80 Melanin Quotes About The Versatile Molecule

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published September 11, 2022

These melanin quotes will show how this versatile molecule is responsible for an array of biological and cultural phenomena.

It is also the substance that gives color to our skin, hair, and eyes.

Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

What is melanin?

All human beings produce melanin.

Some people just produce more than others.

The more you know about melanin, the better off you will be.

Melanin has been protecting our skin since the beginning of humankind.

Scientists all over the world continue to research melanin to unlock its secrets.

The melanin quotes below will provide food for thought for anyone interested in learning more about the scientific, historical, cosmetic, cultural, and communicative powers of melanin.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement.

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

About melanin quotes

1. “Melanin is a versatile molecule, not only is it responsible for giving us our UV blocking completion, at the cellular level it gobbles up harmful radicals that lead to diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s.” -Eduardo Di Mauro

2. “Historically it had always been thought that melanin played a significant role in the intellectual propensity of African people.” -Dr. Umar Johnson

3. “Melanin itself is a blanket term for naturally occurring pigments in organisms.” -Dr. Raven Baxter

4. “My melanin is what gives me strength.” -Dr. Kofi Leeniles

5. “Melanin is the pigment that gives your hair and skin its color.” -Angela Koine Flynn

6. “When you study some of the Greek writings on melanin or the color of Africans, many of the Greek philosophers believed that melanin played some sort of role in how the Africans had been able to create and develop some of the sciences they had come to be known for, so melanin has always been known as an intellectual sort of chemical.” -Dr. Umar Johnson

7. “The key to our ancestors’ survival lay in their own personal sunscreen, manufactured beneath the skin, melanin. The type and amount of melanin in your skin will determine whether you will be more or less protected from the sun.” -Angela Koine Flynn

8. “Melanin granules are able to react to each other and feed each other. So it became a community thing, besides the melanin granules in one person’s body reacting to each other, they were able to react to the melanin granules in the body of others and other animals…that is how they were able to have such close relationships with animals. They (The people of ancient Kemet) were the first recorded civilization to domesticate cats.” – Zanemvula

9. “Because melanin is 100 percent compatible with our body’s makeup, it is a much safer starting material for building electronic devices, both for us and the environment.”-Eduardo Di Mauro

10. “The word melanin has a Greek root, from ‘melas’ which means dark, or black.” -Dr. Raven Baxter

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The science of melanin quotes

11. “Melanin is a molecule and the concept of melanin, it is black in its nature and we find it in the cosmos and we find it in the heavens, we find it in water, we find it in the land, we find it in everything that exists.” -Dr. Kaba Hiawatha Kamene

12. “Clearly the more melanin you have, the more beneficial it is to your being and your body. How could anyone ever be ashamed of the melanin that possesses so much magic?” -Chime

13. “Over the course of generations, humans living in the sun saturated latitudes in Africa, adapted to have a higher melanin production threshold and more eumelanin, giving skin a darker tone. This built-in sunshield protected them from melanoma. Likely making them evolutionary fitter and capable of passing this useful trait to new generations.” -Angela Koine Flynn

14. “Black and brown melanin was used in ancient Egypt as a form of like a conductor or transmitter. They would also use it to share information by sending vibrations and energy.” – Zanemvula

15. “Squids, cephalopods in general, when they squirt out ink, the ink they squirt out is made up mostly of melanin. Organisms of other species have also used melanin as a protective and defensive means.” – Dr. Raven Baxter

16. “Over the past decades, researchers have focused on melanin’s most promising talent yet discovered, the ability to conduct electricity. When it comes to electrical charge, melanin acts as a sort of bank, always ready to lend out or to take out electrons depending on the environment ” – Eduardo Di Mauro

17. “Everyone has the same number of melanocytes, but some people make more than others. The bodies of Africans contained massive amounts of melanocytes. So we know when we read on ancient Egypt, they believed that death was not the end, death was just merely part of the journey. The afterlife was so revered and so sacred, they had such a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the afterlife, so the way they preserved the body and the melanin in the body, they really prioritized the preservation of melanin in the mummification process with the aim of creating an actual reality state after death.” -Zanemvula

