How being an Albino can shatter "Big Brother" and teach a lesson to all you traditional race-thinkers...

Chris Scarborough (Nashville, TN)

As an Albino, I imagine myself liberated from assumptions that color is a part of race. The blood of my ancestors runs through me as much as any other Mestizo. My cheekbones, eyes, and nose tell me so, yet I do not have the dark hair or skin that my bloodline usually dictates for me. As a result, I see and feel my understanding of race as a true social construct. Therefore, I consider myself a somewhat victor over the device of separation that race was built upon.

It is a lonely place to be as an outlier. Many people feel sorry for me because of my "condition." But, I am also glad that I do not suffer their fate of normalcy that clips their wings of consciousness. A huge irony is that as I type this, I can't help but notice that the individuals that feel the most sorry for me are those who I would say have body, color, and facial structures that are "typical" of their race (obviously), and get shitted on from society because of it. I am outside of the games of "oh, they look white" or "damn, he's dark as shit" as many others are scrutinized over. Paper bag tests are pointless, and passing has been a device imposed upon me rather than chosen. Yes, there have been times where I chose to speak English over Spanish to Latinos and Spanish speakers, but that was more of an issue of acculturation and context rather than pretending to be something I am not. In the end, I speak English. And, there are plenty of Latinos that are as brown as the earth, but can't speak a lick of Spanish if a million dollars were placed on the table in case they pronounced their last name properly.

I do get jealous that I cannot represent on the outside the brownness and color celebrated by my brothers and sisters in poetry, books, and media. I feel left out on certain experiences that would draw me closer to my people. But trust me to the fullest when I tell you that racism and discrimination are some devious bastards and they will find a way to fuck up the day of the whitest colored Mestizos and Blacks. We all got our issues to deal with.

I began dating a white woman for the first time this year. As a person of color, I concerned myself of this notion of being "down" among my brothers and sisters for the very first time in my thirty-three years of life on this planet. These concerns go back to my earlier statement about wanting to feel a part of a shared experience with my brothers and sisters, not an indictment on who I am seeing. I spoke about this with a great friend of mine, another person of color and social activist who is seeing a white person. We shared how we feel a sense of scrutiny by our own people, perceived or real, from those who see racial identity from the function of their "typical" dark skin and hair. What I conclude is that obviously this should not be of any concern. My indictment towards those who think any less of me because of this, is that they are taking on the same act of purification and segregation their oppressors have imposed upon everyone. A preservation of social or cultural purity is completely nonsensical as each "race" has had social, genetic, cultural exchanges with one another since time began. The notion that my values will become affected, that my treatment of others will change, or that I feel that I am "moving up", is absolutely ridiculous. As I mentioned earlier, racism is a bitch. One if its keen tricks is taking on new forms to meet the nomenclature and framework of the day. The Jim Crow of yesteryear is the Prison Industrial Complex of today.

So after writing all this, maybe I do have my own crap to deal with. It may not be the same as the majority of Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, or Asian Pacific Americans, but I think it provides an opportunity for all of us to expand our notions of what this race thing is about. I feel like living proof that race is made up on silly measures and rules. I challenge every white, Black, or Latino to think about their understanding of race, whether its based on seeing it as a social construct or a genetic and biologically based categorization system. In the end its about how you treat others and leaving enough room to know there are other ways of seeing things.

My quick thoughts on MTV's True Life: I am an Albino"

True Life - MTV Shows

For once, my "man, fuck this shit!" meter wasn't as high as it usually gets with mainstream shows about Albinism. I don't watch MTV True Life series often, so I couldn't tell you if its approach is typical of other episodes, but I appreciated the large amount of airtime the three were given to explain themselves, and not a voice-over explaining what Albinism is in a medical-kinda-a-way (it eventually does later in the show). I connected strongly with the guy who went to the convention and his initial nervousness about being with so many other folks with Albinism. Overall it was as good as it can get from a commercial/MTV lens. It could have been worse.

