shouldn’t it have the opposite effect on the skin
In: Biology
Because it’s the melanin molecules absorbing the UV rays and not your DNA (or other important proteins) in your skin cells! Melanin is also primarily present in the upper-layers of your skin, further away from the more delicate stuff in the inner-layers. So you can think of melanin as a shield (like your clothing would be!) that absorbs the UV rays early before they can penetrate deeper and cause more damage.
It matters where the light is being absorbed. The outermost layer of your skin is meant to protect the interior–see, shallow damage can be replaced easily as those cells are constantly being cycled through (with the outermost even being “dead” already), but deeper into the tissue of your skin the cells are very much alive and responsible for reproducing and replacing the layers above.
So to more directly address your question: yes darker colors tend to absorb more (visible) light. This means it won’t penetrate as deeply if it’s ultimate fate is to be absorbed. Which, is something you want for UV light specifically, which can damage DNA when absorbed by cells. The outermost layer of your skin will tank it better than deeper down.
White skin doesn’t reflect the bad rays. It lets it in.
Dark skin absorbs the bad rays at the surface before it gets in deep to the tender bits.
Imagine you have a car with a paint job that is very delicate and will fade if it gets too much sunlight.
Now imagine you put a big black blanket over that car.
Yes, the blanket absorbs a lot of the light and makes it warm. But the blanket is made of stuff that A) isn’t very damaged by UV and B) you don’t care if it gets damaged. It wasn’t heat that you were worried about, it was UV.
Melanin is that blanket. It doesn’t get damaged by UV like the other parts of skin. So people who have more of it have less UV hit the skin cells that can be damaged by it.
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