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Here's the story of a woman whose racial identity does not match her looks. She is African-American. She also has albinism, a genetic condition causing extremely pale skin and hair. Her experience says a lot about the racial distinctions people draw. Here is Anjuli Sastry, of NPR's Code Switch team.
ANJULI SASTRY, BYLINE: Even though it happened 30 years ago, Natalie Devora still remembers the night she went to an Oakland bookstore to attend a meeting for women writers of color.
NATALIE DEVORA: One of the things that happened that particular evening is someone wrote a piece about how it was a black-only space.
SASTRY: That's when one of the writers told Devora she didn't belong there.
N. DEVORA: And I almost left. And I would have left had a friend not just grabbed my hand and said, we're here.
SASTRY: Devora is African-American. She also has albinism. Her skin and hair are snow white.
N. DEVORA: I'm a white-skinned black woman. That's how I navigate through the world. That's how I identify.
SASTRY: She says often people can't tell what race she is. And growing up, Devora remembers strangers would question her mother about it.
N. DEVORA: People would ask her, why do you have a white child? Are you babysitting that child?
MURRAY BRILLIANT: Human beings define race as an important factor in identity...
SASTRY: Geneticist Murray Brilliant has studied albinism for years. He runs the Center for Human Genetics at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin. The center researches genetic conditions like albinism.
BRILLIANT: ...So individuals with albinism who lack or who have very little pigmentation are often, you know, kind of a conundrum.
SASTRY: That confusion doesn't just lead to rude questions. Brilliant says it can also result in years of social isolation that can take a toll on a person's psyche.
BRILLIANT: People with albinism often have very low self-esteem, especially fitting in and the idea of being so different.
SASTRY: In places outside the U.S., albinism can have much more tragic consequences. In several countries, men and women with albinism are attacked and dismembered because some people believe their body parts have medicinal value. A 2014 documentary called "The Boy From Geita" chronicles the violent crimes against people with albinism in Tanzania. In a clip from the film, a boy with albinism talks about the violence he faces when he leaves school. He wishes that his skin looked different.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE BOY FROM GEITA")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I would like to have black because if I have white some people they come to kill me.
SASTRY: Back in the U.S., albinism is rarely an issue of life and death. But it can dramatically affect the way people are treated - from job interviews to police encounters. Natalie Devora knows that from experience in her own family, especially after she adopted her daughter, Jewel. Jewel is also African-American, and she doesn't have albinism.
JEWEL DEVORA: I think that my mom having an absence of color is really where it begins in terms of our continued conversation about why color does matter.
SASTRY: For example, when they're out shopping together, only Jewel says she is racially profiled.
J. DEVORA: I do feel an extra set of eyes on me whereas there's not that extra set of eyes on my mom.
SASTRY: As apparent, Natalie can't help but confront salespeople when she notices them watching her daughter.
J. DEVORA: And that usually stops them - go, oh, and they have to stop back and go, huh?
SASTRY: While strangers struggled to understand her condition, Natalie Devora has come to terms with her albinism over the years. She recently returned from an international conference in Tanzania where she advocated for people with the condition. Now when Natalie looks back on that difficult night at the Oakland bookstore, she knows what she would say.
N. DEVORA: I, too, have a right to be in black space.
SASTRY: For NPR News, I'm Anjuli Sastry.