MovieChat Forums > Hairspray (2007) Discussion > About black people -No trolling, I swear...

About black people -No trolling, I swear!

posted 15 years ago by rog89
19 replies | jump to latest

Where I live, there is no cultural history of black people so I'm very ignorant in these matters but I know there's a tendency to put black people all under the same hat. It occurred to me while watching Hairspray that Maybelle and Seaweed are a completely different color.
I was thinking at first that maybe Seaweed's father was this dark too but then little Inez is a similar color to Maybelle so that doesn't work (unless their had different fathers?).

Is this due to ancestry from different African countries or some sort of evolution of paling (I, myself, am a dark-skinned person but I think I'm still very pale compared to others of my race because I live in a different climate and spend much time indoors so I found this idea possible)? Is there some sort of a whitening therapy (I've heard of dark women who put on some sort of a cream to make their skin whiter as white people go sunbathing or put on tan spray)?

Please, educate me (be nice though)!

"Why do grapes bob up and down in a glass of soda? -No, really. I wanna know!"

[–] eanderson35145 13 years ago

In addition to what everyone else said:

Skin color is actually controlled by multiple genes, so simple Mendelian genetics don't apply here. Skin color isn't dominant/recessive; it's on a gradient, like height. Yes, you will tend to have skin color similar to one or the other of your parents, of course, but it's on a gradient. Thus Seaweed and Inez could have the same dad and still be slightly different in color.

[–] Franco_Zed 12 years ago

"... you will tend to have skin color similar to one or the other of your parents, of course, but it's on a gradient. Thus Seaweed and Inez could have the same dad and still be slightly different in color."

I just wanted to add that this is similar to hair colour, eye colour, and freckles. There can be a lot of differences between siblings.

For a great example of how genetics can result in siblings looking very much alike, or not so much alike, check out the singing group, Cimorelli. Cimorelli is 6 sisters, 3 of whom have fair skin and light eyes, and 3 of whom have more stereotypically Italian features: dark eyes, and more of a tanned complexion. They have people constantly not believing that they are sisters because they kind of look like two groups of 3 sisters. (They also have 5 brothers!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ7oFJAgLTE
(Cimorelli performing "Cups" from Pitch Perfect)

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[–] DMoney1184 11 years ago

It has to do with the fact that in America especially, to some degree, we're all "mutts". People of different races and national and ethnic backgrounds fall in love and have kids. The children of two black people is obvious going to have a different shade of skin then the child of a white man and black woman (or a black man and a white woman). We're just all mixtures, at this point.