RLM

As I said, I haven’t been attacked for speaking by Deaf people. At most they ask me if I’m hearing or deaf. I do want to share that I was attacked for my sub-par ASL skills and teased quite often. But I tended to ignore that. Obviously I was learning and sucked at the time, but I was lucky to have encouraging teachers and friends. I remember a couple of times when I bit back: aren’t you learning English? They got it, and we moved on.

I asked for other people’s experience and think I asked nicely - not really expecting your tone. If we don’t talk about the problems, we won’t find solutions, right? I do understand you obviously have pain from your past. So do I. I encourage you to share you feelings in forums like this one. They are important. Constructive solutions are also important.

What I wonder, now, is how we can quantify that comment by the deaf person. What does it mean for them to “accept your Deafness?” Why could they not accept you as a person? Did they feel you were threatening to them? Are there little secret signals that you might not have picked up on which that person did? Or maybe they were just being b*t*hy? It sounds a little like the latter. Or perhaps they had problems with their own parents, and were projecting their experiences on you.

But I would really love to hear more about people who’ve experienced audism from the Deaf community. (I use the word both ways, just like racism can be used both ways.) It teaches me a lot about where our insecurities lie, and how we can fight against them. If I had been in your shoes, I would have said, “Fine, I agree with you, why don’t you start an organization to educate parents about Deaf people and make sure your side is represented?” Too often I see Deaf people complaining, and taking no action to resolve the situation. That’s crab theory, too, you know.

My own parents had no idea what to do with me. I’ve written on my website about how doctors told them they would make me retarded, etc. by using sign language. They did the best they could with the info they have. It sounds like the individual you spoke to has a lot of inner conflicts themselves. We all have to remember that all groups undergo trauma thanks to discrimination at points in their lives. The feelings themselves are not important; it is when we refuse to take proactive decisions to change things that we truly fail.

Ella Mae Lentz says in the joey baer blog Shane and “moi” link to that the solution is to topple over the barrel. I like that reframing. Kind of makes your idea of allowing people to explore outside the barrel moot. What do you think?

I don’t know how many people are out there like me, but I’ve got a sinking feeling that the protest will turn out in the end to have a deeper tie to the Deaf/ASL-only sect’s agenda than is being admitted. The way the search and outcome of the person to replace Dr. Fernandes unfolds will be telling.

While I supported change in my beloved Gallaudet, and saw the protests as an amazing way to institute the seeds for change, I worry that something bigger, more exclusive in nature, has been unleashed. I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s just a gut feeling from reading all the various blogs, comments, editorials, open letters, and the like. A gut feeling that there’s an element to the protests and their outcome that no one is willing to admit to.

I see Gallaudet as a UNIVERISTY where I can get a visual education. It is why I chose to attend it, why I, knowing only a wee bit o’ SEE, scrambled to learn ASL (resulting in PSE, I suppose) during my first year submerged in class with strong ASLers and without an interpreter, why I never used my voice on campus without signing at the same time, and why I pushed for higher academic standards in admissions and stronger classwork from professors, despite knowing most deaf struggle with English. I didn’t see Gallaudet as a cultural center alone…just a place I could get the best taste of it while pursuing my education. I actually wish the Deaf clubs would re-emerge across the country, giving Deaf culture a place to flourish while leaving Gallaudet alone to do its job: educating deaf and hard of hearing people! I cringe when hearing people write that Gally is just a big ol’ federally funded Deaf club, but I also fear they may have been predicting what Gallaudet could become if the focus is shifted from education to cultural preservation!

Gallaudet and the perils of culture

http://www.washtimes.com/comme.....-9958r.htm