Lee Thomas - Spotted Denzel

 

I'm standing in line at the grocery store, and I'm there to get the essentials, you know, Pop-Tarts, olives, [audience chuckle] toilet paper. I'm a dude. [audience chuckle] And so, I feel this guy staring at me intensely. I can feel like he's burning a hole in the side of my head. It's intense. He's looking at me so hard, it's like he smells something terrible. He's just squint-face looking at me. And I can just feel it. 

 

Now, usually that's a problem. Someone's staring at you, you give a mean face, you know the face you use when you're walking down the street here in the city or any city and you want to be left alone, you give them that mean face and they stop looking, hopefully. But this time, I decided to do something different. Because the truth is, [soft chuckle] I'm not a mean dude. I'm kind of the kind of guy who always has fun. When I was little, I liked to sing songs, do a little dance, do a little jig, just smile to make people smile. And people would stare at me. 

 

So, I usually say it, it's because I'm devastatingly handsome. [audience chuckle] I call myself the spotted Denzel Washington. [audience laughter] What's up, girls? [audience laughter] But the truth is, I have a disease called vitiligo. 2% of the world population has it. It's not life-threatening, it's not contagious, but it does get you a lot of attention. It gets you a lot of stares. So, today, instead of giving a mean face, I decided to do something different. I just let him stare. And man, did the guy stare. I'm putting my stuff on the conveyor, I'm checking out, he's checking out on the other aisle and he's looking and I'm letting him look. 

 

I think he doesn't know that I'm letting him look, but he's looking, he's looking. We both check out at the same time. We head towards the exit and he's still looking. And so, we get to the door to leave, and we actually make eye contact face-to-face. I just decide, I got to break this and I look right at him and I say, "Hey, buddy, what's up?" [audience chuckle] And he just go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hi." I think at that point, he realized that he was a grown man staring at another grown man, which is usually a problem. So, I wanted to break the ice a little bit and not make there tension and I said, "It's a disease called vitiligo, man. It's not life-threatening, it's not contagious, it's just kind of cosmetic and it just looks very different. I get a lot of attention."

 

And the guy actually asked me a question. So, I answer his question and we talk a little bit. And he asked me another question. So, I end up talking to that guy in the grocery store for a good five minutes. It was good. And at the end of our conversation, he says to me, "If you didn't have vitilargo--" it's vitiligo, but, you know, he was trying. [audience chuckle] "If you didn't have vitilargo, you'd look just like that guy on TV." And I laugh at him. I laugh it off, I go, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I get that all the time, buddy." And I go to my car and I just sit there, stare out the window, because the truth is, in the city I live in, Detroit, I am that guy on TV. [audience chuckle] 

 

I am the anchor of a morning show, I am a reporter for a local station and I had been covering my vitiligo, have been and still do cover my vitiligo with makeup when I'm on TV. And most people never even notice. So, for him, I am that guy. Now, wearing makeup on TV is not a big deal. This is New York. You guys know this. If you're on TV, you have to cover blemishes, you have to make the shine go away. Makeup is not a big deal on television. But not only am I on television, I'm an entertainment reporter. So, I'm in a cosmetic job in a superficial industry and I interview the most beautiful people in the world, [audience laughter] right?

 

So, I cover my face with makeup, because I do not want to lose my job. I think if they know what I actually look like, then it might be over. So, I just do what everybody else on TV does, cover it up and keep it moving. And that goes pretty well. I cover everything except my hands. So, vitiligo is a pigment disorder, you just lose your color. For African-Americans, it's very drastic. You look like you have white spots all over your body, but the hands completely go away. 

 

Now, I tried to cover my hands with makeup. And it's brown makeup. Follow me here. You have brown makeup on and you touch any part of your body during the day, you're going to have a brown spot. You shake somebody's hand, they're going to walk away with brown on their hand, and you're like, "This is my mom's fault." I'd rather people think that I have a disease than I'm dirty. [audience laughter] Because my mom, bless her heart, my mom would always say, "We may not have a lot, but at least, we're clean down to the underwear." [audience laughter] Thanks, Mama. Mwah.

 

So, I cover with makeup. And it worked. Had a good career, many years. One day, this lady calls me. She says her son has vitiligo. People with vitiligo notice the hands, and they call or write a letter and reach out. And that's cool. She said her son wanted to talk to me. And I said, “Okay. Have him call me after the newscast tomorrow.” And he did. 

 

He's a 14-year-old kid. He's had vitiligo for a while. He had straight A's, the kid was into karate, he seemed like he had his head on straight. I talked to the kid for 20 or 30 minutes, and we go back and forth with vitiligo stories, and we talk about how to deal with the stares and all kinds of war stories. It was a good conversation. And then, he says, "Mr. Thomas, I have to ask you a question." Anytime someone announces a question, you know it's something. So, I go, “Okay.” He goes, "Would you show your face on TV without makeup on?" And I was like, "Yeah, okay." 

 

Because my boss had been asking me to do that for two or three years, my news director. I wasn't going to do it. I was telling her, "Let me think about it." Because you can't tell your boss no, that's just something you can't do. So, I'd tell her, "Let me think about it," because I knew I would just end up seeing, "Watch the Black man turning white, tonight at 05:00. Dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun.” A promo that's going to run forever. I just wasn't ready for that. 

 

So, this kid asking me the same question was different than my boss. So, I said to him, "Why?" And he says, "If you show people what you look like, maybe they'll treat me differently." Wow. The kid blew my blinders off. You know those blinders that you wear every day, you get up, you make your breakfast, you get your coffee, you go to work, you hit the train, you hit your car, however you get there, you do your job, you go to the grocery store, you go home, you do everything you have to do to make sure your family's good, to make sure your bills are paid, there's a roof over your head, those blinders that keep you straight. He blew my blinders off, and I saw other people.

 

So, I said, "Sure, kid, I'll do that for you." Then this kid says, "Good, because there's an eight-year-old who lives in my neighborhood who wears a ski mask to go outside and play. And if you show people what you look like, the people around him tease him a lot and maybe they'll treat him differently." Wow. This 14-year-old smart kid was actually calling me for an eight-year-old, and I'm a grown ass man hiding behind makeup. So, I told the kid, "Sure, of course. You're going to have to wait till the next ratings book," because I know my boss, and she's going to want to make sure we get the biggest bang for the buck, [audience chuckle] but I'll do the story.” I was afraid. I remember the walk down the hallway to go into the studio to do that report.

 

I work on a morning show, and most of my coworkers at that point had never seen my face without makeup. Some of them couldn't look me in the eye, see me coming down the hall, they dart back into the newsroom. I understand. I sat on the set, I felt vulnerable, I was afraid, but I did it. And the response was immediate. It was overwhelmingly positive. I got hugs from my coworkers, my station got the biggest response from any story, correspondent snail mail, email, that we had gotten all year. It was not what I expected. 

 

So, I didn't know what to do with the attention. So, I decided to turn the attention back to the initial people who got me to tell the story. So, I started a support group for people with vitiligo, just a local Detroit support group. But that support group sprouted more around the country, and support groups around the world. Now, we have a World Vitiligo Day once a year, and we've had it for the past few years. 

 

We do a lot of things at this World Vitiligo Day. But most of all, we stare at each other [audience laughter] and compare spots. [audience laughter] And the first year, this little girl was looking me over and she said that one of my spots looked like a unicorn. [audience chuckle] Thanks.