Human skin darkest brown to the lightest pinkish-white hues. Human skin shows higher variation in color than any other single mammalian species and is the result of natural selection. Skin pigmentation in humans evolved to primarily regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) penetrating the skin, controlling its biochemical effects. The actual skin color of different humans is affected by many substances, although the single most important substance determining human skin color is the pigment melanin. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes and it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skinned humans. The skin color
Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out "Showing Our Colors" explores the way by which Afro-Germans were historically attributed shameful, negative or patronizing characteristics with regard to their "non-white" skin color. Because so many negative connotations were associated with "blackness" at the time, many Afro-Germans identified that what was found to be more threatening to Germans at the time than the idea of deviation from the norm or "whiteness" was the idea of "intrusion" or destroying this white norm. "Showing Our Colors" notes that, apart from their appearance, many Afro-Germans labeled as "exotic" had nothing "foreign" to offer in that they spoke German perfectly, had German names