“Skin”: a youth under apartheid

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Reporter Phillip Martin has the true story of Sandra Laing. She grew up in South Africa in the 1960s and ’70s as the black daughter of white Afrikaners. Her story is now the topic of a movie: Skin premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and is released to a limited number of US theaters on Friday. Download MP3

• ‘Skin’ homepage
• Phillip Martin’s reports on albinism
• Other Color Initiative stories by Phillip Martin

Albinism worldwide

Albinos lack pigmentation in their skin and their hair. It is for this reason alone that albinos have been the victims of mutilations and ritual crimes, especially in Africa. Human rights advocates have documented the slaughter of more than 40 albinos in Tanzania, Burundi, and Kenya. Phillip Martin reports on global efforts to show albinos in a more favorable light. (Photo by Rick Guidotti of Positive Exposure.)

Albinos face discrimination in Africa

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Phillip Martin reports on the challenges faced by albinos in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Albinos lack the pigment melanin in their eyes, skin, and hair. It’s a genetic defect, but in much of Africa, it’s also reason for extreme – and deadly — prejudice.

Color Initiative

The Color Initiative is a series of reports that examine complex global issues of politics, culture, history and society through the framework of human perceptions and experiences related to color.