# Do Black People Fade? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530 "2009-10-29T00:32:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/1 "2009-10-29T00:32:36Z")
Senator Ed Brook is 90-something, he just got a congressional gold medal. Gee, he looks darker in the his older photos. Has he lost skin color? Perhaps he is in ill health? ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/2 "2009-10-29T01:26:42Z")
Um, I think like every other human being, he produces more melanin when exposed to sunlight. At 90, he probably doesn’t get out much. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/3 "2009-10-29T02:15:10Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Um, I think like every other human being, he produces more melanin when exposed to sunlight. > > At 90, he probably doesn’t get out much. And, man, there’s nothing whiter than a 90-year-old white person. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/4 "2009-10-29T02:33:01Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Um, I think like every other human being, he produces more melanin when exposed to sunlight. > > At 90, he probably doesn’t get out much. I asked a friend of mine about African American tanning, and he took of his watch to show me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/5 "2009-10-29T04:21:46Z")
In university I had a black as can be Ghanaian fellow student and he tanned. Took off his watch to show me. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/6 "2009-10-29T04:23:34Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > And, man, there’s nothing whiter than a 90-year-old white person. Michael Jackson? He was white as ghost the last time I saw him. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/7 "2009-10-29T13:01:50Z")
I’ll bet that was a Thriller. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/8 "2009-10-29T13:39:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I asked a friend of mine about African American tanning, and he took of his watch to show me. 🙂 Same _exact_ thing happened to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/9 "2009-10-29T14:09:49Z")
As with most other cells, melanocytes have a finite lifespan, varying by individual. Graying hair is proof of this, but of course skin melanocytes also experience senescence. Along with less exposure to sun, this can be a reason for blacks to lighten in color as they grow older. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/10 "2009-10-29T14:58:03Z")
Well I don’t know about you guys, but I like to get faded! Booyah! > [@AK84](#): > > In university I had a black as can be Ghanaian fellow student and he tanned. Took off his watch to show me. I should just carry around a pamphlet with FAQs about my skin, tanning and hair. Moving to the lily white Midwest, it seems I’m a walking exhibit these days. After I came back from Vegas earlier this year, someone asked me if I tanned. I pulled a sleeve off my shoulder and said, “You tell me.” After five days in Vegas, yes, there was a huge, noticeable-to-the-blind tan line. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/11 "2009-10-29T15:51:41Z")
I figured he was just an old soldier. And quite probably, one who never did dig what The Who and all said back in the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/12 "2009-10-29T21:15:29Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I should just carry around a pamphlet with FAQs about my skin, tanning and hair. Q: Can I touch it? A: No. Q: No, seriously, can I touch it? A: _pamphlet punches reader in face and explodes into flames_ ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/13 "2009-10-29T21:19:03Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Well I don’t know about you guys, but I like to get faded! Booyah! Some catch, that catch 22. You can only make that joke when there are a bunch of non-black people around you who don’t know that much about black people, but if you make that joke when there are a bunch of people around you who don’t know that much about black people, most of them probably won’t get the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/14 "2009-10-29T21:44:11Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > In university I had a black as can be Ghanaian fellow student and he tanned. Took off his watch to show me. I knew that in general, but I was surprised when my former student posted on Facebook that he’d gotten a sunburn from his long track practice. He looks pretty undiluted black-African to me, so I had this assumption that he couldn’t burn. Which brings up a point. If Africans have been spending a whole lot of time outside historically until maybe recently, did they burn then? Take some person 100 years ago and give a job herding sheep all day. Does he burn a few times and then tan to a point that he doesn’t burn any more? The skin cancer rate would be horrible if not. I guess I’m asking this about “them” and not say, Europeans because I’m assuming that the sun angles weren’t good enough much of the time to give a real good burn much of the time. Ahhh, maybe I’m just out to lunch. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/15 "2009-10-29T22:12:28Z")
Not if you use Woolite and set the dryer on low. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-people-fade/515530/16 "2009-10-31T03:11:58Z")
I’m a pretty medium shade of brown, and I’ve never burned. It sounds horrible, what with the skin peeling and so on… My wife and sister are both lighter than me and avoid the sun like the plague. I certainly have heard Black people discuss sunburns, but I’ve never seen someone with one.