I've had to play point man for years when hanging out with my non-albinistic black friends while we tried to grab a taxi back to Brooklyn at the end of the night.
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Owing to the fewness of their enemies these albinistic forms are able to persist.
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Albinistic and leucistic individuals have been described. The karyotype of smooth newts is 2n = 24.
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Actor Anthony Rapp (of Star Trek: Discovery) fronts a rock band called Albinokid, but is not albinistic, being a normally pigmented, blonde Caucasian. Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson, known for his pale hair, has also been mistakenly called albino. In general, platinum blonde ("towheaded") people with very pale skin can be mistaken for albinistic (and conversely, some forms of albinism can result in phenotypes so normal-looking that only genetic testing can reveal the albinistic genes).
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In 2000, he helped to resolve the mystery of Necropsar leguati from the World Museum Liverpool, which turned out to be an albinistic specimen of the grey trembler.
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In Jamaica, people with albinism were historically degraded, and regarded as "cursed". In recent times, the albinistic musicians King Yellowman and Al Beeno have helped to curb this stereotype.
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However, because organisms (including humans) can be carriers of genes for albinism without exhibiting any traits, albinistic offspring can be produced by two non-albinistic parents. Albinism usually occurs with equal frequency in both sexes. An exception to this is ocular albinism, which it is passed on to offspring through X-linked inheritance. Thus, ocular albinism occurs more frequently in males as they have a single X and Y chromosome, unlike females, whose genetics are characterized by two X chromosomes.
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In 2009, two African American albinistic fashion models, Shaun Ross and Diandra Forrest, were the focus of an episode of the Tyra Banks Show, and revealed the traumas they experienced growing up albinistic, before finding unexpected success in front of the camera. This short piece covers Banks's meeting Ross which led up to the episode. The site is now defunct, and no video is available from it (or even images), though the episode can be found on YouTube and similar sites. Exact airdate uncertain.
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In Zimbabwe, modern folklore posits that sexual intercourse with an albinistic person will cure one of HIV, leading to the rape (and subsequent HIV infection) of women with albinism in that region. In Tanzania in 2008, President Kikwete publicly condemned witch doctors for opportunistic persecution of albinism, including a spate of murders of albinistic people (over 50 since March 2007, as of October 2008, and initially limited to Tanzania) for their body parts which are thought to bring good luck – hair, arms, legs and blood are used to make potions which the witchdoctors claim will bring prosperity. Consequently, graves of the albinistic have to be sealed with cement to discourage grave robbers. By June 2008 killings had been reported in neighboring Kenya and possibly also the Democratic Republic of Congo, spreading to Burundi by October 2008.
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Walter Rothschild believed the Liverpool specimen to be an albinistic specimen of a Necropsar species supposedly from Mauritius. In 1953, Japanese writer Masauji Hachisuka suggested that N. leguati was distinct enough to warrant its own genus, Orphanopsar. In a 2005 DNA analysis, the specimen was eventually identified as an albinistic specimen of the grey trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis) from Martinique. Hachisuka believed the carnivorous habits described by Tafforet to be unlikely for a starling, and thought the lack of a crest suggested that it was not closely related to Fregilupus.
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Persecution on the basis of albinism is frequently based on the belief that albinos are inferior to persons with higher concentration of melanin in their skin. As a result, albinos have been persecuted, killed and dismembered, and graves of albinistic people dug up and desecrated. Such people have also been ostracized and even killed because they are presumed to bring bad luck in some areas. Haiti also has a long history of treating albinistic people as accursed, with the highest incidence under the influence of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier.
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Roy Orbison was falsely said to be albinistic, by his widow, for unknown reasons.Oldies Music Guide Profile: Roy Orbison , by Robert Fontenot, About.com; accessed 27 January 2007. German singer Heino has Graves disease, which can be mistaken for albinism.
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The 2004 book Weird N.J. (a tie-in to the History Channel TV series Weird U.S.) chronicled, failed to prove, yet further popularized one of the lesser-known local urban legends of the US, "albino colonies". The book uses alleged firsthand accounts mailed to the authors to paint a picture of various locations in the U.S. (most notably Clifton, New Jersey) where aggregations of albinistic families were said to live in seclusion. The accounts tell tales of honking horns to try to bring the residents out of their houses, of gawkers being shot at by residents, and even of gangs of local albinistic vigilantes. In some versions of the sewer alligator urban legends, the alligators supposedly became albinistic due to mutation (which is implausible due to the short time scale) and/or lack of exposure to sunlight (which erroneously conflates pallor due to lack of exposure to sunlight with albinism).