18. “In invertebrates, melanin plays a huge role in their immune system. When they have a pathogen coming into their system, they will coat the pathogen in melanin and kill it.” -Dr. Raven Baxter

19. “So the whole point of mummification was to preserve the skin which held the actual living network, a neural network of melanin. They believed that the conductivity of melanin increased with age, so technically Tutankhamun’s mummy is more alive now in the afterlife than it ever was here on earth.” – Zanemvula

20. “In Australia, they would literally breed out the melanin out of the people. They would take the children and take them to breeding camps and breeding farms and breed the darker ones with the mulatto ones and the white, and literally breed the melanin out of these people.” -Tareeq Nasheed

Importance of melanin quotes

21. “It’s been a war on the heavily melanated /For your own security, you better be educated, listen” -Black Thought

22. “Oftentimes due to the societies we live in that promote the European standard of beauty, many black women can feel that their beauty is not good enough. But this is starting to change more and more as they start to realize that their melanin is like magic.” -Chime

23. “We are not even tapping into a small fraction of what it is that we are capable of as highly melanated people.” – Zanemvula

24. “The sperm of the male and the egg of the women, they are both layered with melanin so that when the sperm penetrates the egg there is a melanin explosion. And the melanin helps to formulate the fetus within that egg and that fetus is literally coated with the melanin substance, and that melanin substance goes on to form the brain and central nervous system. So every human being begins with a melanin explosion” -Dr. Anthony Browder

25. “Melanin exerts a protective effect on skin and underlying tissues.” -Kevin Tokeph

26. “Melanin is not just found in the skin, it’s actually found in places like our hair, our eyes even, in our brain stems, and also in our adrenal gland which sits on top of our kidney.” -Dr. Raven Baxter

27. “Melanin is an intelligence. It’s an intelligence because it’s the primary dynamic in every single cell, it’s a primary dynamic in the core of the human being as well to the surface of the human being. Its intelligence is responsible for the forming the of the nervous system. Every part of the nervous system has these little black dots that carry information.” –Dr. Phil Valentine

28. “We need melanin because the sun releases damaging and carcinogenic ultraviolet radiation.” – Kevin Tokeph

29. “The critical question is can we protect Melanin? And they are saying up in our faces that you can’t do anything about what I decide to do to you. Now if we do not look at that challenge if we direct our attention to other things… A massive movement is going on, Melanin is being destroyed, but the system of white supremacy says I will be able by offering grants, I will be able by offering jobs, to tell you that you are the cause of the death of black people. I will be doing it, but I will make you focus on yourself and try to figure out how you can figure out how to destroy one another.” – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

30. “I will do it to you in Rwanda, I will set up the Hutu and the Tutsi, I will give each group all the weapons they need, and I’ll say I have taught you to hate your melanated selves and fight each other. I will do it to you on the stress of Los Angeles, I’ll set up one group the Crips, and one group the Bloods. Ill set up all sorts of Muslim groups to fight each other, and I know I can do it because I have programmed you for thousands of years to hate black” – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

People, aging, and melanin quotes

31. “They are about serious business, removing as they deem necessary, the people of melanin on this planet. If we do not understand and make an analysis, it is fundamental, it is this dynamic that is taking us out. Everything that we look at, everything else, I believe and I could be wrong, but as it comes to me, it will be in vain. Everything that we are studying is important. Everything we look at has high-level significance, but if we are not understanding this massive war and everything that is at stake. I believe we will not be able to apply our energy force in a laser type manner so that we really begin to neutralize the war that is coming at us. It is critically essential for us to develop or articulate a new world order of dialogue.” – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

32. “White supremacy is antithetical to justice. You cannot have white supremacy and justice at the same time. I believe that white supremacy puts the people who are supposed to know about justice in black robes because you have to have melanin to understand what balance in this universe really is. We are the people who are peculiarly suited to bring justice to this planet, I believe that is our mission.” – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

