Folks, we’re going in the wrong direction- backwards.

Today is the last day of Black History Month. 28 (or 29 if it’s a leap year) short days to recognize the accomplishments of well-known African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington (far as I know, no relation!), Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, as well as those behind-the-scenes activists, strived to make things better for their fellow African Americans and society in general. One of the positive effects of their (and other activists of other races) efforts is we are able to co-exist together, learning and living with our cultural differences.

On the flip side, sculptor from China was selected to design the Martin Luther King statue set to be unveiled in Washington, DC in 2008. “Martin Luther King is well known all around the world. In China, everyone knows about him,” Lei Yixin said through a translator. He also remembered about King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in school. He acknowledged that “this is the most important project I have ever had.”

I thought it was amusing that China is well known for its human/civil rights atrocities, and yet managed to have one of its own design the statue of a man that was against those atrocities. But here in the good ol’ U.S. of A, we are now truly a melting pot– African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Indian Americans, Native Americans, [Insert Your Race/Nationality Here] Americans.

Or are we?

In an article entitled “Why I Hate Blacks,” Kenneth Eng listed reasons why Blacks should be discriminated against. You’ve read it right. Reasons ranged from “Blacks are easy to coerce” to “Blacks just don’t get it.” My personal favorite?

Contrary to media depictions, I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It’s unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.

Hello? What about the Jews being enslaved for 400-something years? What about the Chinese people continually getting invaded, killed, and enslaved by the Japanese for thousands of years? I may not have an iron-clad grasp of history knowledge (with apologies to my 8th grade History teacher with the colorful ties), but I do know that African Americans weren’t the only ones who were enslaved by others.

Justifiably, there’s an outrage about this article being published. Oh, did I mention that the author who wrote the article for AsianWeek is Asian himself? And that most of the outrage directed at him is coming from the Asian Americans themselves? According to capaweb.org, Gen Fujioka, Program Director of the Asian Law Caucus said:

The publication of these racist statements is completely irresponsible and damaging to all our communities. Not only should there be a retraction but a serious effort to repair the harm caused.

David Chu, President of the Asian American Bar Association also threw in his two cents:

It is critical that our Asian American community stands up and tells America — and particularly our African American brothers and sisters — that our community has no tolerance for the racism expressed by Mr. Eng.

Since it was first posted last Friday, the article has been removed from AsianWeek.com. However, there is a PDF that reprinted the article in its entirety on page 2. Apparently, this isn’t the first time Eng drew the ire of Asian Americans. He penned other articles such as “Why I Hate Asians,” and “Proof That Whites Inherently Hate Us.”

This guy is on a roll, and people are not buttering him up because, in my honest opinion, he deserves to be toast. Keith Kamisugi, Associate Director for Communcations at the Equal Justic Society summed it up the best:

Eng’s vile racism is a setback to the efforts of people of color working together against discrimination, oppression and injustice. His words alone are disgusting; that it was printed in a prominent English-language Asian Pacific American newspaper is shameful.

Ride Metrorail? Love it or hate it — if you are one of the estimated 640,000 people that ride the venerable white, silver, and brown-themed train, you have formed an opinion about it. From rude and ill-mannered people (that’s an entire other blog!) to delays and missed connections, getting to your destination using Metro is almost a guaranteed adventure.

Metro currently has five routes: Red Line, Orange Line, Blue Line, Green Line, and Yellow Line. There is talk of a new Purple Line that would run from the Bethesda/Silver Spring areas to New Carrollton. That had me thinking– what other routes could help lighten the rush hour madness? If you do not live in the DC metropolitan area (”Wamarva”-according to Ms. Allison Kaftan), then you probably don’t know that the Beltway traffic between 3 pm to 8 pm exponentially increases to the nth degree.

I’m sure you’re saying, “Hey, my area is no picnic either!” But trust me: when mild, mannered folks start to accelerate on the on-ramp to the Beltway, somehow they transform into evil versions of Supermen (or women) in a very bad way. Suddenly, they have the power to swerve within inches in front of another vehicle, narrowly avoiding a collision and higher insurance premiums. They can burn up fellow motorists’ ears with a steady stream of four-lettered words. If said motorists’ ears do not work for whatever reason, never fear. There is always the handy-dandy State of California bird. I’ll probably get a rash of not-so-nice emails from loyal Calis. But I digress.