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434-435, Figure 196 + Plate 44). Males are typically smaller than females. It has smooth dorsal scales, a rounded head, and the eyes have round pupils. Albinistic (lacking black pigment) and anerythristic (lacking red pigment) specimens have been found in the wild.
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Victor Varnado (born May 15, 1969 in Gary, Indiana) is an American stand up comedian and actor. He is African American and albinistic. He was born legally blind due to his Albinism. He grew up in Huntsville, Alabama and later moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Both parents, who may or may not be albinos themselves, must carry the gene if it is to be passed on to the child. Albinism occurs in both males and females and is not specific to any race or ethnic group. Statistics show that fifty percent of albinistic people in Tanzania have a known albinistic relative, although very few understand or are educated about the medical and genetic causes of this condition. Many believe it is a punishment from God or bad luck, and that their "disease" could be contagious, which is often the view of even members of the medical and professional community.
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Originally released on the now-defunct OneTrueMedia.com platform. A new version, featuring over 40 different children with albinism, was released in 2014. The theme of the aforementioned The Albino Code (2007) is to point out the absurdity of typical depictions of albinistic people in Western media.
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The taxonomic position of the Chinese population is uncertain. It has been considered a partially albinistic population of the François' langur (T. francoisi), a subspecies of Francois' langur,Bradon-Jones, D. 1995. A revision of the Asian pied leaf monkeys (Mammalia: Cercopithecidae: Superspecies Semnopithecus auratus), with the description of a new subspecies.
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Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) that live in or around Chernobyl have displayed an increased rate of physical abnormalities compared to swallows from uncontaminated areas. Abnormalities included partially albinistic plumage, deformed toes, tumors, deformed tail feathers, deformed beaks, and deformed air sacks. Birds with these abnormalities have a reduced viability in the wild and a decrease in fitness. Moeller et al.
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The wingspan of the male is from 26–30 mm and the hindwings are pale grey. The female is smaller with reduced wings and a wingspan of 15–20 mm. Melanic forms are common in both male and female and can be found in some northern and industrial areas of England. In northern Scotland only pale specimens are found and albinistic forms can be found everywhere.
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The albino fish have lower survival rates than normal fish but dress-out percentages are nearly equal. Some wild cave fish have populations that are albinistic. The Mexican cave tetra is a species that has evolved specialized characteristics in a series of independent caves. One of these is albinism linked to the Oca2 gene, a known pigmentation gene, This trait has evolved independently in at least two caves.
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Xanthochromism (also called xanthochroism or xanthism) is an unusually yellow pigmentation in an animal. It is often associated with the lack of usual red pigmentation and its replacement with yellow. The cause is usually genetic but may also be related to the animal's diet. A Cornell University survey of unusual-looking birds visiting feeders reported that 4% of such birds were described as xanthochromistic (compared with 76% albinistic).
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A clear definition appears to be – "Congenital absence of any pigmentation or coloration in a person, animal, or plant, resulting in white hair and pink eyes in mammals." Whilst this does not state specifically that non-mammalian albino animals (or plants) are white, this can be inferred from "...absence of any pigmentation or coloration..." Due to the varied use and interpretation of the term "albino", written reports of albinistic organisms can often not be verified.
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Conus pulcher, common name the butterfly cone, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. Like all species within the genus Conus, these snails are predatory and venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all. There is one subspecies : Conus pulcher siamensis Hwass in Bruguière, 1792 albinistic and of regular colour, both with periostracum.
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Again in Tanzania and Burundi in 2010, the murder and dismemberment of a kidnapped albino child was reported from the courts, as part of a continuing problem. The US-based National Geographic Society estimated that in Tanzania a complete set of albino body parts is worth US$75,000. Another harmful and false belief is that sex with an albinistic woman will cure a man of HIV. This has led, for example in Zimbabwe, to rapes (and subsequent HIV infection).
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Albinism has been reported in all orders and in 54 families of North American birds. The American robin and house sparrow led bird species in the incidence of albinism. Albinistic white appears to replace brown pigments more often than red or yellow ones; records suggest a greater incidence in crows, ravens, and hawks than in goldfinches or orioles. Several kinds of albinism in chickens has been described: A complete albinism controlled by an autosomal recessive gene and two different kinds of partial albinism.
