Mutations and evolution.
Humans started out as black.
Black skin is a very useful thing to have if you are a primate who has just evolved to have no more fur.
Losing fur was a good thing for sweating but it was not so good for being in the sun all the time.
So human when they evolved had black skin.
When some of those humans migrated out of Africa to where there is less sunshine the black skin proved to be a problem.
Not enough sunshine was getting through to help make Vitamin D.
Not a big issue if you live in the Savannah where there is enough sunshine to go around but bad when you wander into the frozen north where the sun doesn’t shine as much.
At that point some freak mutants with pale skin had a big advantage and after enough time everyone who lived in that area was pale skinned.
People in Asia had s lightly different mutation for pale skin than people in Europe, but of course there was a lot of mixing and matching over the years.
Usually the close to the equator you were the darker your skin ended up, but evolution works a lot slower than human migration.
Chances are your current skin color is a mix on what was optimal for your various ancestors 10,000 years ago for wherever they lived at the time, not or where you live today.
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