Back to the point. There are some ideal routes that Metro could build. I came across an interesting article on DCist.com. The author, Colin Peppard, talked about how one blog called Rethinking College Park envisioned what Metro of the future would be like. This is their wish-list, of sorts:

Of course, Rethinking College Park has ulterior motives for the three too-close-to-each-other University of Maryland stations on the Purple Line, which they explained here. However, I approve the idea of extending the Green Line to Thurgood Marshall BWI Airport. Why should National and Dulles get all the attention?

An extension should also be built on the Red Line. I came across yet another fantasy Metro map:

Red Line running all the way through Germantown? What a dream come true. Yes, you’ve figured me out… I live in the general area. I also like the idea of the Brown Line running through Virginia, which is a foreign country to me. But this particular map has too many station stops for my taste. Can you imagine the commute time? And hearing the annoying ding-dong chime of doors closing? Whew.

Now back to the Purple Line. The Sierra Club came up with this idea:

Out of all three “dream” maps, I like this one the best. It really makes the cross-town commute a lot more effective. The Woodrow Wilson and American Legion bridges won’t suffer as much wear and tear.

Metro’s slogan is “Metro Open Doors.” Let’s see if we can help Metro open up even more doors. Get out your crayons, figuratively speaking, and tell me what your perfect Metro map would look like.

Rinko Kikuchi, an actress, was nominated for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” at the recent Academy Awards for her role as a punky deaf schoolgirl in Tokyo in the movie, Babel. While she did not win the award, her nomination raises some interesting questions about the opinions and priorities of the American deaf and hard of hearing community.

In an interview prior to the Academy Awards, Rinko explained:

At one point, Alejandro remarked that he preferred to have a real deaf-mute woman play the character and, sure enough, on the next audition every candidate was deaf-mute except me! Alejandro is very frank. He speaks his mind and doesn’t hide his feelings, but sometimes that put a lot of extra pressure on me. I believed that, compared to those other candidates, I had the ability to approach the character as a professional actress.

If Rinko was the only hearing person at the audition, perhaps the director found it more convenient to work with a hearing person or the acting quality of the deaf-mute candidates at the audition was sub par. Or maybe the interpreters at the auditions were incompetent. In another interview, Rinko stresses the importance and language and communication in a movie:

The first thing I thought of when I heard of him [the director of Babel] coming to Japan and shoot the film was obviously this issue of language. I think for obvious reasons, it’s one of the most important elements in communicating with the director, and for the film, as well.

The implication here is that common language or effective communication is important to a successful film. Ironically, the word Babel is commonly used with the concept of the “Tower of Babel” which was, “a tower built by Noah’s descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another.” Rather than attempting to reconcile language differences, the director of Babel sought a workaround to avoid language and communication difficulties in a linguistically diverse movie. He would not have cast a Japanese person in a Mexican character in Babel, would he?

To portray a deaf person, Rinko said that she went to a “deaf-mute” school to learn sign language. While the effort by the director to find a deaf actress to fit the role and by Rinko to learn sign language and behavior of deaf people were commendable, should a deaf person still have been cast in this role, despite the communication barriers or lack of professionalism?

Perhaps, or perhaps not. The community can argue that each new deaf role assigned to a hearing person equates one less opportunity for deaf actors and actresses. Who better than a deaf person to understand and perform the role of a deaf person? Some argue that this is precisely what actors and actresses are supposed to do; pretend to be someone that they are not. Well, if that is the case, then directors should consider casting deaf people for hearing roles. That probably will not happen anytime soon, so the only opportunity for deaf people to truly act, without a predetermined role as a deaf person, is probably in movies where everyone signs. Mosdeux, a deaf-owned and operated film-making company is making tremendous progress towards this goal.

Expecting a widespread outrage at the selection of a hearing person for a deaf role in a major motion picture, I was surprised to read some blogs and comments by deaf people who provided excuses for the director’s decision. For example, one commenter said:

I’m fine with hearing acting in deaf roles because the day we damn that from happening, the day we damn everyone from being an “actor”. It’s important that AT least deaf characters remain on our screens - that itself exposes our culture somewhat to those who are clueless about it to begin with.

