Vitamin D and the D is for Dark-Skinned

Last week, after watching Nina Jablonski’s TED Talk, “Skin Color is an Illusion,” and the class discussion, it really got me to thinking about the concept of why Blackness or dark skin is demonized regardless of where in the world you are. According to Only Skin Deep, variation of skin color is correlated with geographical latitude and UVR (the Sun’s ultraviolet rays). Not race, not any other factor. Although, science clearly backs this theory, it has not yet suppressed the concept of colorism. Even still, globally darker skinned people, see more discrimination and prejudice. After doing some reading and research, I found that there is a psychological reason for this. For centuries people and cultures have equated darkness and black with evilness and wickedness. The mental relationship between color and morality have implicated bias negatively towards people with darker skin tones. 

Rapper Andre 3000, Vogue

Another interesting factoid that came up for me last week when looking at the Only Skin Deep and Jablonski’s lecture was the role that Vitamin D plays in conjunction with skin tone. The example given about Indigenous peoples of Alaska and Canada not having paler skin although they live in an area with lower UVR being able to maintain their Vitamin D because of their diet was very interesting to me. With knowing now that individuals with darker skin produce less vitamin D with the same amount of sunlight exposure than individuals with lighter skin color and also the diet fact made me want to look up foods rich in Vitamin D.

Vitamin D