After watching an HBO special on ‘Little People’, it occured to me that I have never seen, or even heard of, an Asian or Black person with dwarfism.
Is dwarfism a race-linked mutation, like sickle-cell and lactose intolerance? Or is it just that being a midget AND a minority means one will never be in the mainstream media?
And it just occured to me: to the best of my knowledge the Pygmies don’t actually have dwarfism, they’re just short. But, I’ve been known to be completely ignorant in the past, so if I’m wrong please feel free to correct me.
I have known a few African-American achrondroplastic dwarfs; I believe that there are at least two working in Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey at this time.
Make sure that “SafeSearch” is turned ON before doing searches involving “African Americans” and “dwarfs.” There are some people with interesting hobbies out there.)
I am still doing research. This may take longer than I thought. I have not yet found an appropriate link…
A few years ago, while attending a ballet performance, I strolled into the ladies’ bathroom and discovered a black lady who barely went past my knee. She thanked me for holding the door for her and went about her way.
There also used to be a black man with dwarfism and some sort of hand deformity that worked at my local movie theater, as well.
First, lactose intolerance is not race-linked, it’s culture-linked. It happens that peoples from northern Europe have spread their ability to tolerate dairy widely, but a number of African tribal peoples have also developed lactose tolerance through a similar process of natural selection.
As for the question: because of the somewhat unfortunately predilection for using dwarfs as elves at Christmas time, I’ve seen numerous dark-skinned dwarfs on television and in movies. Even in some better parts. Though I haven’t yet seen Bad Santa.
One of the LOTR short-body-doubles was East Indian. He used to order Viggo Mortenson around. That must have been fun to watch. I think he was Sean Astin’s double. It’s in the FOTR extras.
There was a black dwarf in Me, Myself, and Irene as well. I think it’s just a case of double-minority; there aren’t that many dwarfs, and there aren’t that many blacks (in the US), so there are many fewer black dwarfs …
Dwarfism occurs in all racial groups. The TV documentaries I’ve seen are generally centered around LPA, which is understandable. LPA is pretty heavily white, so not too many folks of other hues are visible. But they’re there.
As to why you don’t see very many in RL, well, dwarfs are thinly scattered to begin with. Then when you’re part of some minority that is (pulling this number out of thin air) 10% of the population and you have this condition that only happens in maybe one out of 20,000 births…you’re not going to see very many such people.
Have seen Black little people of both sexes here in DC - one fellow who also appears to have additional handicaps, and a woman who seems otherwise unaffected by handicaps (I hesitate to use the word “normal” since I don’t want to imply anything negative about her physical appearance). I see them pretty regularly, too.
As mentioned earlier, there is an actor roaming around Hollywood that is a balck achondroplasic dwarf who was in Bad Santa and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
The first person who came to my mind, though, was Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys.
I was also “friends” with a black little person when I worked in a pharmacy in Macon, GA. *
*actually, he wanted to go out with me but I always kindly declined.
And I’m not sure if Pygmies count as dwarfs, as dwarfs usually have different arm:leg:torso proportions from non-dwarfs, while Pygmies just look like full-sized people, only smaller.
