Good morning guys, it's another day for the #celestialchallenge and my entry for today's theme of darkness is melanin.
For years this pigment has caused a lot of controversy, mostly ending in the oppression and slaving of the possessors. It was agreed that people with dark coloured skin were inferior.
Melanin is a pigment in the skin that bears colour. This pigment comprises of a group of cells called melanocytes that are actively producing colour especially when exposed to sunlight.
The presence of melanin is characteristic to Africans especially, and for this reason they are referred to as "blacks", "people of colour" or "the coloured".
This issue of skin colour raised a lot of racial discrimination especially during the time of the European colonization of Africa. Most of the Europeans believed that these coloured people were inferior and incapable of proper intellectual thinking for the development of any society. So the Europeans resorted in putting some of these "coloured" people in cages and out for exhibition for entertainment as in the case of Sarah Baartman. Black people were sold as slaves in their own lands, forced to work on plantations and were robbed of their future. This was the beginning of racial segregation.
But nowadays, these so called "coloured" people which I am proud to be among, have proven to be some of the most intelligent, hardworking and compassionate people you could find. Although there are still traces of racial insensitivities, I hope everyone in the world would understand that all black people possess is melanin in their skin. We are just another reflection of the many ways God is beautiful. Black is beautiful.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.