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The gross eye morphology, feeding and swimming behaviours between wild-type and albino zebrafish were indistinguishable, except under dim or bright light or low contrast. In mammals, albinism is occasionally associated with hearing impairments. However, when tested, there was no differences in responses between wild-type and albinistic European wels catfish (Silurus glanis) and South American bronze catfish (Corydoras aeneus). Similarly, Mexican blind cave fish (Astyanax mexicanus) do not differ in hearing sensitivity from the normally pigmented and eyed surface-dwelling populations.
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Police have also been advised to generate lists of albinos and provide special protection for them. To foil graverobbers, graves of the albinistic were to be sealed with concrete. However, by October 2008, killings had not abated, and while some suspects had been apprehended, no convictions had taken place. It was estimated that over 50 murders had taken place since March 2007, many of them in the mining and fishing communities near Lake Victoria, especially at Mwanza, Shinyanga and Mara.
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Adult females (top) display beige to white to pale blue ceres, while adult males (bottom) typically have royal blue ceres or purplish-pink in albinistic and recessive pied varieties. All captive budgerigars are divided into two basic series of colours; namely, white-based (blue, grey and white) and yellow-based (green, grey-green and yellow). Presently, at least 32 primary mutations (including violet) occur, enabling hundreds of possible secondary mutations (stable combined primary mutations) and colour varieties (unstable combined mutations).
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Intentionally bred albinistic strains of some animal species are commonly used as model organisms in biomedical research and also as pets. Examples include the BALB/c mouse and Wistar and Sprague Dawley rat strains, laboratory rabbits and ferrets. Albino axolotl (an amphibian) are also used widely in the laboratory as their transparent skin allows observation of the underlying tissues during limb regeneration. Some researchers have argued that albino animals are not always the best choice for scientific studies due to the consequences of albinism (e.g.
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A number of movies, books and other works have been criticized for albino bias, as they associate the uncommon features of albinistic people (pale skin, white hair, and unpigmented eyes) with danger, terror, or criminality. Less frequently they are depicted as the harmless butt of jokes and ridicule, as maladjusted and undersocialized, or as "freaks"."Book two of Hollywood's rules of albinism", Skinema: Dermatology in the Cinema, Dr. Vail Reese. They may also actually be portrayed positively, even heroically – a more recent counter-trend.
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Albinism in jackals was observed from the Polooni area in Malappuram district and Chaliyam area of Calicut district (Kerala). As albinism is observed in those areas where the density of these mammals is comparatively low, it is concluded that continuous inbreeding could be the reason for expression of albinism. A study on albinistic prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) found that albinism in this species conferred an advantage for the males compared to the wild-type; albino males had higher mount frequencies than wild-type males. In addition, the albinos had greater differential fertilizing capacity.
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Albinistic specimen which was named "Necropsar leguati" In 1898 a unique skin (accession number D1792 (S)) was discovered in the World Museum Liverpool. This specimen was obtained by Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby from bird collector Jules Verreaux in 1850 and was on display in the Liverpool Museum since then. It was believed to be an extinct starling from Madagascar, or the Mascarenes, described by Henry Ogg Forbes under the name Necropsar leguati and sketched by bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans. It was thought to be a close relative of the Rodrigues starling.
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These misconceptions, coupled with the lack of education, are some of the key reasons that albinism is so heavily persecuted. This lack of knowledge about people with albinism means that folktales and superstition in the name of witchcraft take the place of medical and scientific facts in the minds of many native Africans, with and without albinism, which in turn has major effects on the social integration of albinistic people into African society. Ninety-eight percent of albinos die by the age of forty for reasons which could easily be prevented.
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Refilwe Modiselle (born January 2, 1986) is a South African model and entertainer born in Rockville, Soweto, and the country's first professional fashion model with albinism. She started her modelling career at the age of 13 when she was approached by Y! magazine. She also appeared as a runway model in 2005 for South African designer David Tlale, making her the first albinistic model to appear on a runway in South Africa. Modiselle has also had some experience in the music industry, where she performed as a backing vocalist for South African singer Keabetswe "KB" Motsilanyane while in school.
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In 1941, the biologist Ernst Mayr proposed that the white swamphen was a partially- albinistic population of Australasian swamphens. Mayr suggested that the blue swamphens remaining on Lord Howe Island were not stragglers, but had survived because they were less conspicuous than the white ones. In 1967, the ornithologist James Greenway also considered the white swamphen a subspecies (with P. stanleyi a synonym) and considered the white individuals albinos. He suggested that the similarities between the wing feathers of the white swamphen and the takahē were due to parallel evolution in two isolated populations of reluctant fliers.
