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I’ve made it to Broadway
Posted by Virginia on Oct 28, 2008 in Uncategorized
Check it out
That's me in Times Square
Keep your feet out of my hair
Posted by Virginia on Oct 28, 2008 in Essays
One of the things I hear people with albinism complain about is people coming up and touching our hair without our permission.
The sentiment I use regarding people using their feet comes from my brother. Whenever one of his siblings, friends, relatives or whoever touched something he thought they weren’t supposed to touch he would yell, “keep your feet off my things”.
That statement has always cracked me up and reminded me of chimps: whose hands and feet are interchangeable. I always thought that was a wonderful and appropriate phrase for people who exhibit the manners of chimps. A chimp will reach out and touch or grab or pull anything within its reach. So, in this case, I do think the word “feet” is very appropriate.
My hair happens to be locked, but it doesn’t matter what hair style or texture people with albinism have. People without albinism: melanized people: pigmented people, whatever you call yourselves: feel you have a right to touch us.
It goes without saying that this is unspeakably rude. How such ill-mannered people make it through their lives without being slapped is beyond me. Maybe it’s because those of us who get our personal spaces routinely violated have been brought up better. We have learned more tolerance for the stupid among us.
My theory is that these people are using their core belief that we who are “different” are children of lesser gods. People automatically feel superior to anyone not like them, and therefore it is okay to point us out to their children, stare, make loud stupid comments, take photos with their cell phones, ask us personal questions and touch our hair. They also see us as exotic curiosities and therefore put on earth for their own amusement. They then have the nerve to get insulted when they are told off. Go figure.
There are various remedies people with albinism use to keep their hair out of the limelight. Some of my friends dye their hair to keep it from drawing attention. One beautiful Asian woman I know keeps her long straight white hair rolled up in a bun. One very young woman cut her beautiful hip-long hair because she got tired of people insulting it and, yes, touching it. I am not drawing my own conclusion as to why people do what they do to their hair: I was told these reasons in conversation by the people who did them.
I have never dyed my hair but I have permmed it. I have also worn an afro. My hair is part of my spiritual journey: my journey back to nature and the Goddess. For this reason I now wear it locked. (Some people call them dreads.) This draws even more attention and “invitations” for people to violate my personal space.
As one pan-African natural-haired woman put it, “Locks are more than matted hair twisted together. (they are) not a Euro-trash fashion statement …. (They are) a way of life…a way of being in sync with nature, and a spiritual connection to our ancestors…when you wear locks, you wear them as a symbol of pride & rebellion against a society that wants you to be like them…be proud of your nappy hair. Being nappy is not a curse. It is a gift given to you by the ancestors…”
This is what I have come to live by. When I bow my head to say to someone “Nameste” or to meditate, my locks fall down around my face as if they were a curtain between me and the world. The entire world is outside that curtain and only I and God are inside. This is why, without my expressed permission, you are not to touch it.
Hair has always been seen as sacred for one reason or another. Sure, some see their hair as a fashion accessory. (They don’t get it) But for millennia hair has been seen as a symbol of rank, status and the symbol of a relationship to God.
During the Salem witch trials women’s hair was seen as powerful: too powerful to let them keep it. In some accounts I have read, the woman was shaved of every hair on her body to keep her from “weaving spells” or communicating with the Devil. Temple priestesses, monks and other types of shamans were sometimes required to shave their heads. (In the case of the Egyptians, they were just trying to rid themselves of lice.) But some religions saw hair as a barrier to God or a show of vanity. Still others required that the hair not be cut or cared for, for a number of years. Either way, it seems that hair is seen as a symbol of power: either to be cherished and grown long, or to be shorn off and disposed of.
Followers are often expected to kiss the feet or hands of high ranking religious leaders but almost never expected to touch the head or hair. Centuries ago touching the hair or head of someone high ranking might have gotten you beheaded.
In the King James Bible, a sick woman took the trouble to bend down, at the risk of being trampled, to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. Why not do what was easier and touch the shoulder, head or hair of the Christ?