Really? Let’s suppose that Deanne Bray doesn’t get her role in Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye., instead it is given to another hearing up and coming actress who does a good job “imitating” a deaf person. Let’s do the same thing for actors and actresses like Tyrone Giordano, Shoshannah Stern, Phyllis Frelich, Howie Seago, Anthony Natale, Marlee Matlin (who won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role), and more. Where would that attitude leave aspiring deaf actors and actresses today?

Looking back, the deaf community was up in arms in 1993 when they protested a movie called “Calendar Girl” which cast a hearing woman in a deaf role. This protest was led by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) in sixty cities nationwide under current NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins who was the National Coordinator of that effort. Some cinemas pulled the movie from their screens because of the protest.

What can the community do? The NAACP has been leading a tremendous effort to bring more minorities and diverse people to the big screen with its Hollywood Bureau. The Diversity Report released by the Hollywood Bureau focuses on the following groups, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American.

Perhaps the NAACP could add a disability category since it is also a “minority population.” Maybe the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) could take a lead on this issue. Or the deaf community could take it into its own hands again like they did during the Calendar Girl protests?

Rather than making excuses for the film maker or director, the deaf community might look at the NAACP and the African American community as an example of what they can do to ensure that movies like Calendar Girl and Babel do not set back the hiring of deaf actors and actresses.

I used to work with this kid a while ago–I’ll call him Mike. I can only give the briefest details of his background: he was born in a Third World country and his parents were killed in a civil conflict when he was very young. Distant relatives in America took him in, but due to the fact that Deaf Education programs were non-existent where he was from, by the age of thirteen he had almost no spoken, signed, or written language skills of any kind. Not in the language of his homeland, and certainly not in English or ASL.

But he could draw. For the first week that we worked together he drew nothing but pictures of tanks with bodies sprawled all around them. I have no idea if this was a scene from actual memory, or if war themes were just something he was into at the time. Nonetheless I was struck by the detail in his sketches. He captured everything, right down to the serial numbers on the hatches of the tanks and, a bit more gruesomely, what appeared to be notches carved into the rifle butts in the soldiers’ hands.

I have a bit of skill with drawing, so I decided to communicate with him first in that way. When we were introduced he told me his name sign, so I decided to teach him mine. I drew a quick sketch of my face and held it up, placing it on my chest and tapping it a few times until he got the idea: This is me. Then I sketched him and signed “Mike.” He appeared to like the drawings and repeated his own name sign.

I then made my own name sign: a “C” held up to the right side of my forehead. He didn’t copy it, so I indicated that I’d like to help him make the hand shape of a “C,” and when he allowed me to do this, I gently guided his hand up so he’d touch it to his forehead. When he completed the sign I grinned and touched the sketch of my face again, then my chest. That’s right, that’s my name. I’m Chris.

He grinned back, and we were on our way.

He made the leap from pictures to signs very quickly. He learned quite a few new signs in three months. He also learned a lot of new printed English words. He was at his best whenever drawing was a part of what he had to do. If I drew a sketch of a kangaroo above a blank box, for example, he learned relatively quickly to print K-A-N-G-A-R-O-O in it, and vice versa. Spell ‘kangaroo’ out over the top of the blank box, and he’d draw a picture of one. All very basic stuff. Eventually we progressed to him being able to draw the hand shapes that finger-spelled whatever picture was above the blank box, as well as draw a sketch of a person making the ASL sign for the corresponding printed English word. Once we moved up to sentences, no matter how weird I made them (“A sad kangaroo kicks a blue ice cream cone” and so forth), he was able to draw a cartoon showing all of this happening.

However, a lot of that depended on him being able to see two different things at the same time–the picture and the English text in order to make the sign, or the picture and the finger-spelling hand shape sketches in order to make the sign. As a way of testing his growing proficiency, I started making note cards with drawings on one side and sketches of corresponding finger-spelled hand shapes or English text on the other. If I pointed at the finger-spelling of “kangaroo,” for example, all he had to do was give me the corresponding sign and, if he got it right, we’d flip the card over and there the drawing would be. That was our system of elimination… when all of the cards had been flipped over, he’d be done with the exercise.

