The challenge
For most of his life, Robin couldn’t even say the word “albino” out loud. Growing up in Barbados, it had been used against him since childhood — weaponized by classmates, hurled as an insult before he understood what it meant. He came to associate the word itself with shame, something to avoid saying, reading, or hearing.
What helped
Writing became the turning point. Through poetry, Robin began confronting the word directly instead of avoiding it, tracing how children learn this kind of cruelty from the adults around them, and choosing, deliberately, to take the word back rather than keep hiding from it.
In their words
The moment they feel the necessity, the urge to insult you, is always albino. You are less than you. You’re an albino. They have weaponized that word. From my entire life, I literally could not say that word — I could never walk into a conversation, I could never read a book, I could never do anything and say that word. I was embarrassed by it.
I don’t know what changed, but at some point I decided: to hell with this. I’m an albino. Then I’m human. Whoever put me here, put everyone else here too — why should I be treated differently, because someone else can’t pick up a book or ask an intelligent question?
Children at five, eight years old are saying this word to hurt you — but they didn’t learn it from a book. They learned it from their parents. So some of this hatred is inherited, and some of it is taught. I want to change that, because I can. I don’t want to live in fear behind curtains anymore. I think it’s a beautiful word. I don’t know who decided to make it ugly — but people with albinism should be proud, because they’re unique, and they were made different for a reason. They should never be embarrassed by that.”