This is the second time I've seen a white female concern herself about "passing," a topic I heard mostly among African Americans, which I find REALLL ironic. She also brings up the notion of being called "An Albino" versus "Someone with Albinism" and the implications it has on her esteem. IMO, we're screwed if you take it that way. I've been on some message boards and folks can really get into this particular topic. There may be some valid language and social identity politics at play, but as a Latino, I cannot see such discussions anywhere related in the same vein as ethnic groups going on about "Latino vs. Latin@" or "Black v. African American". In the end, uses of such terms are contextual. And, moving fluidly among these names is an act against the Eurocentric approach of rigid categorizations and psycho/social/identity segregation. I often play with the negative connotations when interacting with people, just to fuck with them a little... so no matter how I present myself, I keep in control of the naming at all times.. (oops, I gave away a secret).

I also found the lunchroom discussion quite fascinating as the African American male told Zack (the African American with Albinism) that he was shocked, and the white dudes were all "I just saw you as who you were man" SOOO much to be said right there about how this exemplifies the continued stagnation of how fucked up race issues are in 2010... As a Latino with Albinism/Albino Latino/Latino Albino (ha!), I had my share of acceptance and rejection by whites, blacks, and Latinos... too bad this wasn't explored more to show intra-group issues, and cross-group issues, and how it takes social anomalies to bring this out.

In all, its a decent episode, not the best... and not everyone has such a great ending to their lives as these folks do. Again, this calls for more exposure of Albinism, and a heightened complexity of understanding the identities of "others," which I doubt we'll see about Albinos again anytime soon.

Celebrating Albinism Week - Day 5 thoughts on 20/20's show on Albinism

I was asked about the recent show regarding Albinism on 20/20 last Friday. Here is my summation of thoughts in true social science approach. LOL. To get a bigger scope on my views, check out my “Celebrating Albinism Week” tag at the right side of this blog.

PRE-SHOW DISPOSITIONS
There are a few conditions I carried with me before watching the show.

1. This was being presented on Friday evening, shaping the delivery of this report to baby boomers and older folk.
2. This was 20/20, a news magazine notorious for smothering the pathos all over the place, which it did quite effectively for the albinism report.
3. The report was not going to be directed to me, but to the rest of ya’ll who do not have Albinism.
4. I have my own defense mechanisms at play… but don’t we all when we see our own on screen.

The next set of conditions we should look at are ‘outcomes’ of what this report is supposed to do. Here are some particular outcomes I devised...

1. How educated was the audience about albinism after the show was over?
2. How useful could this information be after the show was over? (i.e. can the audience leave with any tools of wisdom and techniques to be applied in their day to day?)
3. How representative was the show in depicting people with Albinism?
4. How much of our own voice, in our own terms, was delivered to the audience?

SHOW REFLECTIONS

1. Yet again, within the first five minutes of the show, the whole association of us with other creatures was made clear as alligators, birds, snakes, were shown alongside us. Huh? I wonder where this concept of animalizing the ‘other’ first began? The only other piece of information was a brief disclosure of our susceptibility to skin cancer and sunlight. A more complex definition of Albinism that includes a description of the VARIETIES of conditions with Albinism can be found here. Yes family, there is more than one type of albinism.
2. If you saw the show, you can answer for yourself… as for me… zero
3. In a positive note, I dug the variety of individuals (the model, the young baby, the little man, etc). I also dug that we had folks embracing it in different ways. I was actually quite surprised about the young lady who chose to pass. Studying African American literature so long, I couldn’t help but associate passing with the African American experience, I was hurt by that one, especially coming from a White girl (the irony is ridiculous).
4. I would give this a “C”. There were a variety of views, but not enough variety of views or opinions that broke away from the pathos lens being applied to each person. A lack of complicating the matter.

A side-note on the whole section about Tanzania….
Alright WTF was that!?!? Unfortunately, I felt that piece became an indictment on Tanzania rather than about Albinism, who were used as catalysts to highlight certain conditions taking place. The United States STILL has problems understanding Africa and the image this country has on the continent needs some serious reform. I don’t think this piece helped in that in any way, shape, or form. If the intention was to depict Albinism globally, then we can look at a survey of cultures that includes the Caribbean, American Indian nations, and Latin America… who each have different takes on the subject. I was VERY hurt on this one.

POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
In the end, watching this program reminded me of many ‘first presentations’ of so many other groups in the media. Initial depictions of Africans, Mayans, folks in the LGBTQ community, and folks with disabilities, used lenses full of soot, inaccuracy and extreme pathos to ‘translate’ and make us palatable to mainstream audiences. I remember taking an African American history class that showed early pics of Africans before the onslaught of chattel-slavery and how Africans were viewed using Greek and Roman motifs. I remember learning about how folks in the LGBT community were first studied as medical misfits and ‘sick’. I remember seeing “Different Strokes” where the episode was about Willis not wanting to go out with a girl because she used a wheelchair. While the level of ‘hurt’ or pain applied in these examples differs, each of them share the common problem that its not the Albino who is inaccurate, but the lenses used to portray us are so misguiding and limited that the bridge of true relationship building across groups is completely useless. Why would you even want to cross a bridge if its made of straw and rope, when you can work a bit harder to create a bridge of wood and metal for a safer crossing?

There was a bit of discussion on my Facebook about the validity of this show as a good tool to ‘educate’ people about Albinism, between two African American females with Albinism and myself. Argument 1 was that we needed this show to educate folks as a starting point. Argument 2 was that sometimes we shouldn’t feel so obligated to ‘teach’ all the time as we are also human beings and deserve a break sometimes.

In the end, “Argument 2” became a moot point as the show did not utilize folks with Albinism to present themselves from any position of power (I don’t know if any Albinos produced the show, wrote the script, created the questions, chose the shots for the camera, etc.). We were the targets of the lens in a both literal and abstract definition of the term. As for “Argument 1”, is it really Education if the tools and techniques to teach are embedded historically in promoting inaccuracy and limited profiles of the subject? It is Education at the most basic level of presenting data, but not Education as the outcomes did not truly ‘educate’ anyone of their postionality to folks with Albinism. We are left felt sorry for, slightly happy that some of us had a sense of determination… and that pretty much is all you were left with… too bad.

Celebrating Albinism Week – King Yellowman's therapy as the Blueprint for Dancehall

Previously, I celebrated Connie Chiu for having beauty and fashion associated with albinism. In part 3 of this series, I present to you my King. Yellowman is one of the greatest artists in Reggae music who took a unique stance with albinism and innovated the lyrical content and delivery of deejays. Yellowman directly addressed sex, style, mic skills, with an explicit consciousness of his albinism as perversion, impurity, and threat with a humor that made people laugh, nervous, and intrigued. The sheer power of his lyrics matched his content, delivered with such hyperbole and exaggeration, and the venom that it was all actually true. He said he was the best, and he was right. He said that he had the best jewelry, and it was true. And, he said he had all the ladies after him, and that was absolutely true. At one point, Yellowman had 40 tracks circulating all around Jamaica and was the first Dancehall Deejay to sign to a major label.

Yellowman influenced a huge array of 80’s Hip Hop artists with his rhyme schemes and showmanship. He also popularized the use of another toaster to toss rhymes and verses back and forth, as well as share choruses, with his main man Fathead in tracks like "Operation Eradication". This tune and many others carried small intros and dialogue, quite similar to many Hip Hop acts. I admire his stance on stage as well, wearing the cool clothes at the time, bringing a true swagger to his flow and style with his body movement on stage. I am a big critic of placing emphasis on clothes, bling, and superficial items as signs of your status, but in this case I make the exception.

Compare with Run-DMC's "Its Like That"

Yellowman brought the whole "slack" construct to the vocabulary of reggae toasters. While skank was pretty much a misogynistic approach to talking about girls, I felt Yellowman was taking slack and applying it to his position as an Albino in Jamaica, which was looked down upon. Moreso, a male with albinism would generally be considered an undesirable. Yet with the sheer power of his lyrics and showmanship, he took that stereotype and flipped it, positioning him as a very very threatening man to other males with a strong sexual drive and success, countering all notions of albinism as an inferior trait. He put this threat to good use in “I’m getting married in the morning” where he promised the world his wife would have ‘yellow babies’. He took it further by highlighting the inability to hold themselves back from him in his true slack tune “My Fat Thing”

And on pure lyrical delivery and showmanship, NO ONE could ride a riddim as well as him. Listen to the way he seems to be trying to pull his flow back and forth, fast and slow tall around the track, “Body Move”, in particularly when he sings the hook and explains the dances. These transitions are pure prog-rock and MF DOOM as far as switching up styles in mid track.

