Do you know which is the largest organ in the human body? The answer to that question is the skin. It is responsible for about 15% of the entire weight of an adult individual and has important functions for the body, such as covering the body, provide immunological protection, regulate body temperature, provide tactile and thermal sensitivity, and produce secretions such as sweat and sebum (fat).
Unfortunately, however, many people pay attention to one part of the skin and misuse it to judge the character of others. It's about the color of the skin. However, analyzing their chemical makeup and what results in different skin tones can help us to see that we all we have the same origin and we are equal, this prejudice being very futile.
The skin is basically made up of three layers: epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. As you can see in the illustration below, the hypodermis is the deepest, innermost layer formed by adipose tissue (fat) and where a large number of blood vessels are found. The dermis is the middle part, where the sebaceous and sweat glands, blood vessels, hair follicles and skin muscles are located. And finally, the upper, outer part is a thin layer called the epidermis.
The skin color is due to the amount of a natural polymer, the melanin, a biological pigment that is produced in the epidermis. This polymer is chemically considered to have variable mass and complexities, being synthesized by the melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells located in the basal layer of the skin, between the epidermis and the dermis. The production of melanin by melanocytes is made from the progressive oxidation of the amino acid tyrosine.
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Thus, the greater the amount of melanin produced, the darker the skin tone and vice versa.
This leads us to conclude that every form of skin has the same constitution. Not only skin, but every form of life basically has the same essence: atoms that combine to form molecules, which, in turn, react to form the most diverse compounds. This cycle is endless, as the number of atoms that make up the universe is practically constant, being exchanged at each moment between living beings and the environment.
Therefore, does it make any sense to consider ourselves superior to each other, since we all come from the same background? Or to judge and be prejudiced by the person just because we produce more or less melanin than him? Shouldn't we value neurons more than melanocytes?
Really, it doesn't make any sense.A person's character is independent of skin color.; therefore, we must exterminate any kind of prejudice.
By Jennifer Fogaça
Graduated in Chemistry
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FOGAÇA, Jennifer Rocha Vargas. "Chemistry Wrapped in Skin Color"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/quimica/a-quimica-envolvida-na-cor-pele.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
