Quote:
Originally Posted by NappyBison
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=22529&
Interesting article on a South African albino girl who has been shunned from school.
Question: I've got a multiracial friend (black and white) who is pretty in my opinion but she is extremely light in complexion. She faithfully goes tanning 2-3 times per week in order to achieve a darker skin complexion. My question, have multiracial children been conditioned to believe they aren't "black enough" and thus they feel the need to prove their "blackness"? This subject was hinted at in my original post with the youtube link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BxF...eature=related
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I read the article and I really think it has more to do with her condition (Albinism), then racism (although it probably feels like racism to her and seems like it to others). I say this because in talking to my husband (who's from Ghana) and in getting to know his family and friends and in doing my own research, I've found that many Africans have a low tolerance for handicaps and rare conditions, especially when they are unattractive. It's really sad but in many poor villages, the handicap go uncared for if they don't have family. They are seen as burdens on society and people are mean and cruel to them. Also because many Africans are very superstitious (I think this is where African Americans got their superstitions from) and still go to village elders, herbalists, and voodoo practitioners (witch doctors) for healing, many of them are told that people with rare conditions they don't understand are cursed and that they should shun them and stay away from them or they will also be cursed. Even some of those who are educated find the superstitions hard to escape. My husband, who's educated and has lived in the U.S. for over 10 years has uttered not so nice things about people who are handicap or have rare conditions (and of course I correct him), so it's an ongoing problem there and I have read that rare conditions are less tolerated in other foreign countries as well.