Greetings White Noise Fan(s?),
Sorry it’s been so long since my
last post. There’s a lot of life
happening. I’ve also been working on something
long form, the first segment of which is below.
There will be posts all month. Enjoy!
-Nate
The Battle of Los Angeles
To steal Jimmy Breslin’s line
about New York City in Spike Lee’s underappreciated SUMMER OF SAM (1998) and
apply it to Los Angeles, LA is a city that I love and hate both equally. All of
the posts this month will be about my lifelong Battle with the City of Los
Angeles as a person with albinism and aspirations.
Part 1: To Live & Die in LA
I was born at Henry Mayo Newhall
hospital in Valencia, California, 34 miles northwest of downtown Los
Angeles. I was one of the first babies
born in the new hospital on January 14, 1980 at 5:12am and I was the first baby
any of the medical professionals involved in my birth had ever seen with
albinism, as far as I remember.
As a person with albinism, my
skin lacks melanin pigment. Consequently, I’m extremely susceptible to sunburn. The frequency of sunny days in Los Angeles,
coupled with the low angle of the sun, make Southern California a particularly
challenging natural environment for me. My skin’s sensitivity to ultraviolet rays is matched by my eyes’ sensitivity
to bright lights, so the warm California sun was a major setback in that regard
too. As a person with albinism, Los Angeles is probably the fourth most
dangerous place in America I could’ve been born.
Here are the Top 6 Most Dangerous Places a
Person with Albinism can be Born in the US, according to me and the research I
haven’t done:
6. Alaska. Too dark in the winter, too bright in the
summer. Personally, I’d be mistaken for a polar bear and shot on site.
5. Alabama. It’s sunny and the people seem dim.
4. Los Angeles/ Southern
California. I know LA, Orange County and
San Diego are technically different but it’s all one enormous urban and suburban
sprawl so I’m grouping it all together.
3. Hawaii. The high average daily temperature and low
angle of the sun make this tropical paradise anything but heavenly to a person
with albinism. Plus, the fact it’s an
island probably limits the quality of eye care professionals and available
resources.
2. Texas. This state is sunny and hot, there are more
tigers per capita than anywhere else in the world and everybody’s armed.
1. Florida. Not only is the sun low, bright and hot, but
you’re surrounded by gators, rising oceans, pythons and people from Florida.
These statistics I did look
up: In 1980, it didn’t rain a drop in
Los Angeles from May 22 to December 3. Over 60% of the days that year were more
clear than cloudy. The average
temperature was between 73 and 78 degrees, with a few spikes over 90 degrees,
including one on June 28 and one on December 30. While to most, these
statistics paint a picture of a sun-soaked paradise, for a person with albinism,
they paint a picture of a dangerous, sun-scorched hellscape. Los Angeles was a
blinding ray of sunshine, just waiting to burn me alive.
For all the grief I give them and
the ways I don’t hesitate to call out their shortcomings, my parents understood
the extraordinary dangers Los Angeles posed for their newborn with
albinism. It must have felt urgent to
them, to get me out of there. They
understood what a misfit I was for the environment. My mom applied for a transfer at Boeing and
we moved to Seattle, Washington, where we never, ever saw the sun because it
rained all the time. Then her work took
her to Virginia, to the opposite coast, practically as far away from Los
Angeles as one could be.
Despite the dangers Los Angeles
posed for me as a person with albinism, I’d be return many times.
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