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But, that's a hell of a good question though, Yemaya!

From WikiPedia:
Melanin (Greek μέλας, black; pronounced /ˈmɛlənɪn/<small> ( listen)</small>
is a class of compounds found in plants, animals, and protists, where it serves predominantly as a pigment. The class of pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. Many melanins are insoluble salts and show affinity to water.[citation needed] The most common form of biologicalmelanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid, and their reduced forms. Another common form of melanin is pheomelanin, a red-brown polymerof benzothiazine units largely responsible for red hair and freckles. The presence of melanin in the archaea and bacteria kingdoms is an issue of ongoing debate amongst researchers in the field. The increased production of melanin in human skin is called melanogenesis. It is stimulated by the DNA damages that are caused by UVB-radiation,[1]and it leads to a delayed development of a tan. This melanogenesis-based tan takes more time to develop, but it is long lasting.[2]
From WebMD
Any of the dark brown to black polymers of indole-5,6-quinone and/or 5,6-dihydroxyindole 2-carboxylic acid that normally occur in the skin, hair, pigmented coat of the retina, and inconstantly in the medulla and zona reticularis of the adrenal gland. Melanin may be formed in vitro or biologically by oxidation of l-tyrosine or l-tryptophan, the usual mechanism being the enzymatic oxidation of l-tyrosine to 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (dopa) and dopaquinone by monophenol monooxygenase, and the further oxidation (probably spontaneous) of this intermediate to melanin. Cf.: eumelanin, pheomelanin
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Evidently color does matter in nature, considering that it is nature that is responsible for any and all color on earth, including that of human beings. Color or lack of color in humans is only an adaptation to environment, no different or for no other reason than it is for flowers, trees, animals, fish, birds, or fruit and vegetables. That fact alone is what makes it ridiculous for people to actually believe that the color of another human being means anything negative or positive. However, as long as the majority of the people on this planet cannot read, or are uneducated or undereducated, people will still believe in racial superstitions, fables, and lies; and as long as people do this, the handful of powers that be will continue to play on and manipulate this vast ignorance to its advantage over the masses.

There has to be a practical and natural reason for this. There have to be beneficial properties of melanin or any other form of color as it appears in what we know as nature. What are they?
Scientifically, it is quite simple, melanin is produced by the body to protect it from the rays of the sun.
Color is a defense mechanism against the damaging effects of sunlight.
Life is more comfortable with it than without it.
Period.
No one...no one ever attempts to contradict that.
Everything else is societal.
Including those who talk about 'color doesn't matter'.
PEACE
Jim Chester
The melanin pathways have multiple functions, though the function scientists recognize best is the protection from free radical damage and (UV mediated) DNA nicking. There are "balanced polymorphisms" (eg certain "versions") of melanins that confer different types of benefits that have nothing to do with sun protection. When I discussed this here last year, I think I mentioned some of the other beneficial effects...
shulamite
Yemaya