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In 2008, she presented her first off-Broadway theatrical production, Madwoman: A Contemporary Opera."Madwoman: A Contemporary Opera ", Lortel Archives. co-produced by Grammy winner James P. Nichols, and Harvard LOEB Theater director, Claude E. Sloan, Jr. Nahadr, being an albinistic African- American, was requested in 2004 by National Geographic Magazine to have a portrait made of her by renowned photojournalist Robert Clark, to be included in an article on genetic inheritance, ideas of diversity and acceptance of difference. Later that year, the portrait and some of Nahadr's artistic work were included in the magazine's "Best of the Year" collection of images.(2004).
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The starling family Sturnidae was introduced (as Sturnidia) by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. The starlings belong to the superfamily Muscicapoidea, together with thrushes, flycatchers and chats, as well as dippers, which are quite distant relatives, and Mimidae (thrashers and mockingbirds). The latter are apparently the Sturnidae's closest living relatives, replace them in the Americas, and have a rather similar but more solitary lifestyle. They are morphologically quite similar too—a partly albinistic specimen of a mimid, mislabelled as to suggest an Old World origin, was for many decades believed to represent an extinct starling (see Rodrigues starling for details).
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With pack saddle at Fieracavalli, Verona, 2014 The Asinara donkey, (), is a breed of feral donkey indigenous to the island of Asinara, which lies off the north-west coast of Sardinia, Italy, in the province of Sassari. Most of the population is wholly or partly albinistic; the small number of grey donkeys on the island are also considered part of the population, and are probably heterozygous carriers of the albino gene. The Asinara donkey is one of the eight autochthonous donkey breeds of limited distribution recognised by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, the Italian ministry of agriculture and forestry. It is called ', ' or ' in Sardinian.
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It is also mentioned that the other fifteen clones have been sent to various facilities around the world to give them psychiatric treatment, reasoning that they were made into their current state rather than choosing to be monsters, but at the time of the novel two of the clones are dead and the others show little sign of responding to therapy. When Alex encountered him, Grief was almost sixty years old. He is described as having "white paper skin" and wears red-tinted spectacles. It is quite likely that he is an albino, to emphasise his white superiority ideas, and the red-tinted spectacles could be a reference to albinistic eyes.
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White Shadow, a German–Italian–Tanzanian 2013 drama film written, produced and directed by Noaz Deshe, drew international attention to the issue, screening at various film festivals, winning the Lion of the Future Award at the Venice festival. Also released in 2013, In the Shadow of the Sun, a documentary filmed in Tanzania over the course of six years by Harry Freeland, featured the struggles of Josephat Torner, a campaigner for de- mystification of the superstitions about albinistic people and their use for witchcraft; and teenaged Vedastus, who hopes to survive the persecution of persons with albinism to adulthood. And also The Beautiful Ones Are Born, a yet to be released short film by one of the youngest Nigerian Film maker Dami Taiwo.
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Use of albinistic features to indicate villains in Hollywood films appears to have begun in the 1960s, and may be related to the popularity of tanning (and thus a decrease in pale skin being seen as attractive) in this period. One of the oldest perceived literary examples of albino bias was H. G. Wells's depiction of the main character in his 1897 science-fiction novel The Invisible Man, who was able to become invisible using his scientific discoveries only because he already lacked natural pigmentation; aberrant even before his experimentation, he subsequently became completely deranged. Albino bias is also alleged in modern times. For example, the 2003 Warner Bros movie The Matrix Reloaded featured two sociopathic characters with pale skin and white hair frequently interpreted to be albinos despite studio declarations that they are not.
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Hume noted that Günther and Newton had not designated a holotype specimen among the fossils they based the specific name on, and chose the skull from their syntype series of bones as the lectotype; specimen NMHUK A9050, housed at the Natural History Museum, London. Hume also identified other bones depicted by Günther and Newton among museum collections, and designated them as paralectotypes. 1907 restoration by John Gerrard Keulemans (left), partially based on a specimen that turned out to be an albinistic grey trembler (right) In 1898, the British naturalist Henry Ogg Forbes described a second species of Necropsar, N. leguati, based on a skin in the World Museum Liverpool, specimen D.1792, which was labelled as coming from Madagascar. He suggested that this was the bird mentioned by Tafforet, instead of N. rodericanus from mainland Rodrigues.