No, I am not equating myself with Christ. Plleeeeze.
I am just saying that if you don’t want to be equated with a chimp, don’t act like one. Keep your feet out of people’s hair.
Just because he’s Black?
Posted by Virginia on Oct 19, 2008 in Essays, World happenings
Hello, and welcome to my first public rant. Yes, boys and girls, it’s that time of the month again. Most of the time I am a cordial and agreeable person: but every few weeks or so I feel the urge to bite through steel. This is one of those times.
First, let me say that I wanted Hillary in the White House. Because she did not win the democratic nomination I will vote for Obama. If she wins the nomination in 2012 (depending on how Obama does) I will vote for her then. Let me also say that for anyone to vote for McCain just because Hilary didn’t win is ludicrous.
Whether Obama gets elected or not, history has been made. Never before in this country have women and people who are not White gotten this close to the presidency. The world is watching us.
Of course, the bigots are running scared. McCain’s campaign has gotten nasty, as many of us suspected it would. He and his running mate have attracted the closet Klan and the open Klan. When the bigoted comments come to the surface, most of the time neither McCain nor Palin contradict them.
Take the now infamous utterance of one woman who said that she didn’t trust Obama because he was “an Arab”. McCain’s answer was that Obama wasn’t an Arab, he was a decent human being. Do you understand how that answer was wrong on so many levels?
The following is being sent around to Obama supporters. I thought it made a valid point so I am passing it on to you.
“A White man asked his Black friend, ‘Are you voting for Barack Obama just because he’s Black?’
The Black man responded by saying, ‘Why not? In this country men are pulled over everyday just because they’re Black; passed over for promotions just because they’re Black; considered to be criminals just because they’re Black; and there are going to be thousands of you who won’t be voting for him, just because he’s Black!
However, you do not seem to have a problem with that!
This country was built with the sweat and whip off the Black slaves’ back, and now a descendent of those same slaves has a chance to lead the same country, where we were considered property, where it was against the law to be educated. We weren’t allowed to drink from the same water fountains, eat in the same restaurants, or even vote.
So yes! I’m going to vote for him! But it’s not just because he’s Black, but because he is hope, he is change, and he has now allowed me the opportunity to know when my grandson says he wants to become president when he grows up, it’s no longer a fairy tale but a short term goal. He now sees, understands and knows that he can achieve, withstand and do anything
JUST BECAUSE HE’S BLACK!”
Bravo.
Hello: come on in.
Posted by Virginia on Oct 6, 2008 in Uncategorized, Welcome
This has indeed been a journey. My Golden Child website is 10 years old. In that time both it and I have grown tremendously. I started it when I saw an enormous gap in what was being fed to us and what we needed for our own emotional survival.
I have gathered knowledge from around the world and published it on the site for all to share, free of charge. I have spoken to people from all walks of life from teachers to young students to medical and history professionals who were looking for information: either for themselves or to pass on to someone else. I have spoken to young mothers who did not know where to turn or feared for the future of their babies. I have spoken to unhappy teens who thought they were alone in their difference and thought there was no one who understood them. And I have spoken to proud professionals who were secure in themselves and confident in the knowledge that they had just as much right to walk this earth as anyone. I have met the most exciting and interesting people with and without albinism who I can call my friends.
Many years ago I set out to find out about us as a people and a culture. In college I searched research libraries for our history. When I started on this journey in middle school I had so little information, my biggest dream was to be able to fill one manila envelope with real, not contrived information about us. I now have that amount of information many times over. I did not know how I was going to get the information out since at that time there was no public internet and no home computers. When these two innovations came along I realized my dream of reaching the world with what I had found.
As I continue my search I realize that there is so much more information to gather: so much more to do: so many more people to meet. And yet the search never gets boring or tiring.
Now that I have reached another stage in my life I feel a renewed energy to add even more to The Golden Child. This update site is only one of the new changes you will see. Stay tuned, and stay blessed.
Nameste.