She lives her life balancing and embracing all of her intersectional identities as a Black African woman with albinism.
As I grew older, it turned out that I did see color.
I saw fragments of melanin, from my light-skinned parents to my dark-skinned grandmother.
Elsa Niemoller
Albinism is a socio-political experience with varying medical aspects such as layered eyesight problems and/or skin vulnerability tosun damage.
Albinism is generally framed in the negative, trapped in some form of institutionalized negation or deficit.
The pathological focus of albinism, similarly tovitiligo, seems to be on the appearance of color specifically.
The root word for albinism is “albino” which literally means “white person.”
The term was coined by Europeans, specifically to describe Black Africans with white skin in the 17th century.
This was a time whenskin colorplayed a leading role in securing theories of white superiority.
Black albinism was a pervasive threat to the credibility and fragility of these ideologies.
White skin will always be considered a defect or abnormality when it is found on “non-white” bodies.
In trying to address or convey these complexities, the exhausting struggle of language dawns on me.