He really struggled with not being able to see the pictures. And I didn’t know why he couldn’t make the leap. Why couldn’t he retain the information faster, and be able to see just the spelling of a word—either in English or in finger spelling—and be able to remember the picture or sign that these things represented?

The answer became clear, oddly enough, from a memory that I had of watching Sesame Street when I was a kid. The spelling for “bed” came on the screen, with the line of the lower-case “b” forming the headboard, the top of the “e” forming the mattress, and the line of the lower-case “d” forming the footboard. Put a sleeping man on top of it, and presto, something powerful enough happened in my mind to make the image stay with me for another twenty-five years. Maybe he wasn’t making the leap from pictures to text because, as a society, we had long ago separated pictures from text. Maybe what we need to do is put them back together.

I started utilizing that technique with him. All printed English text now became a part of the drawing rather than staying separate from it. I didn’t just print the word “caboose” under a drawing of one, in other words. The “c” and the “a” became its front wheels, the “b” part of its doorframe, and the remaining letters became more wheels. Draw the outline of a caboose around the rest of the word, and we were set.

His retention of vocabulary more than quadrupled after that. So did the rate at which he absorbed new words, especially after I started having him incorporate letters of words into his own drawings. It’s fortunate that we both enjoyed art so much, because I had to create almost all of our materials from scratch. And what’s more, I had a devil of a time tracking down these specific types of materials on the internet. I found the word “rebus” within twenty minutes of searching, but even that didn’t have exactly what I wanted. You could always find drawings with words under them. You could always find drawings above blank boxes where the student was meant to print the corresponding word. But Mike needed text within drawings.

Even more frustrating, no materials of this type appeared to exist for finger-spelled hand shapes, even though the technique itself worked here, as well. For example, as his vocabulary grew, and the spellings of some words started looking very much like the spellings of other words (as well as the signs—such as “lunch” and “munch”), we found that he’d remember the word better if he could take a marker and not only trace on paper the letter that was different in each word (the “l” and “m”), but also trace those letters on the fingers he would use to make their corresponding finger-spelled hand shapes.

His hands would literally become rainbows of color by the end of the day, but so what? When I showed him a picture of someone munching, the wad of food in his mouth making a barely noticeable “m” shaped bump under the skin of his stuffed cheek, Mike only needed to see faintest remaining traces of the three lines he’d made on the middle three fingers of his hand to remember the appropriate spelling. Within a day he didn’t even need that (and thank God, too, or his hands would never have been clean again). But more importantly, a month later he would still remember that that this was the drawing for “munch” and not “lunch.” During the final three weeks of our time together, he acquired well over a hundred new words–and continued to retain them–whereas previously he had only been learning at less than half that rate and was retaining very little.

He was soaking language up like a sponge. Being able to see the letters in the drawings was his bridge across a gap that, until now, had been unsurpassable.

It’s a couple of years later now, and I haven’t seen Mike in a while. He transferred to a new school. I wonder how his literacy skills have progressed. Did these specialized lessons continue? Given how hard it was for me to find even a partially accurate name for the technique, and given the fact that I could find hardly any materials… I don’t know. Where would his reading skills be today if those types of lessons had continued? Where would he be if he’d had exposure to those types of materials when he was much younger?

I wonder how much of a dent we could make in fourth grade reading levels in deaf students if we started thinking about literacy in new ways… not just in terms of English, and not even in terms of ASL, or even strictly in terms of Bi-Bi approaches… but also in terms of art. Not just words and pictures drawn separately, but words in pictures, transmitted—and acquired— simultaneously. How much could deaf children benefit?

Mike, I think, might have benefited enormously.

