Even among first generation African kids who grew up in the West?
Absolutely no racist intention; this is an observation which is fairly common among Africans (anecdotally and among others online). I don’t know why, but In my former class of teens of mixed backgrounds, there were 3 African girls, all of who had reddish eyes compared to the native Irish kids who had white eyes. The only exception were the kids who smoked weed.
Even my African relatives all have non-white scleras. They don’t have jaundice and it’s ridiculous to think that all Africans could suffer from jaundice.
I heard it might have something to do with the presence of subconjuvital fat in the sclera but any dopers who specialize in biology should freely refute this if false.
It’s called “racial melanosis” or physiological melanosis. Essentially, people with a lot of melanin (i.e., dark-skinned people) are likely to have patches of melanin in/on the conjunctiva. I’m Indian and I have it too. If you are talking about people whose entire scleras are discolored, I don’t think that’s normal.
Wouldn’t patches of melanin look brown rather than yellow or red?
Because it is against a background of the white scleras (the whites of your eyes). I wondered this question a while ago myself and did a bit of research on it. It usually is caused by high levels of melanin and subconjunctival fat in the sclera. It is harmless in those cases but it is also perfectly possible for black people to suffer from jaundice (usually caused by liver disease) as well and that isn’t harmless. The two conditions can look fairly similar superficially in dark skinned people but one is very bad and the other isn’t. For younger black people with yellowed or brown tinted eyes, it is usually just a normal trait however.
Here are some photos for people that don’t know what it looks like.
https://www.google.com/search?q=africans+with+yellow+eyes&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkrZKFpIzTAhUIyoMKHS3kAfYQsAQITg&biw=768&bih=379&dpr=2.5
Thanks Shagnasty. I think I get it now.