Melanin theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin_theory

I was interested in melanin theory after reading the book Yurugu by Marimba Ani. Apparently, it is considered "racist", but I feel like wikipedia is somewhat attacking a strawman version of it, at least from what I gathered about it in that book, especially when they throw in loaded language like "black supremacist." Could anyone break it down and explain to me what is the relationship between melatonin and melanin--does one alter consciousness but one doesn't--do they affect dreaming? Is it true that the pineal gland can become "calcified"? Or if anyone could just link to some sources on the topic that'd be cool.

It's a theory that purports to show the superiority of people with certain physical features, i.e. darker skin. How can it be anything but racist?

It's silly and the same kind of nonsense that white supremacists sprout. You can be naturally genius like (which is extremely rare) but the truth is education holds the key to intelligence just as training lies the key to good physical well being. Genetics can help but certainly not enough to elevate one race above another.

Also, I've yet to see melanin theory proponents mention the fact that there are two kinds of melanin; eumelanin, which is responsible for the brown tones of human skin, and pheomelanin, which imparts the red/pink shades to tissues such as the lips, nipples, glans of the penis, and vagina, and which is found in large quantities in red hair. Which makes me wonder how ginger people are supposed to fit into melanin theory...

There's also neuromelanin, but that is not found in human skin, although I imagine that doesn't stop melanin theorists from confusing that with the other two.

Ok sure but I was skeptical about its proponents purporting that since the book that exposed me to it was arguing against paradigms of superiority and inferiority vis a vis race. At least that was what I got out of it, but I guess there were moments where it came close to just reversing roles in the paradigm, but that would be an oversimplification.

What about melatonin?

From the sounds of it the book was making arguments against racialism in general, using melanin theory as a specific example to work against. It's unclear from your original post however whether the book was critical of melanin theory or not.

It's a hormone found in many eukaryotic organisms, involved with circadian rhythms. What does it have to do with melanin?

I haven't heard about the theory in the original post, but I think what the OP was asking about is the guy who made the theory goes off the relationship between melanin and melatonin by way of melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH). The pineal gland starts a path for this to be secreted by the pituitary when acted upon by melatonin, which spurs on the creation of melanocytes which produce melanin. That much they work off (edit: though I must stress that the extent of this relationship is debated).

Where the leap occurs that darker skinned individuals have a lesser rate of calcification of the pineal gland, so by extension it is claimed this means a more active brain and less likely to develop dementia (including Alzheimers) and other forms of mental degradation in older age by virtue of the melatonin being more active to secrete more MSH for darker skin tone. That's the best I can understand it at least.

I think it simplifies the whole biochemical pathway though. It's not that simple as MSH providing the bridge because MSH in all individuals helps with tanning and darker skin tone- but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the key to darker skin. I'm not sure I buy the idea of this resulting in better brain activity either- afaik there isn't an appreciable difference in who gets hit by dementias or not when considering ethnicity, it just appears in developed countries more often because they are picked up by the medical systems there more often than in undeveloped, where they might write this off as a symptom of old age.

Edit: there also seems to be another approach claiming melanin is everywhere in the body and has certain special properties that make those with more melanin basically able to do more stuff and better, and help keep the body healthy by a bunch of questionable assertions regarding its effects on free radical accumulation in the body, blood pressure, mental plasticity, and overall "health". There's a line of reasoning off this combining with the conspiracy of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs because they inhibit melanin in order to repress them.

Edit 2x: I should also mention that the author of the book, Yurugu, mentioned in the OP, Marimba Ani, only mentions this theory in one part of the book but the thrust of her book's focus is broadly an attack on eurocentrism especially when it comes to different forms of thought and academia which came from a distinctly European-American origin that perpetuates white supremacy according to her argument. She isn't associated with Melanin Theory as strongly as others though, like Frances Cress Welsing.

To me honestly as I look at this theory more it confuses me even more. It smacks more and more of new age mentality trying to masquerade as science grounded in facts, especially with the belief that melanin is apparently the human's "vital essence".

I've always wondered how these people explain non-human melanin. Many fungi and bacteria contain melanin - are they some how smarter than fungi and bacteria that lack it?

Even if one were to restrict oneself to mammals, are black horses which likely have more melanin smarter than white horses? I suppose one could do a simple experiment pitting black rats against white rats that are otherwise genetically identical and reared in the same conditions on a maze and see who does better. As best I know, no proponent of "melanin theory" has dared run this fairly straightforward test.

The melanin theory is true and it can't be racist anyways It just talks about how great the black man is. Is black greatness racist?

Just a bunch of dribble. The upper layers of the black petite bourgeoisie, in a gesture of subconscious loyalty to their class, have made it their prerogative to instill in the black populace reactionary ideas with regard to their cultural identities. The reactionary currents of black nationalism, the nation of islam, among others represent the interests of those few propertied blacks who, along with the white bourgeoisie, historically have benefited from racial segregation or racial identity as a component of passive ideology, because of their exclusive role in their communities they needn't worry about competition with other members of the bourgeoisie while the white bourgeoisie has the benefit of knowing there to be a submissive black proletariat as well as a sense of security in preserving their backward family values. I do recognize many, if not most independent black organizations, the black panthers for one, to have been inherently progressive, though.

