Pamela,
I've seen this 3 times in my little corner of the world in Austin, TX.
Two mothers were in the hospital, they were both from Nigeria.  I asked
if they had seen any breast changes - not just size, but color or
texture of the breast.  They both said their breasts had always had
thick skin on the areolas.  I was called in to see these mothers by the
nurses who were concerned that the areolas were not flexible enough for
the babies to latch on and suckle.  I admit the first time I saw this, I
was curious, too.

Both babies did just fine at the breast.  Moms had no notion that they
COULDN'T breastfeed, and babies swallowed just fine.

The other mother I saw postpartum for sore nipples.  She was
African-American and had the flaky skin that you are talking about.  She
had tried scraping the flakes off on one section of her breast and the
skin underneath was pink and raw-looking.  She was afraid the flakes
would harm her baby.  The sore nipples were related to positioning.  She
was unconsciously holding her baby away from herself.  I told this mom
that she may see the flakes in the baby's diaper, but there was nothing
in that to harm the baby.  After all, whether we see it or not, we lose
layers of skin to babies while breastfeeding - some is just more visible
than others.

--
Jeanne Mitchell, Austin, TX
http://www.flash.net/~xanth/home.htm
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"You can tell the quality of a person by how
they treat people they don't need." My Dad