Skin color is the primary physical criterion by which people have been classified into groups in the Western scientific tradition. From the earliest classifications of Linnaeus, skin color labels were not neutral descriptors, but connoted meanings that influenced the perceptions of described groups. In this article, the history of the use of skin color is reviewed to show how the imprint of history in connection with a single trait influenced subsequent thinking about human diversity. Skin color was the keystone trait to which other physical, behavioral, and culture characteristics were linked. To most naturalists and philosophers of the European Enlightenment, skin color was influenced by the external environment and expressed an inner state of being. It was both the effect and the cause. Early investigations of skin color and human diversity focused on understanding the central polarity between “white” Europeans and nonwhite others, with most attention devoted to explaining the origin and meaning of the blackness of Africans. Consistently negative associations with black and darkness influenced philosophers David Hume and Immanuel Kant to consider Africans as less than fully human and lacking in personal agency. Hume and Kant's views on skin color, the integrity of separate races, and the lower status of Africans provided support to diverse political, economic, and religious constituencies in Europe and the Americas interested in maintaining the transatlantic slave trade and upholding chattel slavery. The mental constructs and stereotypes of color-based races remained, more strongly in some places than others, after the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery. The concept of color-based hierarchies of people arranged from the superior light-colored people to inferior dark-colored ones hardened during the late seventeenth century and have been reinforced by diverse forces ever since. These ideas manifest themselves as racism, colorism, and in the development of implicit bias. Current knowledge of the evolution of skin color and of the historical development of color-based race concepts should inform all levels of formal and informal education. Awareness of the influence of color memes and race ideation in general on human behavior and the conduct of science is important.

中文翻译：

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 肤色和种族


在西方科学传统中，肤色是对人们进行分组的主要物理标准。从林奈最早的分类开始，肤色标签就不是中性描述符，而是暗示了影响所描述群体认知的含义。在本文中，回顾了肤色使用的历史，以展示与单一特征相关的历史印记如何影响随后对人类多样性的思考。肤色是与其他身体、行为和文化特征相关的关键特征。对于欧洲启蒙运动的大多数自然主义者和哲学家来说，肤色受到外部环境的影响并表达了内在的存在状态。这既是结果，也是原因。早期对肤色和人类多样性的研究侧重于理解欧洲“白人”与其他非白人之间的中心极性，而大多数注意力都集中在解释非洲人黑人的起源和含义上。与黑人和黑暗的持续负面联系影响了哲学家大卫·休谟和伊曼纽尔·康德，他们认为非洲人不完全是人类，缺乏个人能动性。休谟和康德关于肤色、不同种族的完整性以及非洲人地位较低的观点为欧洲和美洲有兴趣维持跨大西洋奴隶贸易和支持动产奴隶制的不同政治、经济和宗教选民提供了支持。在废除奴隶贸易和奴隶制之后，基于肤色的种族的心理结构和刻板印象仍然存在，在某些地方比其他地方更为强烈。 基于肤色的人种等级观念（从上等浅色人种到下等深色人种）的概念在 17 世纪末期得到强化，此后一直受到各种力量的强化。这些想法表现为种族主义、肤色歧视以及隐性偏见的发展。当前关于肤色演变和基于肤色的种族概念历史发展的知识应该为各级正式和非正式教育提供信息。认识到颜色模因和种族观念对人类行为和科学行为的影响非常重要。