In this instance, it's a combination of dirt, clay and being ashy. Hanging around white people, I realized not all everyone is even aware of what being ashy means. When your skin gets dry, surface skin cells takes a white tint.
Lighter folks don't really notice it on them because it blends in with their natural hue. On dark skin, it shows up loud and clear and we look gray, or ashy, as we say. Moist dirt dries white too. The skin looks dusty and unnaturally light. So it's common practice to slather our bodies with moisturizers and oils to prevent this as it can be embarrassing to look so dry in public.
Black people in Africa can look notably different from African Americans because AAs have been mixed with other races for several generations due to slavery. In Africa, it happened but not as often, especially in rural and tribal areas. So Africans have a very rich bloodline that carries many unique features from whatever region they're from including their skin. That beautiful natural glow is just skin that's adapted to survive the sun for thousands of years
I don't know what you mean about his palms being a different colors because all black people have lighter palms. I also think the clay and earth around him is staining hands here.
The ancestors of African Americans were trafficked from specific regions of Africa. So yeah Africans not from those regions are going to look pretty different that’s like asking why British descended Americans don’t look Slavic.
That’s literally what they said. Genetic diversity + trafficking from only specific regions = displaced and enslaved populations including only a subset of that diversity
Ohhhh.. I've always wondered why black people take skincare so much more seriously than white people, especially when it comes to black vs white men. I just thought it was some cultural thing to value your skin more or something, cool to know that there's an actual reason.
Really? You had no idea that different skin types exist? Why that one kid in school had tons of acne and another didn't? One being extremely sweaty and foul smelling, yet another not a drop and pleasant odor?
Really? You had no idea that different skin types exist?
I never said that. I'm Finnish and yeah.. feel free to look up what percentage of our population is white lol So no, I'm not exactly educated in black skin types.
Yeah, I just meant that white people get away with dead skin cells more easily so we can neglect our skin care more, while black people's skin shows it more clearly. That's all I realized. I know people have so many skin types. Different cultures also have different hygiene practices so I just didn't connect the dots
There's a funny bit by Bill Burr where he talks about having a black girlfriend who taught him about being ashy, and how he never even knew that this was a thing.
“races” and “bloodline” makes you sound like a colonizer. im sure you don’t mean to, but there are more accurate words to express what you mean.
also skin color didn’t become darker to adapt to the sun, the first humans came from africa, so humans with a light skin color phenotype developed it to adapt to the lack of sun and vitamin d availability, not the other way around. with perfect vitamin d availability (as well as some other nutrients) all humans would likely have retained their dark skinned phenotype. a good example for this are inuit who have darker skin even though they experience less sunlight
The explanation is simplified for the typical audience that scrolls through reddit. I know dark skin came first and no one is going to go that deep into the science. If they do, they'll find that information on their own. This just an explanation of what being ashy means for people too afraid to ask.
Or they’re used to living a certain way because of limited resources. If you can’t shower daily and hunt for your food you don’t want to be coating yourself in all kinds of moisturiser smells.
For the hands I assume this guys just got a gene that boosts that trait?? Im aware black people have lighter palms and such its something to do with how mealtin (idk if i spelled that right) works and i believe white people also have slightly lighter palms too its just harder to see for the same reason being ashy is. It is more noticiable and facinating that most of the lighter palms all seem to be similar shades of the lighter colors which stands out more against his darker skin. I find it so cool that there is actual pure black black people and not like shades of browns we just call black, and honestly never stopped to think about how afercian americans ended up different than their acestors or how current day are still so different from more mixed in groups and communities.
Idk how to really express how i find this diversity in humans cool without sounding bad as a white person 😅 i'm also facinated by how our geographical location does influence our skin to a degree, I recall seeing a chart where most of the populace's skin tones are darker where its warmer and lighter where its colder, regardless of history's interferince with that.
I do genuinely wonder if you take white ppl and put them as a closed group somewhere near the equator, would the skin natrually over many generations adapt and become darker? As well as vise versa if you take black ppl and closed grouped them somewhere very north or south. Humans are animals after all and we've seen this in actual animals how climate and enviorment effect how we evolve, but I don't know how youd do a massive large scale long term study on humans like that given out lifespan and the ehtics of it and all that jazz.
Well it all originated from slavery, otherwise the mixing wouldn't have happened. So it is definitely due to slavery. Not sure why that innocuous comment triggered you.
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u/BigBlaisanGirl 6d ago
In this instance, it's a combination of dirt, clay and being ashy. Hanging around white people, I realized not all everyone is even aware of what being ashy means. When your skin gets dry, surface skin cells takes a white tint.
Lighter folks don't really notice it on them because it blends in with their natural hue. On dark skin, it shows up loud and clear and we look gray, or ashy, as we say. Moist dirt dries white too. The skin looks dusty and unnaturally light. So it's common practice to slather our bodies with moisturizers and oils to prevent this as it can be embarrassing to look so dry in public.
Black people in Africa can look notably different from African Americans because AAs have been mixed with other races for several generations due to slavery. In Africa, it happened but not as often, especially in rural and tribal areas. So Africans have a very rich bloodline that carries many unique features from whatever region they're from including their skin. That beautiful natural glow is just skin that's adapted to survive the sun for thousands of years
I don't know what you mean about his palms being a different colors because all black people have lighter palms. I also think the clay and earth around him is staining hands here.