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Awareness poster confronting prejudice against albinos in Africa A child with albinism Persecution of people with albinism (sometimes abbreviated PWA) is based on the belief that certain body parts of albinistic people can transmit magical powers. Such superstition is present especially in some parts of the African Great Lakes region, it has been promulgated and exploited by witch doctors and others who use such body parts as ingredients in rituals, concoctions and potions with the claim that their magic will bring prosperity to the user (muti or medicine murder). As a result, people with albinism have been persecuted, killed and dismembered, and graves of albinos dug up and desecrated. At the same time, people with albinism have also been ostracised and even killed for exactly the opposite reason, because they are presumed to be cursed and bring bad luck.
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Due to a wave of persecution of people with albinism in some parts of Africa (especially Tanzania and neighboring countries) – including ritual murder and dismemberment for potions and good-luck charms – a number of documentary films have been made about the problem. These include In My Genes (Kenya, 2009), White and Black: Crimes of Color (Canada/Tanzania, 2010), and In the Shadow of the Sun (Tanzania, 2013). Also released in 2013, White Shadow, an award-winning German–Italian–Tanzanian drama film, portrays the plight of albinistic Tanzanians and their efforts to avoid falling victim to witchdoctors' bounty hunters. Outside the African context, the 2007 short film "Perception Is Not Reality: Portraying the REAL Truths About Albinism", dispelling Hollywood and urban-legend nonsense about the condition, was produced by Mashawna Thompson, editor of the Parent of a Child with Albinism blog.
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Albinism is the "congenital absence of any pigmentation or coloration in a person, animal or plant, resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and pink eyes in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibian and fish and invertebrates as well." Varied use and interpretation of the terms mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify. Albinism can reduce the survivability of an animal; for example, it has been suggested that albino alligators have an average survival span of only 24 hours due to the lack of protection from UV radiation and their lack of camouflage to avoid predators. It is a common misconception that all albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes (resulting from the lack of pigment in the iris allowing the blood vessels of the retina to be visible), however this is not the case for some forms of albinism.
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Little was known about parrot-diet in the 1700s, and the Vienna specimen may not have received enough of the amino acid tyrosine through its food, which it would have needed for melanin synthesis. In other parrots, this would have resulted in orange instead of white colour in the affected feathers, due to the presence of the pigment psittacin, but Coracopsis parrots and the Mascarene parrot are the only parrots that lack this pigment. The specimen has also been described as "partially albinistic" at times, though true albinism (lack of the enzyme tyrosinase) can by definition never only be partial. Forested mountain area on Réunion, 2006 In 1705, the French cartographer Jean Feuilley gave a description of the parrots of Réunion and their ecology which indicates that they fattened themselves seasonally: The Mascarene parrot may have once inhabited Mauritius as well based on a 17th-century account by the English traveller Peter Mundy which mentioned "russet parrots".
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The "evil albino" stereotype or stock character is a villain in fiction who is depicted as being albinistic (or displaying physical traits usually associated with albinism, even if the term is not used), with the specific and obvious purpose of distinguishing the villain in question from the heroes by means of appearance."Beyond the pale: Hollywood's unwritten rules for characters with albinism", Skinema: Dermatology in the Cinema, Dr. Vail Reese; accessed 15 December 2006 Traits of albinism commonly associated with the evil albino stereotype include pale skin, platinum blonde hair, and blue or pink-to-red eyes. Notably absent from most depictions is impaired vision, which is experienced by most real people with albinism."Furor Over The Matrix: Reloaded" , Skinema: Dermatology in the Cinema, Dr. Vail Reese; accessed 15 December 2006"Furor Over The Matrix: Reloaded — Continued" , Skinema: Dermatology in the Cinema, Dr. Vail Reese; accessed 15 December 2006 The stereotype has become sufficiently well-recognized to attract satire and to be considered a cliché.
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In response to the "albino gunmen" characters in The Da Vinci Code and The Matrix Reloaded, albinistic actor Dennis Hurley wrote, produced and starred in a short film parody, The Albino Code, playing up the stereotypes, illustrating a typical example of real-world prejudice, and pointing out that the vision problems associated with albinism would make a successful career as a hitman highly improbable. In The Big Over Easy, author Jasper Fforde includes an "albino community" protest against albino bias among his fictional news clippings, most of which satirize stock characters and hackneyed plot devices. Chicago Tribune movie reviewer Mark Caro says of this character type that it is someone "who looks albino and thus, in movie shorthand, must be vicious"."Movie review: Cold Mountain" ; Caro, Mark; Chicago Tribune (online edition), date unspecified; accessed 13 March 2007 The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) has stated that there were a total of sixty-eight films from 1960 to 2006 featuring an "evil albino".
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