Melanin Theory - Science and The Melanin Theory

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 semiconductor. 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 has been suggested that this observation, combined with the depigmentation, suggests that the reduced risk might be related to their increased melanin pigmentation.

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, Ph.D (Stanford) 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, 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, 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.