The Illusion of Skin Color

In our lectures on race, we've discussed how various phenotypes have been and are used to categorize people and populations. Skin color is, and has been, the most influential characteristic in this process. While many people think that skin color is attributable to biological "races," genetics has shown that there is less difference between groups and more similarity in the world-wise distributions of skin pigmentation. The video above is another TED talk. This time, by Nina Jablonski, a noted biological anthropologist and geneticist who speaks to these issues and presents the case for a geographical conception of skin color.