Melanin theorists purport that black people are more superior to the whites (Cashmore and Jennings 181) because they have greater quantities of melanin. They attribute whites’ alleged “inhumanity” and “inferiority” to lack of melanin. Melanin theorists also maintain that melanin bestows upon people of color some superhuman abilities.
The theorists are unanimous that melanin is both a superconductor and a semiconductor. They contend that melanin can absorb electromagnetic radiation and is capable of converting light and magnetic fields to sound. To these theorists, “melanin can process information without reporting to the brain because it is the chemical basis of the soul” (Barnes 88).
The presence of neuromelanin in a human brain’s substantia nigra aids in transmission of neuronal impulses. The proponents of the melanin theory also advance that “higher levels of melanin in the skin enable nerve synapses to fire more quickly and efficiently” (Barnes 90). This element underscores the black men’s athleticism.
These theorists also believe, “The lower incidence of Parkinson’s diseases among the Blacks is due to the high hypodermic melanin levels in their skin, which acts as a preventative against development of the diseases” (Irving 315). However, the melanin theory is a stereotype for it has no scientific backing to prove its claims as expounded in this paper.
The architects of this theory believe that white people are mutants and that whiter skin is a form of albinism with the likes of Wade Nobles opining that “Blacks are fully human because of their higher levels of skin melanin” (Cashmore and Jennings 116).
In addition, Nobles holds that the “central nervous system and the essential melanic system make one a full human” (Cashmore and Jennings 116). Therefore, to be human is to be black.
Frances Welsing coined the idea of hue-man instead of human to “illuminate the existing inherent and behavioral differences between black and white people” (Welsing The Isis Papers 200).
Barnes, another Melanin theorist, states that melanin “is responsible for civilization, philosophy, religion, truth, justice, and righteousness, and that is why the whites behave in a barbaric manner” (81).
He further adduces that melanin’s ability to absorb frequencies enhances the black man’s ability to feel his surroundings. In the eyes of the people of color, whites are rigid, cold, unfeeling, and calculating because their skins have lower levels of melanin.
In addition, some theorists relate the pigment melanin with intelligence and creativity. Europeans being the “ice-people” are therefore born cold and greedy, militaristic, and authoritarian. Frances Welsing also purports, “The prevalence of high blood pressure among African Americans is due to the fact that melanin picks up energy vibrations from people who are stressed up” (Welsing Blacks hypertension 65).
Dark skinned people therefore absorb stress in others hence stand higher chances of experiencing high blood pressure. Barnes also purported that white scientists created drugs like cocaine among others, which chemically bind with melanin by the mere fact that they are both alkaloids, hence the high likelihood of black people getting addicted faster or even stay addicted for longer.
Barnes argues, “The blacks can test positive for Cocaine even after a year has elapsed courtesy of cocaine’s ability to co-polymerize into melanin” (18).
Some of the arguments advanced by Melanin Theorists like Barnes that the whites deliberately created drugs like cocaine, which have high affinity for melanin, to make the black people get addicted faster and for longer cannot be factual. No one disputes that “melanin binds with cocaine; however, skin melanin cannot be linked to the mechanism of addiction” (Mieczkowski and Kruger 6).
An argument to the effect that in circumstances when hair has been used to test drug use, “people with darker hair are more likely to test positive for cocaine use because cocaine has high affinity for melanin, is not true because even the whites with dark hair can test positive for the same” (Mieczkowski and Kruger 8).
Barnes’ accusation of the white scientists has no element of absolutism because so far, there is no evidence that points to white conspiracy to compound addictive substances that target the blacks.
However, people should not forget that there exists an established link between an aspect of melanin-related biology and substance addiction, especially the melanin found in the brain. Drug addiction is facilitated by complex neuronal processes that converge on the shell of nucleus accumbens that receive inputs from the lateral hypothalamus. Melanin concentrating hormone is produced from the lateral hypothalamus.
Regardless of the fact that the mechanism for nicotine addiction has not been fully understood, “melanin has a biochemical affinity for nicotine and that the greater the amount of melanin an individual may be having the harder it can be for him or her to quit smoking” (Mieczkowski and Kruger 11).
People who become dark skinned due to sun tanning, irrespective of whether they are black or white, are at risk of developing nicotine addiction. Welsing’s claim that “dark skinned people absorb the stress in others resulting in high blood pressure” (Blacks hypertension 65) cannot entirely be true if scientific studies that have been conducted in this field are anything to go by.
Science has for sure linked blacks to norepinephrine. The bodies of human beings produce this substance when subjected to certain levels of stress. This substance constricts blood vessels, but whites and blacks exhibit elevated blood pressure when subjected to pressure.
Melanin theorists stir fallacious thinking, as some of the reasons they advance are full of logical fallacies and accepting them in totality leads to error in thinking hence fictitious characterization of science.