It should come as no surprise that the inevitable is unfolding. Commercialization of our commodities continues to proliferate, from clothes manufacturers’ ploys to hook us into a particular brand, to grocers pushing for a particular food that is loaded with the latest look-there’s-absolutely-no-fat-in-this-product displays as we hurry through aisles in order to get dinner on the table, to entertainment venues (sporting, music, the arts) vying for the golden buck that lines our pockets. While I haven’t listed everything that is marketable, there also is the battle of the telecommunications world, with relay companies springing up left and right, hoping to retain us as exclusive users to boost their ratings and revenue, let’s not forget about the only two juggernaut competitors in the satellite radio business, XM and Sirius:

They announced plans (on the 19th) of merging both companies into one, with one CEO becoming executive officer and the other a chairman (the Karmazin/Parsons entity). To me, it is the cataclysmic sign of the apocalypse–where is enough enough? When does the infinite search for top dollar finally recede? When the Martians have invaded, and all that is left are our eight-legged creatures to wonder at what happened to those funny-looking two-pronged humanoids that always chased them around with a can of combustive chemicals, does the buck finally come to a restive halt then?

Back on track–is there nothing that cannot be compressed, packaged, and sold? Forget the space around us; real estate and commercial developers are gunning that down as we speak…ditto for cyberspace, vast juggernauts (Google) are rising from the dust and sending sentinels out to seize, market, control and advertise. Water? The commodity we have the most supply of–just take a look at any map–somewhere, a corporate soul is tucked away in a dark, dank state-of-the-art laboratory, hatching a plan that will be the “future of tomorrow!” and figuring out how they can turn abundance into a marketable commodity (aquatic real estate’s starting to sell like hot potatoes). It should not figure that satellite and our radio waves would fall into the same black hole.

While some may laud the XMSIRIUS merger as the next messianic coming, this blogger is not so convinced. The FCC will also investigate, to ensure that a monopoly is averted (probably so that it can continue taxing TWO entities rather than losing money and taxing only ONE); after the dust settles, the point still remains:

Where does the line start getting crossed? Are we expected to end up chucking our mores and ethics for the next fastest line in the rat race? I can see the coming boom of ethics marketing: we pay for people to tell us what we should do in certain situations (Note: Listen to your gut feeling! It almost never fails you!).

The XMSIRIUS merger may help both companies utilize their resources, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, professional sports, music, and so forth, to provide subscribers with more options. Although, as the good Doctor Faustus pondered the Devil’s deal, what is the catch? Will prices rise, forcing us to debate whether we should give up this addictive convenience, when maybe we should never have bought into it in the first place?

Will the pooling of collective energies result in a greater return on investment, generating excess dollars that will be poured back into the community to provide leadership, support, homes, a bolstering of our economy and eventually a chip away from the largest deficit known in history (trillions of dollars and counting)?

Or will the not-yet-born dollars just go right back into the already-fat coffers of the richest, leaving the peons to toil away while they lavish themselves with million-dollar birthday parties?

In a parallel universe, the fat-cats would turn into Robin Hoods and send the Pied Piper off into the sunset with all the stumbling and bumbling corporate officers in tow, to the impending doom of being cast into limbo for eternity.

DeafDC.com fans can now kick back and read the musings of Christopher Jon Heuer, the latest addition to DeafDC.com! Many of us know him from his long (and thoughtful) comments in our blogs (which some say are blogs within blogs).

He is the author of All Your Parts Intact: Poems and the upcoming Bug (due out this fall from Gallaudet University Press). Heuer also wrote columns for the NAD Members Only Area (MOA) several years ago. The columns were actually blogs but we didn’t know it at the time.

Heuer teaches English and is a rabid Battlestar Galactica fan (the ultra-cool remake, not the campy 1970s original). He spends much of his time competing with his wife, Amy, for possession of their household’s sole computer, which they (cough) share as a conscientious answer to the global warming crisis. Otherwise they would have just bought two.

Please give him a warm welcome to DeafDC.com!

By Jeannette Johnson

If you had told me two years ago that I would become friends with one of my interpreters, I would have laughed in your face. My mother used to be an interpreter, she drilled the interpreter’s code of ethics into my head. Not only that, but because of flagrant ethical violations by my interpreters during high school, my mother went on to be an advocate for deaf and hard of hearing children in Michigan. After what happened during high school, I always remained on friendly terms with the interpreters I encountered, but had acquired an innate sense of caution around them.