33. “Everyone has melanin, both light, and dark-skinned individuals.” – Chime

34. “Melanin is a neurochemical that is produced in part through the pituitary and pineal gland. They both play essential roles in the production of melanin, which is ultimately responsible for the color of our skin.” -Dr. Umar Johnson

35. “Black women greatly benefit from melanin because it prevents them from aging as quickly as other groups.” -Chime

36. “There is a war being waged on melanated people, and melanated people, people of color should realize this war is going on.” -Tareeq Nasheed

37. “A study found that black women’s skin typically ages about ten years slower than white women’s skin. Here is why, human skin has 3 layers; epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis. Melanocytes in the epidermis produce melanin, a natural human pigment. Melanin blocks UV rays which can accelerate the aging process, black men and women produce more melanin in their skin which results in darker pigments.” -Kevin Tokeph

38. “The more melanin in the skin, the more protection you have against the harmful effects of sun exposure.” -Kevin Tokeph

39. “Too much exposure to UV rays can cause the skin to age quicker resulting in wrinkles and sunspots, since white women produce less melanin, they can show signs of aging faster. This doesn’t mean black women won’t experience skin aging, it just happens at a slower rate.” -Kevin Tokeph

40. “The ability to produce melanin is a dominant genetic trait that can cause white genetic annihilation.” -Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

More melanin quotes

41. “They don’t want melanin plus determination coming over to this area of the world and affecting the melanated people who don’t always have determination.” -Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

42. “Melanin may play a bigger role than just absorbing all this radiation, if you get it into your body it actually has a major effect on your immune system. It protects genes and repairs broken DNA. Isn’t that wonderful? If something breaks down because you are exposed to chemicals and radiation? Think about the people of Japan right now in 2011 who are suffering from huge amounts of radiation. What could we do to help them from developing cancer? We need a DNA repairer, and that is what melanin does.” -Dr. Karl Merat

43. “Melanin exists in many other tissues as I mentioned. It’s actually a very important molecule to any woman who is having a baby because the fetus has all of this melanin in it.” -Dr. Karl Merat

44. “The body is actually a communication system, and it works through light. So it’s like a supercomputer, in fact, there is somebody who is studying whether energy is directly absorbed from the melanin in your skin and transformed into energy in your body. It’s thought to be some people, to be a master molecule that actually steers how the body communicates.” -Dr. Karl Merat

45. “In steering things in the body, in the regulatory system, melanin’s role in embryological organization, as in the baby’s organization and tissue repair and tissue regeneration, may be connected to the major role it plays to balance the body called homeostasis.” -Dr. Karl Merat

46. “The evolutionary advantage of melanin is to protect us from the ultraviolet rays, especially in regions which the planet is most exposed to the sun like Central America, Africa, and the Middle East. That is why these people possess more melanin.” -Kevin Tokeph

47. “Researchers are still learning how melanin behaves when surrounded by the machinery that makes useful electronics work.” -Eduardo Di Mauro

48. “Not only is melanin a pigment, which is so obvious, but melanin as an intelligence is a communications module. That essentially broadcasts as well as receives information by way of light and sound frequency signatures.” -Dr. Phil Valentine

49. “Scholars and scientists have been having conferences about melanin, to my awareness, at least since the 1920s.” -Dr. Anthony Browder

50. “Melanin from a physical standpoint is that substance that accounts for what Black people refer to as ‘soul’. We move differently, we walk differently, we talk differently because we have access to a different form of energy than other folks.” -Dr. Anthony Browder

Melanin quotes & sayings to make you feel proud

51. “Our melanin will always make us marvelous… Just imagine what that sea of sisterhood would look like. Magic!” – Alexandra Elle.

52. “Glamour is about feeling good in your own skin.” – Zoe Saldana.

