Melanin theory

Melanin theory is a theory, founded in 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 gives black people inherent superiority.

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".

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 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,"^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}.

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."

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.

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 has been argued that when hair samples are used to test for drug use, people with darker hair 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.

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 supremacy
• Afrocentrism
• Melanin:

• Melanism
• Melanocyte
• Melanogenesis
• Melanotropin receptor

• Nuwaubianism
• SLC24A5