On the first day of my classes at college, instead of feeling unease, I felt an instant bond with one of my interpreters. This was truly unusual, and it bothered me a bit. Yet, I was curious about this woman. What was it about her that made me drop my usual sense of caution? Even to this day, it’s hard for me to pin down what it was exactly drew us to each other. Before class started, we would strike up a conversation. And boy, did we talk. It got to the point where we would pick up where we left off after class.

There was a voice way back in my head saying, “What’re you doing? You’re not supposed to become friends with your interpreters! It causes role confusion and blurring of boundaries! Be careful!” But I ignored that voice, and before I knew it, between classes, we chatted away in the college’s coffee shop. We told each other things that only friends tell each other. We were becoming good, but not close, friends. I would share stories about my deaf activism at the local level, and how many people were ticked off at me as a result. She would laugh at my stories, and joked that I was the deaf community hitman.

Then one day last fall, I was stricken with terrible news about my health. While the news was devastating, it was in some sense, a relief. Finally, I knew why I was feeling and behaving the way I was. I told my interpreter about this news and from that point on the dynamics of our friendship changed and we grew closer. But now my voice in my head was clamoring, “You have to back off! You’re heading for trouble here! You guys are getting far too close for your own good!” I became so uncomfortable with the situation with my friend that I was ready to tell her boss that I didn’t want her interpreting for me anymore. But I was beaten to the punch, another interpreter was assigned to me for next semester. Good news, right? Well, this new interpreter doesn’t do a good job voicing for me.

So, I contacted my friend to discuss what happened via text-message. Our initial conversation about what happened went smoothly, and we expected to see each other again sometime soon. I also emailed my advisor about the interpreting situation and shared my concerns about the new interpreter’s ability to voice for me and requested to have another interpreter. A couple of weeks passed, and my friend texted me again to inquire about the interpreting situation. That’s when things blew up in our faces. It erupted into a series of misunderstandings, and her boss eventually got dragged into it. It created a very embarrassing situation for everyone involved. So, I asked my friend via text-message, to meet in person to discuss about what happened. She initially refused for various reasons, but the impression I got from her was that she thought I was seeking out a fight from her, and she wasn’t about to give one to me.

Considering our history and my reputation, it was somewhat understandable.

She eventually agreed to meet with me, but nothing changed. So, we ended up not seeing or speaking to each other for over a month. She also was no longer interpreting for my classes, and the campus was large enough for us to not run into each other. But I knew due to the small pool of local interpreters, I was bound to run into her again. And I was right. She ended up interpreting a meeting I attended. It was tough, especially when you consider my past history with her and other interpreters. But despite the frigidity, we were able to remain professional throughout the meeting. How many interpreters can you remain professional with after they crossed a very personal line with you, and you end up not speaking to each other for over a month?

Gradually, we warmed up to each other. We always worked well together. Things, however, didn’t completely defrost until the issue of how using text in a conversational or a group discussion setting could be limiting. This subject was exactly what had escalated our arguments and subsequently our estrangement. I used the example of the very simple word, ‘yes’ and showed how the word’s connotation could give an entirely different meaning to what was said, and how confusing it could be in text, because we sometimes don’t know which connotation is being used by the speaker. When I drove home that point, my friend interpreted it with complete professionalism, but since we used to be such good friends, I recognized the horror in her eyes. She was able to maintain her professionalism and her composure until the end of the meeting. But as she left, I knew that she finally understood why I wanted to meet with her face to face, and that we both had made mistakes in this entire situation.

I’m not saying it was a mistake to become friends with her and I honestly don’t know what will happen now between us, but she sure as heck isn’t going to be interpreting for me again if I can help it. And the next time I have the chance to become friends with an interpreter, I’ll obey the demands of that little, insistent voice deep inside my head.

Jeannette Johnson (a.k.a. Deaf Pundit) is a regular commenter in the deaf blogosphere, mainly on DeafDC.com. She is a native Michigander studying Social Work and is an alumnus of Gallaudet and RIT. She is always ready to dive head-first into the following: an intellectual debate, a science fiction book, and Italian food.

By Alok Doshi

This is a narrow-minded and divisive notion. At a time when blacks living in this country, whether by birth or by choice, should be harnessing their collective political clout to empower all black people, we’re wasting time debating which of us are truly black.