53. “I look at my skin and it is glowing with constellations of ancestors. I ask them about escape and freedom and listen for revelation.” ― Junauda Petrus

54. “Black women were beautifully created at birth. We were blessed with melanin in our skin, which makes us Exquisitely Beautiful. From the lightest to the darkest skin tone, our melanin is Fiercely Poppin’ on Purpose.” ― Stephanie Lahart

55. “Dear Exquisite Black Queen… No matter what shade of MELANIN you are, know that your skin tone is brilliant. You, my Queen, are phenomenally made!” ― Stephanie Lahart

56. “Your beauty will be in shades of melanin and light.” ― R. YS Perez

57. “Humanity today forms a single species and can interbreed freely. Differences in color of hair, skin, and eyes are largely due to differences in the quantity of a pigment called melanin, and this does not affect humanity’s essentially unitary character. Nor do differences in the shape of the eye or nose, in the shape of the skull, or in height.” ― Isaac Asimov

58. “I cannot run away from who I am and my complexion or the larger society, and how they may view that.” ― Lupita Nyong’o

59. “That bubble of doubt within? It’s time to stick a pin in it. And wear your dark and lovely face with a grin on it.” ― Princess Latifah

60. “Like all readers, I want my limits to be drawn by my own sensibilities, not by my melanin count” – Zadie Smith

Melanin Quotes and Instagram Captions.

61. “I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within.” – India.Arie.

62. “Respect the Complexion!” – Stephanie Lahart

63. “I am dripping melanin, and honey, I am black without apology.” – Upile Chisala

64. The black skin is not a badge of shame but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.” – Marcus Garvey.

65. “One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.” – Franklin A. Thomas

66. “Stop comparing skin tones. Who cares if your skin is lighter or darker than the person standing next to you? Change can only happen once you can truthfully look in the mirror and love that Deep Chocolate, Cinnamon, Mocha, or Caramel complexion.” – Alicia D.

67. “God made me this way so I have to be happy with who I am. And it’s a journey. And I embrace my brown skin sisters. I love them and I hope that they embrace me.” – Kym Whitley.

68. “Melanin Poppin’ and No Worries!” – Stephanie Lahart.

69. “The world wants to define me by my mammary glands and melanin. It is just fascinating that Michael Mann has never been asked what it is like to be a white male filmmaker.” – Victoria Mahoney.

70. “Their skin drips the melanin, it absorbs the sun rays too, their hairs are graciously curly, aren’t they magical human beings? At times I get jealous of them because ‘black is beautiful. They always make my head turn!” – C. Vais Hnawi Rao.

Melanin Quotes To Embrace Your Skin Color

71. “My melanin is powerful. It threatens the ignorant, challenges the misinformed. My articulation intimidates. It demands respect the moment I speak. You understand me clearly and with all that all I’ve ever had to be, was black.” — Nii Lee Cyrus

72. “Black women were created of brown sugar and warm honey. the sweetest thing to bless the earth. Be wary of anyone who tells you otherwise.” — Alexandra Elle

73. “If you’re lucky enough to be different, don’t ever change.” — Khoudia Diop

74. “I just can’t conceive of how a person could hate another because of skin color. I love every race on the planet earth.” — Michael Jackson

75. “I’m convinced that we black women possess a special indestructible strength that allows us to not only get down, but the get up, to get through, and to get over.” — Janet Jackson

76. “On cold days, when I felt invigorated, my black co-workers seemed lethargic.” — David Duke

77. “Melanin is an incomparable beauty. From the lightest to the darkest skin tone, Black women and Black girls are exquisite beauty in every shade.” — Stephanie Lahart

78. “Black girl magic means we can do anything we want. We are natural born leaders and we presevere through everything and when somebody says ‘No’ we smile and keep it moving.” — Tiki Sumpter

79. “The one thing I feel is lacking in Hollywood today is an understanding of the beauty, the power, the sexuality, the uniqueness, the humor of being a regular black woman.” — Viola Davis

80. “We aren’t beautiful despite our Blackness, we are beautiful because of it. So don’t dare try to give the credit to anything else.” — Shayla Pierce