Albinism in Culture: The Press
Media Coverage of Albinism Swayed by Myth, Misconception, Melodrama
Jul 28, 2008
The early 1990s saw two albinism-related events occur in Wisconsin.
In 1990, University of Wisconsin scientists isolated a gene that causes one form of albinism. In 1994, on a farm in Janesville, a white buffalo was born.
The genetic breakthrough earned New York Times and New England Journal of Medicine briefs while Miracle, the first white buffalo seen since 1911, was national news, drawing 250,000 visitors the next five years.
Albino Animals Always Newsworthy
The two stories typify journalism’s use of albinism: evoking human wonder from tales of rare creatures while ignoring the condition’s scientific and human aspects.
Unease about albinism often emerges in stories about animals. An Associated Press story (Nov. 16, 1997) about a white lobster pulled from Casco Bay by Raymond, Maine fisherman Bill Coppersmith begins:
“A rare all-white lobster has managed to stay out of hot water because of its ghostly pallor.”
That “ghostly pallor” drew the curious to Coppersmith’s shop; the same fear-evoking descriptor is also common to literary characters with albinism, starting with Melville’s Moby Dick.
Home of the White Squirrels
The storied white squirrels of Marionville, Missouri epitomize the tendency to view albinism as fanciful despite the availability of facts.
In 1989, Marionville had about 2,000 people, 1,000 white squirrels, and a $500 fine for deliberating harming a squirrel. Of the squirrels’ origin, local resident James Smart recounted local legend to the Associated Press:
“A couple of the critters escaped from a traveling circus…or were the product of a weird experiment by a local scientist.”
Writers rarely question such explanations; albinism seems to extend license to cast facts in shadow, even in the Wall Street Journal. In a 1998 feature about a meditation retreat, William McGowan has two albinism encounters.
“one of the groundskeepers had urged me to try to get a look at an albino deer that they had started seeing a few months before…I thought the story was just a hazing ritual, but this didn't stop me from patrolling the grounds after dinner, squinting into the dark, looking for the unicorn...”
After invoking a mythical beast, McGowan transfigures resident nun Sister Rosemary, who has albinism: “She sat across the lunch table, the afternoon sun turning her into a pillar of blazing light.”
Continued use of "Albino"
Occasionally, journalists explore albinism’s human aspect. Judy Licht’s 1991 Washington Post story, “The Physical and Psychic Problems of Albinism” notes that persons with albinism “prefer not to be called albinos.”
In a 1991 “Word Watch” column, the Toronto Globe & Mail promotes “Person with albinism” as a term “preferred by some members of the National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH).”
Despite political correctness, the inclusion of the terse word “albino” in the Associated Press Style Guide keeps this ration of dignity out of reach. The word also makes for tighter headlines.
After decrying the word’s use at its 1992 conference, NOAH advocates woke up on Sunday to the Chicago Tribune headline “Albinos Find Strength is in Kinship.”
The press's use of albinism's reinforces its pull on the imagination: despite the complete mapping of the human genome revealing which genes cause albinism, a white buffalo or lobster still offers an irresistible newsflash of primal wonder.
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