- Majorie Valbrun in her Washington Post Article, “Black Like Me?“

Sound familiar? This is a variation on the “Not Deaf Enough” theme raised during the Gallaudet protest. While I supported the movement in principle because I felt the university needed a major paradigm shift, I still felt there was a strong sentiment against someone who was “not deaf enough”. As some readers may remember, my guest blog last year discussed the social and cultural rights for the deaf community. At the time it was posted, I began to see parallels between the deaf and black cultures. While there are many areas of comparison, I focus on two key concepts here:

• Economic Power: The NAACP, the black advocacy organization, seems to recognize that achieving civil rights is just not enough. The NAACP is known for its history of hiring a person from civil rights, religious, or political background to be their CEO/President. However, their latest hire was from the corporate world – Bruce Gordon, former President of the Retail Markets for Verizon managing $23 Billion in revenues. According to USA Today, Gordon would appeal to younger black people, many who want to move past civil rights to the broader world, to achieve higher economic power (by this, I refer to earning power – higher salaries, entrepreneurship, rapid advancement of qualified people, and so forth thus creating a stronger voice in business and politics).
• “Not Black Enough”: The Post Article by Ms. Valbrun emphasizes that politics and media should not focus too much on the “degree” of blackness. There is not a single definition for the whole culture. There are African immigrants. There are black people born of wealth. There are blacks who are highly educated. Blacks born of interracial couples. Does the same apply to our own? Does it matter what degree of deafness we possess and what method of communication we prefer?

At first glance, the Hispanic community, despite their clear differing groups (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc), seem to stand together and have a strong voice. You could say the same thing for the Asians.

I may be wrong, but I still ask: Why are we are wasting time discussing whether someone can sign or not – whether they are “deaf enough” to participate in community events? While I believe in the beauty and power of ASL and think Gallaudet should make it a vital part of their culture, I do not want to focus too much on that. Instead, I want access – I want captioning (especially on the web) – I want to be recognized and hired regardless of my communication preference – I want social and cultural recognition of the whole community. Just like what the African-American community is also experiencing.

I also wonder if Obama’s message of racial inclusion worries some blacks. Do they think if he reaches out to “them” (whites), it means he neglects “us” blacks?

- Majorie Valbrun

I have the same question. I agree with those who said that Deafhood is mainly about the process of re-discovering ourselves. I applaud the efforts of those who want to preserve our deaf history/culture – yet I still believe there are people who forget the greater purpose – to achieve a collective economic, social, and cultural power.

Is it time for us to come together and empower all deaf and hard of hearing regardless of how we define ourselves?

Alok Doshi is in the management program at the National Institutes of Health. A MBA graduate from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, Alok is also a RIT graduate. During his free time, Alok likes to perpetuate the deaf poker craze at the National Deaf Poker Tour.

The March 2007 Deaf Professional Happy Hour (DPHH) is scheduled to take place at Be Bar, an up-and-coming, culturally diverse bar in the Shaw area of the District. Be Bar was selected because they actually reached out to us and pretty much
said, “Come to Be Bar. We’d really love to have DPHH here. And we even have
cute bartenders who are fluent in ASL! We’ll even let DPHH patrons in
free-of-charge if they sign DPHH at the door.”

But since the announcement about BeBar being the location for the
next DPHH, we’ve gotten some flak.

“But BeBar is gay. Why would you want to have DPHH there? They sometimes have gay clientele. Bad choice!”

What do you all think? How concerned should we be given that we’ve had
DPHH at all sorts of venues catering to all sorts of audiences for the
last 10+ years.

It is indeed, a small, mad world out there. I can only imagine how Britney must be feeling these days. The whole world’s watching her and her next move. Granted, the girl might be a bit crazy. but if you were in her shoes, what would you do?She was shunned for having her kid with her in the driver’s seat. Everyone knows that was dumb, but with the paparazzi after her, she was probably scared and didn’t know what else to do. I don’t blame her for doing something that stupid because everyone knows, you do stupid things in the heat of the moment. Everyone has accused her of child abuse because her kid has a couple bruises. They’ve *gasped* when she tripped and almost dropped her kid. She was probably flustered and couldn’t keep her balance. The paparazzi was after her! You do know kids do get hurt? It’s human nature!