Melanin theory is more of a psychological theory that attempts to explain the utter savagery and barbarity of most European history. In that regard it is a Evolutionary Psychology understanding of Euro-barbarism. Though false, it makes for interesting reading of the Oppressed trying to explain the nature of their Oppressor.

Or, rather, certain opportunists among the oppressed pushing an explanation of the oppressor that exempts the social conditions that they themselves, as compradors, profit from. I think, in the final analysis (and I don't mean to suggest that you don't share this perspective) it serves the ends of white supremacy and settler-colonialism insofar as it serves as a bulwark against the development of, in the case of NOI, black/New Afrikan proletarian consciousness.

The idea that people like Frances Welsing and Leonard Jeffries are compradors seems blatantly false. The compradors of the Black Nation are definitely the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton types, and most black Democrats.

The people that push the "class consciousness" stuff on black workers in Amerika are the ones doing black workers a disservice. The Black Nation is an internal colony, and needs National Liberation. Black workers falling for the white social-democratic line about "class consciousness" are being misled by forces that seek to keep them as colonial subjects. Black workers will wait an eternity on white workers to save them.

OK, we're still talking about a psychiatrist and a university professor (in fact, a longtime department head). I don't know what your working understanding of working class at the imperial centre is, but . . . c'mon.

And national liberation minus class consciousness will get the black nation where, exactly? Can you actually only conceive of class and nation as diametrically opposed, the former meaning uncritical subsumption of national struggles within the settler left?

I hope you're just assuming my politics, putting words in my mouth, and not pulling some wacky "national liberation first, class struggle later" shit, because that is epic weak on multiple levels.

It's like saying anti semitism is an interesting reading of the oppressed trying to explain their oppressor, it relies on false presumptions to begin with. You're basically de humanizing Africans, scratching your chin as if they are animals trying to make sense of those who oppress them.

You're the one that suggested they are compradors for pushing a line that doesn't jive with what the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" thinks. The comprador Uncle Toms of the internally colonized Black Nation are the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton types. This is self-evident to radical black people.

Out from under the thumbs of the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left."

There is nothing "diametrically opposed" about class and nation. This "diametric opposition" exists only in the minds of the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left," who want to pretend they're not part of an Oppressor Nation where the "working class" has long ago formed an inter-locking and unshakable connection with their own imperialists. The Labor Aristocracy and White Power fused together long ago, and everything the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" does advances the interests of White Power. White Power is all the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" seeks, and they will resort to anything to increase their consumption of surplus value at the expense of everyone else. Only a total break with this element can ever free the Black Nation.


What assumption is that?

Methinks you're projecting your own ideas here. You want to pretend rejecting the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" hatred for Black Nationalism is itself somehow "racist," just like the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" thinks ideas like Melanin theory are "reverse racism" that they should ever so valiantly fight against, as if it were the black equivalent of Nazism. The imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" oh so desperately wants to portray their hatred of Black Nationalism as a defense of liberal egalitarian values, when it is nothing but a smoke screen to beat down any ideas that could lead to a form of National Liberation that would impoverish the White Nation (whose interests the imperialist Euro-Settler "Left" fights for in a hysterical and feverish way).

Maybe the reason why early European peoples north of Greece and Rome were considered inferior savages was because it was so fucking cold up there. I would imagine that if you live in such a harsh environment, developing civilization is not your primary concern. Your primary concerns would be staying warm, maintaining an active hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and other such things. In Egypt or Sumeria, where the temperature is vastly more comfortable, you have more free time to actually come up with civilization. This line of reasoning that white Europeans are inherently savages is false, because in today's world, the most progressive countries are arguably in Western Europe.

No, they're compradors for spouting a line that "jives" (unfortunate choice of words?) with the dictates of white supremacist capital. Insofar as they fail to organize on a class basis, they will never actually achieve their stated goals. Nor do I think they honestly intend to - I think they're quite comfortable with their profitable niche market.

Oh? It would seem to me that the formation of an ostensibly autonomous black national neo-colony with its own territory would be about as "out from under the thumb" of white supremacist capital as the already existing black national neo-colony. Let's be real: capital doesn't give a shit about lines on the map as long as it can circulate freely. You gotta go back to basics and reread Fanon, Sakai, Sunyika Shakur, Butch Lee. I'm not just pulling this out of my ass, right? I'm talking about the theorists who have really delved into this stuff.

Yeah, and that "total break" will come how? Within white supremacist capitalism? Or is the black nation already "classless" and outside of capital? I think not.

Oh, yeah, you caught me, talking all about "reverse racism" and shit. Look at me calling for the dissolution of autonomous black organizations! Here I am being all like, "Republic of New Afrika? No! They should just join the CP-USA!"

Oh, right except that none of that really happened. God, I can't believe I'm getting more-third-worldist-than-thou'd.

a psudeoscieintic theory made to advance the idea that there is a superior super race is totally not racist :laugh: