NOAH AOC

beyerltd65:

I am 40 years old. Where was this sight when I was in school? This is awesome. When people ask, "What color are you"? Is it grammatically correct to say that you are a person with albinism or say that I am an albino? I think the latter makes it sound like a "freak" or something. wmail me and tell me what you'd say.

All right, I am a Linguist: messing around with language is what I do for, so to speak, a living... and here's what beats me in all this - what is, precisely, the Semantic difference between "albino" and "person with albinism". As far as I can tell the only difference for people out there who are not too sensitive for their own good is that the latter is longer to type.

Here is how it works in Semantics; Let's, for the ease of it, take a sentence like "this man is a teacher." Okay, what you do (and I am simplifying in the name of brevity here) is you take the argument (in this case, the man) and see what its predicate is (him being a teacher). The basic relationship between "this man" and "teacher" is that of equality, so if you want to write this out in formal logic, you do it like that m (man) = t (teacher). Fine, easy enough, and the Semantic relationship is conserved. Now this is where it gets baffling. Let's compare the two sentences "this man is an albino" and "this man is a person with albinism." Okay, so I go to deconstruct the two, and here is what I get.

In the first case, I get this; m (man) = a (albino). So far so good.

Now the second. When you deconstruct the second it looks like that; m (man) = (p (person) ^ al (albinism))

But we know, too, that when we deconstruct the nice predicate albino, beyond the sinister conspiracy theories what we really get is a (albino) = p (person) ^ al (albinism). Hmm.... Now I am confused. Since we're already putting the predicate in a relation to a man, clearly we don't mean an albino rabbit, or mouse. So why write something cumbersome - or say a longer statement - when we can have something completely equivalent truth-table-wise, and shorter.

Aah.... that's because of what we crazy linguists call Pragmatics. The Pragmatics says, as of recent years, that you are not a decent, worthwhile group of people, unless you have a name you can be offended at. This philosophy got introduced into our minds by the Equal Rights movement (which was just, well and good) but we never really stopped to consider the limits of this universal principle, and we started applying it to everything in sight. So, there are no more women, simply persons of the female persuasion, no more disabled but 'differently abled', and no more nations, simply (or not simply) ethnicities. As you can probably tell by the tone of this post, what I think about this is that it's total, complete and absolute flimflam, rubbish and poosh.

For ninety-nine percent of the human race, the terms "albino", "person with alibinism" or, for that matter "person differently pigmented" - another atrocity I heard on these boards - are equally degrading, or not degrading. I'll grant, those inclined to use the second, or the third are generally these people more willing to jump through hoops in the name of the fool's banner of Political Correctness. I don't intend to spend my life in the vestibule of Hell chasing a firebrand, so I will stick with albino, thank you.

As for the term "pigmento", aside from the (unintentional but apparent) bigotry in its use, according to my own philosophy,as we've now given them - whatever "they" are - a name to be offended at, we simply are declaring that they are a worthy, decent group of people. I'm fine with that. Although according to my husband - a, ahem, pigmento - the term more acceptivle to them is "regular people" or "the genetic standard".

Hi Genia,

  When I was a child I would tell people I am an albino if they asked about the color of my hair or my eyes. That is the term I learned from my family (of course this was in the late forties and early fifties). I have no negative feelings about the word albino. I never had it screamed at me from cars as some people have. I think if people have had negative experiences being called an albino then I can understand their sensitivity towards the word albino. I do respect people's experiences and their feelings about their experiences.  I read through your analysis and what about just saying I have albinism.? That statement is truthful and short.

Mayomutt:

When I was a child I would tell people I am an albino if they asked about the color of my hair or my eyes. That is the term I learned from my family (of course this was in the late forties and early fifties). I have no negative feelings about the word albino. I never had it screamed at me from cars as some people have. I think if people have had negative experiences being called an albino then I can understand their sensitivity towards the word albino. I do respect people's experiences and their feelings about their experiences.  I read through your analysis and what about just saying I have albinism.? That statement is truthful and short.

Okay, let's split this into two; the first part concerning emotional overtones, and the second part concerning the "I have albinism".

 Part the first; okay, this is actually a valid point. I disagree with it on two counts;

a) it is my opinion that emotions, being fickle and untrustworthy motivations, should be acknowledged, but not allowed to reign supreme. I consider myself a relatively rational human being, thus I think I can differentiate between the term, and the people who used it negatively. Let me provide an example from another area of life - as an Orthodox Jew I had several... interesting experiences in my life. Will I begin calling myself "a person with Judaism" because of some odd notion that if I don't outright tell people that I am a person they will neglect to notice it? I'd better not!

b) I am not going to let any of these malicious, obnoxious types dictate to me how I define myself, what I do with my life, and where I go. In addition, as I've told someone else on these boards earlier (annoying them by it) taking offense only makes the vultures come for your blood more. If you couldn't care less, I found, people will leave you alone, and will even respect you more.

Part the second; yes, of course you can say "I have albinism". This is what I usually say when asked (although my commonplace answer to "what colour is your hair?" is: blond). Note however that it answers a slightly different question, as far as your definition is concerned. While saying "I have albinism" indicates that you, among other things, have a condition called albinism, the other statement  "I am (insert term here)" is more along the lines of a self-definition. You define yourself, by it, as an albino. Kind of like the difference between saying "I live in england" and "I am a Brit"... As I don't really define myself in terms of albinism or no albinism, this works quite well for me.

I don't mind being refered to as "albino" (it's a real word/term not derogatory). I't's perfectly alright with meb as long it's not used offencively. If some one asks, ( poeple usually do not recognize my vision provlem until I tell them), I usually say that i lack a lot pigment or my condition is due to albinism, if it's about my complexion "I'm albino" " I'm a person with albinism" is just too much for me; but that just my opinion.- i guess whatever fits the comfort level.

Asiya

Potical Correctness is extremely important now of days. so the correct thing to do is refer to the person first and then his/her disability. 

Genia, GREAT ANSWER! Thank you for taking the time to clearly articulate the distinction.

 For those who still don't get it with respect to the negative effect of calling someone "an albino," consider this . . .

Schitzophrenia is a disorder--a mental "difference" if you will.  Is it negative to call a person with schitzophrenia a "schitzo"?

Similarly, is it negative to call a person who is mentally retarded (legal term) "retardo" or "tardo"?

Even if folks with albinism maintain that they have no personal problem being called "an albino," literature, media, and history have certainly given them reason to by reinforcing negative images and feelings.  During the period of time that society banished its "undesirables"--i.e., prisoners, the mentally impaired, physically disabled, etc., albinos were in that group as well.

Thanks again, Genia.