Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

But skin color is really just a marker for where on earth our ancestors have lived. Across tens of thousands of years, as humans have migrated around the globe, skin color changed to meet the demands of the new environments that became their homes. As harmful ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun beat down on early humans, the melanin pigment that our bodies produce came to the rescue. Melanin provides protection. And the more melanin our bodies produced, the darker our skin appeared. Melanin is produced by a variety of species—from frogs to dates—and like humans their color darkens in accordance with the environment of their habitat. “Skin color,” anthropologist Nina Jablonski explains, “is one of the most obvious patterns of human biological variation.” And melanin is highly responsive to the physical space we find ourselves in.