As a person, Yellowman has been through a lot. His success did not come without a price. He grew up in a lot of hardship where as a child where he grew up in an orphanage, abandoned due to his albinism. Today, Yellowman is battling skin cancer. The fact that my man continues to make music, tour, and be in front of stage after radiation therapy and suffering its consequences to his body is a testament to his strength and boldness as a human.

2007

At times I wonder how effective was his approach to himself and others. Honestly, he drenched himself in hyperbole, putting to question whether he allowed his albinism to be empathetically attainable from others. At this point I can only see this hyperbole as applicable for the sake of showmanship and self-repair from all the hardship he has faced. It was his isolation, unique placement as a person with Albinism that forced him to find a place in music, yet as mere consequence his position changed Reggae. How effective was his presence to educate those in Jamaica and the rests of the world? There is some solace in knowing that many artists following him (Shabba Ranks, Bounty Killer, Beenieman, Vybes Cartel, etc.) have taken Yellowman’s blueprint and carried it further and applied to non-Albinos. But this is only a literal application (the consequence of this is seen in the perpetuation of misogynistic attitudes towards women and the false-education of the importance of material goods). I think the true blueprint that Yellowman highlights to me is how one must find their path to navigate the oppressions that exist out there. There was no blueprint for how Yellowman should behave; yet he found one, blessed a lot of people with his entertainment, and allowed folks like myself to find a hero.

Here is Yellowman's take, and lets just go with this one...

Celebrating Albinism Week – Why I am in Love with Connie Chiu

For many of us who take it upon ourselves to correct the wrongs of the past, particularly those who take on the battle of image politics, it’s been a very troubled game. To be subjugated by our very features, skin tones, facial shaping, and subsequently behaviors or attitudes in negative and oppressive ways, we oftentimes take the very same features used to differentiate us from those in power and use them as symbols and rallying cries of what beauty really means, and embrace these characteristics as our blessings. Another approach has been to sublimate these features altogether, making them nonexistent to our world through a physical eradication as an act of appropriating ourselves to the norms of society. Another approach has been to play ignorant to it altogether, live with it, but leave it in a perpetual ‘timeout’ in which are never to speak of it. One final approach is we include other components to the mix and attempt to fill the names we use “Ablino”, “Black”, “Latino”, etc. with as much variety and ‘diversity’ as possible… to bombard the onlooker with so much variation that the features that were highlighted become blurred with images (chosen by us) to balance out the essentializing of our identities.
The problem with these approaches is that we are attempting to change the look of the table, but we don’t really change the menu (at the cost of our exhaustion). In what ways have we really changed the surrounding norms, forces, factors, influences, and frameworks to eradicate this plight?? We love Hip Hop, but we complain about the industry… We enjoy seeing ourselves on television, but we are sick of networks’ irresponsibility… We feel higher education is one of the greatest gifts in the United States, but yet we still see social stratification being socialized unto us today.

And this look at the personal with the industry is why I am in love with Connie Chiu.

Connie Chiu is the only Albino high fashion model in the world. And there some simple reasons why I love her, 1. She is physically attractive, 2. I feel a kinship to her 3. She is from an ignored population and has been embraced and valued by others 4. She is also from a non-western background, coinciding with my Salva-Chapin roots. So, all that to say, she is absolutely gorgeous. Her parents moved from China to Sweden in order for her to be away from the harmful sun. My parents also did all they could to make sure I was taken care of in any physical needs related to albinism.The other piece that I’m fascinated with is how she is treated and presented in her photos. Her placement as an established fashion model for high-end designers. She even was in a video for Recoil (a side project from Depeche Mode… I’d post the video here, but the song sucks big time, and I don’t want to do any injustice to my girl.. lol). As someone with albinism myself, I find her shocking, I am mesmerized by her and cannot stop staring. I dunno if its just me, I also note her physical features differ vastly from most models anyway. Yet, I’ve always fallen for women who are not traditional looking, but still attractive.

