Liberals often get tagged as professional victims by the far right.
NOAH - The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation - puts the lie to that description with
its positive campaign to fight the stereotypes (PDF file) perpetuated by "the Da Vinci Code."
More, but only if you click...
I've diaried this subject before, but only as a frustrated parent. NOAH, thankfully, has taken a more reasoned - and I think beneficial - stance in fighting these hateful stereotypes with its newest campaign.
From the WKOW website:
"Silas isn't the face of albinism," said Madison resident Kelsey Thompson. "He's just a fictional character." She would know. In light of the movie, she and her group, the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, wanted to show the face of people with her condition.
Instead of demanding the film be banned or organizing boycotts (as I, admittedly, would LOVE to see happen), NOAH has taken the stance of education.
"It's likely most people will go through their whole lives without ever meeting a person with albinism face to face, without every having a conversation with a person with albinism," she said.
Since 1968, SIXTY SEVEN characters with albinism have been shown in feature films as evil or maladjusted.
Why the fuss? Can you imagine if the same could be said about people with any other genetic condition? What if every time you saw a person in a wheelchair, he was a sexual predator? What is everytime you saw a deaf person, she was a serial killer?
Sounds ridiculous, right? But think - what was the last POSITIVE (or even scientifcally plausible) portrayal you saw of a person with albinism that WASN'T a villian? No, Powder doesn't count.
You know, back in the early 1990s, I though gay rights groups were out of their minds to oppose the filming of Basic Instinct. But I've changed my tune since faced with my own reality. They had a point - up until the 1990s, how many portrayals of gay characters didn't draw from stereotypes? There were some, but not many. There are NONE for people with albinism.
The Da Vinci Code is especially heinous for the sheer stupidity of the portrayal.
FACT: Most people with albinism don't have pink eyes - in fact, less than 10% do.
FACT: There's no way most people with albinism could become a trained killer with firearms:
"I certainly wouldn't be a good assassin with my eyesight," she jokes in her Atwood Avenue apartment. That's because albinism usually causes legally blindness. Thompson can't drive, even though she's a software tester at Epic Systems.
FACT: As obvious as it may seen, just a reminder: {http://www.projo.com/... Albinism doesn't cause violent behavior]:
Albinism, however, has no association with increased violence, according to Reese. The genetic condition is highly unusual and perhaps, Reese says, may make others feel uncomfortable, which is a prerequisite ability for a bad character.
"There's something about human nature that unless we are educated, we think we should be wary of someone who has some abnormality of the skin," dermotologist Dr. Vail Reese says.
Check out Dr. Reese's site on cinema and skin conditions here.
I hate to use the cliche of "the last group in America that's it's OK to discriminate against" because that isn't true. But a little balance would be nice: (note- free sub required)
"If this was any other minority group, a larger minority group, there would be hell to pay," McGowan says. "But we're a superminority, so our efforts fall on deaf ears."
NOAH unsuccessfully petitioned the producers of The Da Vinci Code to alter the image of the movie's villainous character.
"I think some people may misinterpret what we're saying," McGowan says. "We're not saying someone with albinism has to be a good guy; just don't always make him the bad guy."
A little balance. is that so hard?
"When someone tells a bad joke once, we could laugh at it and take it as a novelty," she said. "But when someone tells a bad joke 67 times, at some point you have to stand up and say enough's enough."
That's all NOAH is asking for. So, you creative types in Kossackland, that's all we ask - just don't make people with albinism the bad guy ALL the time, OK?