While trying to support the truth of their opinions, melanin theorists seemingly resign to their views. They think that their entitlement is indispensable for the truth of the argument. They never seem to realize that “their entitlement to their opinions has no consequence for scientific truth neither does it validate the views they express” (White and Billing 191). Their entitlement is not backed with evidence.
The theorists’ assertion that possession of greater quantities of melanin makes black people superior and that its lack is a pointer as to why the whites are inhuman and inferior is not backed with any evidence to that effect. Some of their arguments are indeed a distortion of scientific facts.
The theory therefore has no credibility in mainstream science. Human rights and entitlements cannot be used to support a view, as the focus will shift from scientific evidence to human rights.
Being entitled to a given opinion in scientific discourses can only be equated to being wrong especially when there are no facts, evidences, and reason to support such opinions. Only data and evidence can make an opinion correct. Evidences adduced should be independent of one’s view.
The proponents of this pseudoscientific theory have committed the fallacy of argument to ignorance. Apparently, they have a belief that things have to be true because they have not been proved otherwise. They are oblivious of the fact that inability to prove a claim “does not necessarily mean that the claim is true” (White and Billing 181).
Look at it this way, an individual can claim that s/he is capable of running 100m sprint in less than 3 seconds. However, if s/he refuses to be tested in a race, “people’s inability to falsify the claim does not make the claim true by default; moreover, the fact that no scientific study has associated melanin to creativity and intelligence does not give melanin theorists license to posit that melanin is the source of intelligence and creativity” (White and Billing 181).
Moreover, this does not qualify them to assert that “ice-people” are cold and greedy, militaristic, and authoritarian because they were born melanin-deficient.
Carol Barnes also commits the fallacy of argument to ignorance by asserting, “Melanin is responsible for civilization, philosophy, religion, truth, justice, and righteousness” (Barnes 81). In fact, no scientific study has illuminated this; however, the absence of any evidence cannot make such sentiments true.
Melanin theorists also commit the fallacy of generalization by suggesting that black people are proficient in athletics because they have higher amounts of melanin in their skin. Across the world, many athletes are successful, but they are not black.
It is also wrong to think that melanin is responsible for civilization, philosophy, religion, truth, justice, and righteousness. In the contemporary world, there exist many uncivilized and unrighteous blacks in spite of having elevated melanin levels in their skins. Barnes, one of the ardent Melanin theorists, asserts that melanin “gives human beings the ability to feel because it is the absorber of all frequencies of energy” (81).
Barnes advances that white people are perceived by people of color as being rigid, heartless, and cold because they have least amounts of melanin. The burden of truth lies with Barnes with regard to proving her assertions. She never tells why she thinks that black skinned people can never be rigid, heartless, and cold. Her sentiments are mere assertions, as she never uses science to support her position with positive evidence.
In conclusion, melanin theorists propagate the misconception that Blacks are superior to Whites because the former have higher melanin levels in their skin than the latter. Apparently, according to these theorists, the presence of high melanin levels in Blacks underscores their athleticism and resistance to the Parkinson’s disease.
Moreover, Blacks are purportedly more human by the virtue of having high melanin levels; actually, to be human is to be black according to melanin theorists. In a twist of argument, melanin theorists explain that Blacks are prone to hypertension and high stress levels because their melanin absorbs stress from their surroundings.
Moreover, Blacks are prone to drug addiction because melanin has high affinity for drugs like cocaine. However, these arguments are full of assumptions and fallacies for lack of scientific proof. Therefore, these theorists commit the fallacy of argument to ignorance, fallacy of generalization, and fallacy of appeal to authority.
For instance, they commit the fallacy of appeal to spite by portraying the whites as an inferior race. By substituting attack on ethnicity and racism, the theorists are oblivious of fallacy of circumstantial Ad Hominem in their arguments.
Works Cited
Barnes, Carol. Melanin: The Chemical Key to Black Greatness. New York: Lushena Books, 2001. Print.
Cashmore, Ernest, and James Jennings. Racism: essential readings. New York: Sage, 2001. Print.
Irving, Kessler. “Epidemiologic Studies of Parkinson’s Disease: II. A Hospital-based Survey.” American Journal of Epidemiology 95.16 (1972): 308-318. Print.
Mieczkowski, Tom, and Michael Kruger. “Interpreting the color effect of melanin on Cocaine and benzoylecgonine assays for hair analysis: Brown and black samples compared.” Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 14.1 (2007): 7–15. Print.
Welsing, Frances. “Blacks, hypertension, and the active skin melanocyte”. Urban Health 4.3 (1975): 64–72. Print.
Welsing, Frances. The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors. New York: Third World Press, 1990. Print.
White, Fred, and Simone Billing. The Well Crafted Argument. New York: Cengage, 2010. Print.