• Melanin is the chemical key to life itself.
• Melanin is a key ingredient in the DNA of the genes, and protects the DNA nucleus.
• Melanin is centrally involved in controlling all mental and physical body activities.
• Melanin granules are "central computers" and may analyze and initiate body responses and reaction without reporting to the brain.
• The lack of Melanin is directly related to malfunctioning of the central nervous system while the presence of Melanin is directly associated with the proper functioning of the central nervous system.
• Melanin is "sweet" (has a pleasant aroma). [[word MELanin is from the same root as MELon, MOLasses, MELody: Kamite MER=MEL. "MERi" --a name of Creation's Great BLAK Mamma, source of "MARy"]]
• Melanin is an anti-oxidant which destroys free radicals (which are a major factor causing aging).
• Melanin retards aging and reduces senility (prolongs the life and vitality of laboratory animals).
• Melanin causes skin to stay young and wrinkle-free by protecting it from the damaging effects of sunlight. The darker your natural skin (genetically), the less it ages. The opposite is true for lighter skin. That's why whites have wrinkled skin in their 40s or earlier while Blacks often have smooth, unwrinkled skin even in "old" age.
• Though one may be lightskinned, the concentration of Melanin in their organs or melanated centers may be as high as that of a darkskinned person. The reverse can also be true sometimes.
• Melanin shows the potential to reproduce itself.
• The Melanin molecule is so stable that it has been found in 150-million-year-old dinosaur fossils! It is highly resistant to chemical and advanced physical analysis such as electron spin resonance, x-ray diffraction, and synchrotron radiation studies. As a result, its precise structure remains unknown.
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A Japanese scientist 2 has shown that inside the melanocytes (skin pigment cells) are tiny packets called melanosomes that contain Melanin. The four stages in the maturing of these packets is what accounts for racial differences:

• Stage 1: The melanosome is empty and doesn't have the machinery to make Melanin.
• Stage 2: The melanosome has the machinery to make Melanin, but is empty of Melanin.
• Stage 3: The machinery is there and the melanosome is half filled with Melanin.
• Stage 4: The machinery is there and the melanosome is completely filled with Melanin.

Whites have mainly stages 1 and 2, whereas all people of color have Melanin ­with Blacks having more of stage 4 than 3, while Latinos and Asians have more of stage 3 than 4. All people of color have "circulating Melanin," which is Melanin circulating in the blood due to spillage or excess from the melanosomes.
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How very strange that suddenly Newsweek, Science and several of the wire services are doing front-cover and front page stories on the question of whether there is any such thing as racial difference. They are calling forth the testimonies of anthropologists, geneticists and many others to suggest that there really is no scientific validity to the concept of race. This evidence is being called to testify against the growing racial consciousness in African-American communities that is being used to elect Black political leadership, develop Black economic power, the expansion of challenging Afrocentric studies, the successful call for Black leadership coalitions and the growing response to the call for a million Black men to march on Washington, D.C., in October of this year.

While African-American scholars and leaders have argued against the use of race as the criteria for discrimination and oppression of Black people for the last four centuries, it is really interesting that now, European-American scholars and scientists have suddenly decided that race is really a meaningless designation.
Where were they when slavery was based on color for nearly three centuries? Where were they when lynching was dictated by color designation? Where were they when our children were not permitted to master basic learning skills because of race?

Where were they when the wealth acquired from our labor was not shared with those who toiled? Where were they when the government refused to let us vote because of race? If their data was not relevant then, we definitely don't want it now as a means to divide and diffuse our power base.

Could it be that there is some fear of the growing number of Black people who are defining race for themselves and doing it in a positive way? Could it be that they fear the blocks of strength which grow from African-Americans beginning to see themselves as having more in common with each other than with political parties, religious denominations, or even income groups? Could it be that there is some fear of the large numbers of so-called "bi-racial" persons who prefer to see themselves as fundamentally African-American as a positive identification? Could it be that the prospect of Black people beginning to define ourselves for our own self-interest is the ultimate expression of power? Might some people fear that we have learned Wade Nobles' definition of power as the ability to define reality and have other people accept your definition as if it were their own?
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