The kicker is that she is an industry that I find to be one of biggest tools to hurt women in my world. I detest the whole notion of high fashion, as the bare consequence has been a constant pain to the women of my life. So many of my Latina, Black, Biracial, hermosa, curvaceous women have been mentally, physically, or emotionally affected by Western standards of beauty. While Connie Chiu fits many qualifiers to be considered a model, her Albinism also qualifies her to be considered a model. Which leaves me to question, is it right that we find her beautiful because she is albino? Would she be a model if not? Is either question being fair to her? Is her albino-assed self perpetuating the thing I hate about high fashion??
I have no answers to these questions. The sad part is that I do not think she will be “opening the doors to others with albinism” as we see with racial groups. In the end, I simply enjoy the fact that someone who looks like me, and comes from a similar immigrant context, is up there. It is a pairing of social opposites, we have a person with albinism… which has been seen as a ‘defect’ in many cultures, identified as a ‘mutation’ in science books, and carries particular limitations (UV rays, sometimes eyesight, etc) and yet she is in one of the biggest tools of an industry I can imagine. Yet the point of her as a model is that you are forced to look at her, you are socialized to perceive her as work of art or beauty, and you are to like and buy whatever she is wearing.

Celebrating Albinism Week – With features on Connie Chiu, Yellowman, SPF 80, Carnival Mirrors, later this week...

One night I woke up and said it was time that I do a feature on Albinism for an entire week. I think the idea was fueled by some event (imaginary or real) that brought out a few feelings that have developed and changed over the years. These feelings, and the social contextualization of albinism as a ‘genetic disorder,’ alongside my whole vocation of social activist/advocate, conscious, multi-…, identity, self… has created this concoction.


I remember telling my father two years ago that I absolutely hated having to "explain myself" to every person who had questions about the way I looked. Or, feeling like a genetic weirdo when I was looked at in a funny way. I shared that I have since decided to not conduct anymore learning moments with strangers, and rejoice in their confusion. I told my father stories of people coming up to me in stores, being made fun of, or questioned on things such as if my sister is related to me. I confessed that I was hurt when my friends and family got tired of dropping me off at my house. Or hearing so much the passive, “I don’t see that about you” from quasi-socially just sensitives who want to do me some favor by not seeing what’s in front of them. The bottom line is if you are immediately going to see my skin first, and not even ask for my name, then you just filtered yourself out from any interest I have in you, or teaching you anything.

After saying all this, my father gave me this puzzled look, saddened, and replied “I remember when you were a kid, you used to go to kids and classes and tell them all about it, sorta like you were proud and not ashamed.” 

I think he was hurt by how I turned from some evangelist to this angered hermit of "genetic disorders."

So, right now, I really don’t give two shits about what you, the reader, are feeling right now: sympathy, nervousness, quiet, happy, supportive or whatever about what I just shared with you. The river has done run over this rock, and I’ve now become a smoothed [stone (cold motherfucker)]. Nothing phases me and that’s why I decided to close up shop on preaching to all of ya’ll…

But wait… the irony of it!!

Bottom line is that no matter what I do or say, the issue exists… perceived or otherwise. In the end, it’s all about how I deal and I’m not really interested if you actually learn anything or not. I’m doing this for myself with an educational opportunity for all of you as a bystander. In the end there are two things I want you to know from this entry.

1. I’m conducting a test or experiment on ‘representing’
2. The anger and disconnect you may sense from me right now is part of this experiment, and I really want you to process this out for yourself.

So, the experiment is that I want to present albinism backwards. In the narrative of human history, anything or anyone who was considered outsider were first presented in dry, medical, and generic terms, which allowed the notion of us treating them as different or even cruelly, feasible and acceptable. From the birth of Sociology, to the treatment of people from Black, LGBT, Asian Pacific American communities to documentaries on Hip Hop (I was watching Style Wars and it felt like I was watching Animal Kingdom)… we always always always always present the outsider as the medical or genus specimens. As a result, many of us go through a painful and slow progression to human sovereignty that will always be questioned.

So, the itinerary for Juice’s “Albino-docs” is as follows… today I gave you me. Me in my fed up, angry, annoyed, and pissed off lens of what albinism means and has affected me in an emotional sense. Hopefully next up you’ll get a chance to see some ‘great moments in ablinism’, then ‘bad moments in albinism’ and then we’ll end it with the genetic, medical, generic. I can top this off, with some retrospect on this entire experience… putting this out there for you to read.

Enjoy!