NOAH AOC

I am a 31 year old African american male with albinism.  To be completely honest, i have had very little interaction with African Americans with albinism.  You know i see one every now and then but,  i would like to comunicate with someone who really understands what i am going thru and continue to go thru on a daily bases.  I am at a point in my life were i want (no need) to interact with people who share a common struggle.

I'm not African-American myself, i'm African and, although you don't elaborate on waht you mean by "struggle", i can imagine what you went through.

Growing up in Africa as an albino was certainly not easy :). People did not understand so many things like the eyesight problem and the need for sunscreen and not being able to drive. Heck i didnt understand it myself, it took my parents a while to understand that the reason i was so slow in school was that i couldnt see the blackboard. I just assumed it was normal. I grew up believeing i was dumb and pp also beleived i was dumb. Can you imagine the effect on my self image :D.  But then i came to America and discovered i was actually quite smart and good at math and was a good musician.

In fact i am starting to develop a great self-image, thanks to God and a fantastic family. In the end, i guess it all comes down to you. Being an albino is definitely a challenge when it comes to doing things that "normal" people can do, but you have to realize that it is a situation that can make you all the stronger if you overcome. You weren't born with a disease, i believe that we were made to overcome odds that people take for granted and then help others who are in need. 

Well, if you ever want to talk, you are free to contact me. You can read about my personal issues in being a black male with albinism. Granted, I feel that each person's story is different, but you can read about my experiences at http://www.yerot.com/staticpages/index.php?page=albinism .

 -Torey (:

 I am a 31 year old African American woman with albinism and I grew up in a community where my sister and I were only ones with albinism. I have another younger sister who did not have albinism and she had it as bad as we did, for trying to defend people's comments about us. When we started to get older, she once told me she had wished she were albino like us. When she was much younger I even remember her scratching her arm making the white ashe and saying, "See, I am albino too". Even though she was young and didn't have albinism, she understood what it was like for us. By watching what we went through. I had a sister with albinism but we were so different. She wasn't afraid of anything and I was afraid of everything, so we couldn't connect. We both got hurt, but she took hers up front. I suffered later because you definitly need people skills to survive. My lack of social interaction created a wall that it took me years to tear down. I am still working on it...

All my sister ever wanted to do was fit in and all I wanted to do was hide away! She was a people person and social butterfly in a community that rejected her and I became a brickwall trying to protect my heart from what I felt was inevitable. I am the oldest and my sisters looked up to me. I was the rock for my family, but thank God my sisters did not turn out like me. We  lived in the urban apartment housing communities of an area considered lost. Many indidviduals didn't make it out. I didn't want to become another statistic. I moved out at 17 and my sisters soon followed. This hurt my mother economically since the basis of our family income required that we stayed together. I was chastised by teachers, relatives, family friends... and as an act of rebellion, I made many choices running from the way they wanted me to live. 

As a result of my experience I developed a bad taste in my mouth for where I came from, because of how I was treated. However, I never stopped accepting my people, but just have disliked some of the things we seemed stereo-typed for. My next oldest sister with albinism found acceptance in the hispanic community and has dated hispanic men ever since. She has pushed through her experience and found compassion for those who found compassion  for her. She has built a life with a wonderful hispanic man who loves her and is happily expecting her first baby this March.

My other sister, who dosen't have albinism familiarized with the element that we came from, but she developed a strong work ethic because she didn't want to end up like many people we knew from the old neighborhood. She has built a home for herself with someone who loves her and she has maintained a steady stream of work in the cooking industry. She aspires to be a chef!

My father died when I was eleven and my mother mentally died when he passed (physically March 28, 2000). She was depressed and went through a lot that, she was not able to share with us, due to her upbringing. I have been resposibile for my sisters a long time, because I had to. Most people who know my sisters and I always thought of me as the mother.This was an obligation I continued to placed on myself well after both of my sisters were grown. We all lived together until 2004, even then one sister stayed in an apartment in the same complex and the other with me. So really we lived together until last year. I wanted the best for them and made lots of decisions for them so that we didn't end up lost, but I began to realize I was smothering them and hendering their development. They needed to do things by themselves win or loose, because then they would have no choice but to learn from their mistakes.

Now, that we are not sharing a residence and each of us is responsibile for ourselves we have been able to develop our own identities. Although, niether of us have ever desired to go back where we came from, it made us who we are today and yes, I think things could have been eaiser for us growing up some where else too!  Life has dealt us cards to play with. By sharing these experiences with others we can find solice in our thoughts and feelings. I hope my words have a value to you and feel free to email me anytime.

I'm in my late 40's and I've just now found this site, just now seen pictures of people that look just me! Now I feel at home in my skin.  I don't have to fake it anymore... Let's chat sometime

I have also been treated badly when I was younger.  I still have people say rude things to me when I move or get a new job.  But now I take things a little better then I use to.  Oh! yeah, people look.  It's ok. nothing I can do about it.  I go to the park with my children, to moves, attend college, but when it come to dateing I'm out of the loop. not that men don't try.  I just don't think they really know how t relate to me.  I have light brown hair, hazel green eyes and pale skin that seems to turn a little golden in the summer.  But when they find out that I'm not white, the ?'s start.  I never even pretend to be something other than what I am.  Some ask me who in my family is white.? When I say no one, they don't understand.  I have three son's and one has a sweet chocolate brown color. He seem's to be the nearist to me.  But he's only 14.  I also have a 18 year old and one 16.  I live a normal life with ups and downs.  I don't pretend to be white and don't try to pass but some black men that want to date me, I'll feel do so for the responce they get from others.  I hate that.  While I 've had other do so cause they feel that they'er doing me a justice. I've been in the Navy and all over the world a few times, onwed my on business, got a BS in CJ, worked as a correctional officer and done just about everything anyone could think of for a living.