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Albinism in Culture: NonfictionEven in Science, Albinism Says More to the Imagination Than the Mind
Albinism has such deep roots in the psyche that nonfiction writers often confuse the scientific with the superficial when writing about it.
Albinism infuses Western religion, mythology, and art, symbolizing purity and connectedness to the other world. In recent years, science has identified the condition’s causes down to which chromosome carries the mutated, melanin-inhibiting gene. Yet apart from research on albinism’s genetic and biochemical aspects, especially the groundbreaking work of Dr. Richard King, a geneticist at the International Albinism Center in Minneapolis, most nonfiction takes as much license in referencing the condition as novelists and screenwriters. Much nonfiction uses albinism to amplify points with mountains of metaphor built on grains of truth, as in this footnote in Diane Ackerman’s 1990 book, A Natural History of the Senses: “Because albinos lack a dark layer of cells behind the retina, more light travels around inside their eyes and colors often seem to them quieter and more diluted.” “Lacking dark cells behind the retina” is the statement’s lone fact. Seeing is BelievingIn the 19th century, persons with albinism were sideshow staples. Seafaring writers such as Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad reinforced its exoticism with accounts of the condition. In his Congo Diary, Conrad writes: “In the evening, three women, of whom one albino, passed our camp. Horrid, chalky white with pink blotches, red eyes, red hair, features very Negroid and ugly.” Through the 20th century, any albinism sighting constituted publishable findings in scientific journals or mainstream magazines:
Pseudo-PsychologyAlbinism shocks the psyche enough that psychiatrists use it as carte blanche for behavioral studies. Four papers published between 1976 and 1989 link albinism to Schizophrenia (one based solely on a woman with albinism who simply lived alone and had never married), an unproven connection. Delineating RaceAlbinism is frequently used in nonfiction exploring the nature and origins of race. Though the intent may be scientific or anthropological, data rarely supports observations on albinism. In her Isis Papers (Third World Press, 1991), Francis Welsing bases race theory on symbolism from Melville and the New Age. “Melville's linkage of evil and dread with…albinism parallels my own thesis that the absence of the neuropeptide melanin…critically impairs the depth sensitivity of the nervous system and the ability to tune in to the total spectrum of energy frequencies in the universe.” This disharmony, according to Welsing, fuels white supremacy, though her thesis ignores albinism’s occurrence in all races and ethnicities. The presence (or even the appearance) of albinism does have symbolic meaning for how people perceive others. Marshall Frady notes in the New Yorker (Octobe 12, 1992) that during a journey to Africa, Malcolm X was met with “much pomp and celebration,” but also suspicion due to his coloring. “At the same time, though, some Africans were a bit disconcerted by the pallor of his skin, and assumed he was an albino.” In other racial studies, albinism provides comic touches, as in John Howard Griffin’s expose Black Like Me. “The local roadside cafe, a gathering place for the segregationists, had a new sign. For some time it had carried a sign reading We Don't Serve Negroes. Then this sign was replaced by a larger sign: Whites Only. Now another had joined it: No Albinos Allowed.” Despite the accessibility of scientific facts, albinism inspires the imagination as much as the mind. Though common to all races, the condition seems a standin for whiteness at its most disquieting.
The copyright of the article Albinism in Culture: Nonfiction in Activism is owned by Andrew Leibs. Permission to republish Albinism in Culture: Nonfiction in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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