I have long been fascinated by black people with albinism. There is this young albino black girl whom I see on the bus and around my nighborhood. It is always so intense to watch the way other black people respond to her. She is completely ostracized. I have actually seen mothers turn their children's eyes away. Even on crowded buses, her slang-dropping peers will not sit next to her.

I am equally complicit in this reaction to people with this condition, but mostly because of their eye color. I have a very strong physically freaked out reaction to very light blue eyes and by extension pink colored eyes. I don't even like looking at huskies or malamutes with pale blue eyes. I remember the jolt I experienced when as a child I discovered Jesse James had very pale eyes. Often times, retarded people have the same pale, pale eyes, too. There's something about not being able to read anything in these kinds of eyes. They seem cold, distant, inscrutable or subhuman and empty. I've always thought it was also some kind of Aryan race reaction. Of course, my sister and mother both have blue eyes, so its not like I think that all Jews should shun those that are not swarthy and hook-nosed. And I have dated an above average number of people with very light green eyes, which bothers me not at all. I am ever inconsistent -- so what?

These Victorian photos are beyond creepy. It has nothing to do with skin color, really -- it's all about the hair. I feel like I'm watching these women in their graves while their hair keeps growing and growing into a shroud. Shivers.

Anyway, these are digressions.

I read in the SF Chronicle a few months ago that the first person to die in 2003 was a 17 year old albino black man. There was a short little story about his life and his condition was mentioned in passing. But from the facts of the story it became obvious that he had been persecuted for being an albino his whole life. And that it had been a major factor in his death. There is hardly any definitive information about this cultural phenomenon. I feel like its one of those open secrets that we all insidiously agree upon. Since the topic is never talked about, it's never examined. But obviously, being "black" without pigment in a racist society like ours would have to inspire a reaction. Wholly other. Yet another topic for research someday.