Not going to Tanzania any time soon.

[truepenny]

Albinos in Tanzania are being murdered for their body parts.

Also, a quite interesting Q&A about albinism itself. And how much do I love the SciAm writers for remarking on the popular culture Evil Albino stereotype?

(N.b., the type of albinism I have is not the same as the albinism being discussed in the article and Q&A. I have no pigment in my retinas, but my pupils and irises are normal. I am also, as people who have met me can testify, extremely pale--among my extended family of brunet(te)s and redheads, I am the only blonde, and my skin is also noticeable for its pallor. (See icon.) This is typical of ocular albinism, which seems to decrease pigmentation in hair and skin, but doesn't remove it entirely, as oculocutaneous albinism does. I also have nystagmus, and a lot of trouble with light levels, and the ocular albinism is the reason I started wearing bifocals at the age of thirty-two. I'm lucky, though, in that my problems are not as severe as they would most likely be if I had oculocutaneous albinism--I'm not legally blind, as long as I'm wearing my glasses.)

If you're interested in finding out more about any type of albinism, NOAH (the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) has a lovely and informative website.

Comments

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

Just when you think our species might be getting a little better...

We have a friend with oculocutaneous albinism. She was Caitlin's first Educational Advocate. It is so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that she could be murdered for it in this day and age.

My daughter is also missing some pigment in her retinas. In Cait's case, the pigment loss is in the shape of little lakes (retinal lacunae). Caitlin is no fan of bright lights.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I am with her 100% percent.

[aedifica]

That's interesting to learn! (Not the part about Tanzania, the part about blindness.) I used to know someone with some flavor of albinism, and he's legally blind, and I never knew the two things were probably connected.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Albinism affects the development of the optic nerves--aside from the whole photosensitivity thing.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

First things first, yuck! I'm ashamed of being human sometimes.

I'd never have read your paleness as albinism. I come from, in part, Irish stock so paleness runs in the family and someone has to be incredibly pale before it really registers!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm also ethnically Irish, Scots, and English (with a smattering of Dutch), so it's not like I was going to be anything other than pale. But the degree to which I lack melanin in my skin (I have exactly once in my life been tan, and that was after six weeks in Greece in midsummer--and even then, I was only tan by my own standard) I think is attributable partly to the albinism.

And even at that, I am not as pigment-less as a person with oculocutaneous albinism.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

Talk about coincidences. For reasons that seemed good to me at the time, I'd just decided to make a Chinese albino the heroine of my next story. Which means that I needed to do some research, just so I wouldn't make a fool of myself. Which means that the NOAH website is going to be my next stop.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Sometimes serendipity is your friend.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Less than ten minutes after reading this post at the University earlier, I turned around, and noticed a very blonde (And natural as far as could be told by her roots), very pale girl at a computer behind me.

It took me a second look to register why this was odd; she was most definitely Asian, probably Chinese.

My (ocular) albino fellow art student was impressed and a little confused that I should know anything about Albinism, especially its link to her vision problems (We got on the subject more due to excoriating Powder for doing such a crap job of it than her own medical condition.) I did cite you as a reason.

[gwendolynflight.livejournal.com]

Man, between this and the 'uproar' over the disabled CBeebies presenter, I just ... well, I'm disappointed, anyway. Had a friend in college who had albinism - met her in harp practice. Ah, the good old days ...