And her next crazy act was to shave all her hair off. Now, what girl has not thought about shaving all her hair off? There’s got to be something empowering about doing something like that. I have had had the urge to tell someone, just shave it all off! (Even Elia from Top Chef did it…and she looked good doing it.) However, I would’ve liked to see Britney shave it all off and rock it, own it, be it. Yet, she didn’t do any of those things.

I almost feel bad for Britney. She’s got the whole world watching her. However, it’s not that she didn’t ask for it. She’s the one who wanted all that fame and glory. She wanted to be the next Madonna (let’s put it this way, Britney is going down in history as Britney, and no one else). She wanted kids at a young age. And now she can’t handle the pressure of all the fame, fortune… and a crazy life style. She had to know her life would be a bit crazy because everyone wants to know her, everyone wants to be her, everyone wants to see what she’s like. Would you be able to handle it?

But you know what, all the mistakes she’s made, who hasn’t made them? Who hasn’t had the urge to say, hey, can you watch the kids for a couple hours while I do my thing? (Yes she went a little crazy doing her thing…I’ll admit that). Who hasn’t fallen in love, over and over again (granted she took it a little too far and married a little too quickly, she’s Britney!)? Who hasn’t wanted to just go, you know what, I don’t care what other people think…she’s done it. I’m glad someone’s had the guts to say, Look Britney, pull yourself together. Hopefully she will.

I might think she’s crazy, but she is human.

This brings me to my point (yes, I’m making a point), we thrive on gossip. Whether or not we admit it. We thrive on it. Whenever we see someone mess up, we talk about it until it’s dead and done. We like seeing someone mess up because it makes it okay when we mess up. Secretly, I’m even glad when my own sisters mess up, I can go *yes!* that makes it okay when I mess up!

When it comes to the deaf community, it’s even smaller than any of us realize. I know we’re always saying, wow, what a small world! We’re all connected by six degrees, although I think the deaf community is separated by two degrees.

See, I never realized how small the deaf community was since I was mainstreamed from sixth grade until 12th grade. And during that time, I was always known as “Sarah’s sister”. When I went to college, I thought, “Finally, I can be anonymous. I can be who I want to be.” I was wrong, dead wrong. I kept getting, “Oh you’re Sarah’s sister!”

Yeah, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

It was a small community at college, I just never realized the full extent of the deaf community until I stepped foot in DC. It’s that small of a community. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes it’s nice to know that someone knows someone that you know. And they like them as much as you like them. But then you realize it isn’t the easiest thing either because everyone’s bound to know your business. Though there will be some people who manage to stay under the radar, and there will be others who are prominent.

Not only that, it feels like the deaf community has gotten a lot smaller since the blogging world has exploded. It’s crazy. Luckily, I’ve still managed to keep a low profile despite this blog. It’s not easy, always having to watch what you say, what you do, what you feel. But I do feel like without this blog, I’d still be questioning whether or not if what I think is okay or not. It’s tough putting your voice out there when you know there might be some people that won’t agree with you, or people who might say things about you, even if they’re true or not.

I know I’m guilty of being part of the gossip. I’ve done it, one time too many. I even talk about people I don’t know…especially from those reality TV shows (like the Real Housewives of Orange County, and trust me I’ve formed an opinion of some of those people that I shouldn’t even have an opinion of!). Who is not guilty about talking bad about a good friend behind their back just because you’re feeding off the energy of those around you.

It’s tough. You walk into a small community. You have to watch what you say, what you do, and who you’re with. How do you get around that? How do you manage to keep sane? If you’re a prominent figure in the community, how do you get around the fact that there’ll be moments where you just want to say, you know what, I could care less right now?

I feel like I’ve managed to stay under the radar. I’m not quite anonymous, but my life is my life. I’m aware of the fact that I don’t want to be a prominent figure in the community. I don’t mind having a voice, but I couldn’t be in the public eye all the time. I wouldn’t be able to deal with the fact of having to watch what I say, watch what I do, watch who I’m with at all times. It’s not easy. which is why I say, maybe people ought to ease up sometimes. Everyone messes up sometimes, they’re just not being watched under a microscope.

What would you do if you weren’t so anonymous and everyone had something to say about you?