With the release of the movie version of The Da Vinci Code today, a story has hit the wire where a spokesman for the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation complains about how many albino villains there are in movies, saying “The problem is there has been no balance. There are no realistic, sympathetic or heroic characters with albinism that you can find in movies or popular culture.”
I know it was 11 years ago, but what about Powder? Sean Patrick Flanery‘s “Powder” character was, while perhaps not completely realistic, very sympathetic and quite heroic.
The problem with taking a stance and saying something such as “there are no instances of this” is that even a single example can completely invalidate your argument. I was unable to find any reliable percentages on the occurrence of albinism in our country (or any other), but even one such occurrence seems pretty decent. The last time I encountered an albino in normal daily activity was probably fifteen years ago, and prior to that I’m not sure if I ever encountered one (though I may just not recall – that was a while back). To have a movie with a hero in less than that time seems to me quite reasonable.
In other words, get over it. If that’s not enough, perhaps his organization, instead of complaining about the fact that others are apparently not doing enough, should get on with financing some of their own blockbusters that can further the cause that they seek to promote.