Why the African genome project is so useful

RACISM MAY often run deep, but one of the most depressing things about it is how superficial it really is. In most parts of the world it is literally a matter of black and white. A person’s skin colour, however, has little biological significance. It is merely a balance between defending the lower layers of the dermis from cancer-causing ultraviolet light (which favours dark skin) and promoting the beneficial role of ultraviolet in the synthesis of vitamin D (which favours light skin). The farther someone’s ancestors lived from the equator, the paler their skin evolved to be.