine sensitization.
Additionally, researchers in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior concluded that, while the mechanism for nicotine addiction is not fully understood, melanin has a "biochemical affinity for nicotine," and that the "greater the amount of melanin people have, the harder it could be for them to quit smoking." Other evidence indicates that "even though African Americans smoke fewer cigarettes than some other groups, they have a higher intake of nicotine from each cigarette."
The tobacco industry has been criticized by civil rights and health advocacy organizations for "aggressive" advertising and promotional campaigns targeting African-Americans, but there is no evidence of formulation of cigarettes in order to target Blacks for addiction and lung disease. Furthermore, research also indicates that people with darker skin as a result of suntanning, regardless of inherited skin color, also have an increased risk of nicotine addiction. People "with the darkest skin tended to smoke the largest number of cigarettes."
In the arts
In 2006, the views of adherents and critics of melanin theory were dramatized in Cassandra Medley's play, Relativity.See also
- Black supremacyBlack supremacyThe term black supremacy is a blanket term for various ideologies which hold that black people are superior to people of other races.-Overview:...
- AfrocentrismAfrocentrismAfrocentrism is cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States, dedicated to the history of Black people a response to global racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions by revisiting this history with an African cultural and ideological center...
- Africentrism
- MelaninMelaninMelanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...
: - MelanismMelanismMelanism is an undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages, and the opposite of albinism. It is also the medical term for black jaundice.The word is deduced from the , meaning black pigment....
- MelanocyteMelanocyte-External links: - "Eye: fovea, RPE" - "Integument: pigmented skin"...
- Melanogenesis
- Melanotropin receptorMelanotropin receptorMelanotropin receptor is a protein found in skin and eye cells that make melanin . People with certain changes in the gene for the melanotropin receptor have a higher risk of developing melanoma...
- NuwaubianismNuwaubianismThe Nuwaubian Nation or Nuwaubian movement led by Malachi York,...
- PseudosciencePseudosciencePseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
- Scientific racismScientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
- SLC24A5SLC24A5Sodium/potassium/calcium exchanger 5 also known as solute carrier family 24 member 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC24A5 gene that has a major influence on natural skin colour variation. The NCKX5 protein is a member of the potassium-dependent sodium/calcium exchanger family...