Hello and welcome to The Golden Child.
This site is dedicated to my brother Ronald, who died at the age of seven in a house fire.
This site was created by, for and about pan-Africans with albinism. It was created in order to help further the understanding of our unique population as well as people with albinism (albinos) from other dark skinned races. It contains information on the past and present lives of our people, and discusses the situations we face and have faced in society.
It is not a scientific research site. If you are interested in the chemistry of albinism please go to the resource section for links.
Albinism is a condition, syndrome, color phase, peculiar birth circumstance, whatever you want to call it that effects almost every living creature on earth: including plants, It is present in every so-called “race” of humans and has nothing whatsoever to do with European genetic infiltration.
This site is called The Golden Child, for several reasons: to dispel the common myth that all albinos have white hair and pink eyes and that we are “unfortunate.” Many people with albinism from dark skinned races have cream colored skin, blond hair and hazel eyes. We are not cursed or unfortunate, we are blessed, we are favored, we are golden.
The first thing many people notice about albinism is our hair. Although many of us are golden, we also come in other “precious metals” such as platinum, silver and even copper. Our eyes can be hazel, blue, green or gray.
When I first got the idea for this site in the 90’s the internet was in its infancy. Dial up was the biggest if not the only game in town. Rudimentary bulletin boards and crude chat rooms were just about the only way of communicating through cyberspace. High speed was only available to big businesses and those who could afford an expensive T1 connection. Social networking multimedia sites were non-existent. It was not easy to put up a web site without knowing code.
I have been researching albinism since Middle School. At that time the only information available seemed to be either stark scientific jargon or medical research papers. Almost every resource I found painted us as something other: something to be studied, analyzed and dissected. No one saw us as just human beings making our way through the world.
There was no one place to find out about our history so I set out to gather information and make it accessible to everyone. I also wanted to be able to update it when necessary, which you can’t do with a book. I wanted pictures of famous and ordinary people to show the world that we are productive citizens. I wanted the world to know that we did not all have white hair and pink eyes; that we were not science studies: we were human; we were intelligent; we were physically and mentally strong and productive; we were golden. I wanted each of us to know about each other. Who was doing what? I wanted young people to see role models and have positive people to look at and read about.
Since this site first went up in 1998 there have been many changes on the internet. We now have several social networks. We make videos on You Tube. We have formed clubs, organizations and collaborations all over the world.
Still as of this writing, there is virtually no comprehensive information on the net regarding our history and social impact. Thus, I will continue to gather little known facts and present them to you.
If you use information from this site I would appreciate a link back. At the very least please give credit to me and the original writer.
Please look around and enjoy my gift to you.
Nameste
Virginia Small
The Golden Child
