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Insularity can breed lots of contempt.

IF… I had known how isolated and “insular” they were, hmm I’d probably never end up on this blog.

(scratches chin) there’s a thought, if the deaf community had been more open and less “insular” I wouldn’t be on this blog! wow! now you have ANOTHER reason to complain about the deaf community at gallaudet… THEY SPAWNED THE EVIL PUNKY!

I thought you were a girl, laughs, until I read your post. You aren’t the only one with a bug up your arse at the Gallaudet deaf community. i have one because I don’t like people who have never been hearing telling me hearing is the enemy…nor do I like said people deciding that culture is black and white: you’re either Deaf or not. No middle ground.

As for culture, this is a hard one for me to accept. I was not “deaf” until I went to Gallaudet and learned about and lived in the environment there. Then I came away thinking I am Deaf, but now back in the real world, I find myself repulsed by the immaturity and unrealistic views of the world the deaf at Gallaudet (many of whom are friends) often have. So maybe I’m not Deaf? This is the hard part. I use ASL/PSE in the company of deaf people and I use my voice and lipread in the company of hearing people. My household is mixed, with hearing signer, hard of hearing signer, late deafened signer (me) and culturally, prelingually deafblind signer, yet we all get along and share many of the same values and frustrations at the Gallaudet community. We ALL (even the hearing member) fight against the prejudice three of us experience in the workplace and in life in general because the only image people in this region have of deaf people are the hooligans that made a name for themselves in the protest (and the lackluster graduates that Gallaudet has produced for a while.) Are none of us Deaf? Are all of us Deaf? Boy…

I suppose there is no answer. It’s gonna be what you define yourself to be. And that’s the rub! Because the Gallaudet deaf community is trying to tell me and others what we are and what we are not. Who the hell are they??

Congrats on the Deaf son. I’m expecting in November and I’ll be ecstatic if the kid is deaf (does that make me Deaf???). My mom and I are both late deafened, and I wonder if it’s genetic (hers occured mid-30’s, mine age 12…progressively over the years).

If you grant me this going of on a slight tangent, I recently read Niall Ferguson’s The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West. His thesis more or less was that mass war never truly ended and that the world wars were a result of economic volatility, ethnic disintegration and the end of empires.

It is the ethnic disintegration that is relevant to this topic. Niall Ferguson argued that the erosion of ethnic identity, even when intermarriage rates increased dramatically, led to an increase in tensions and ultimately even war. When the lines began to blur, a certain base of a specific group had defensive tendencies and would assault this even to the point of violence. When combined with economic violality, which gave this group political power then this defensive tendency and resentment would be encouraged and even explode into violence.

His thesis was interesting to read, and it was compelling stuff. I’m not sure if I agree with it. What reminded me of his book was your description of the old set of criteria applied to deaf culture. It reminded me of the criteria that (please forgive me for using this drastic example) the Nazis would apply to Jews and those who were not Jews. They were not alone, and other cultures used similar criterias to apply to certain minorities or even majorities in order to maintain their own “pure” identity.

And I think you are right, that it is healthier or easier to devise your own set of criteria from the old one that is more open minded and allow for greater interaction. In the end, this allow for greater benefits to occur for everyone concerned.

That said, I still think there are elites and elitism and it is this that people refer to when they accuse people of being insular. :)

I appreciate your response. I understood the reasoning, but you missed the point of my response. My point is that if there are natural communication barriers (as often the case with a ASL-deaf person and an oral hearing person) then the quality of the conversation may not be up to your ideal standards and it is only with time that this improves, perhaps not to the same standard you would have with your ASL friends but it does improve nonetheless.

And I argued that by refusing to acknowledge this and demanding immediate and 100 percent quality talk, you are in effect supporting being insular or isolated for all cultures/communities/individuals concerned.

Hearing people also have to accept the the same “substandard access and limited poor communication” in order to communicate with us. I doubt that their concept of 100 percent quality conversation includes notewriting or medicore sign language, yet we encourage, or even demand that they do this in order to communicate with us.

And that is good in my opinion (each to their own). That is acceptable, because not every culture or community share a language or same communication tools. There are differences even between British’ English and American English. There will be clashes, and even poorer level of communication between French and Americans who don’t know each others language well. But that should not discourage effort on either side to communicate and it would be unrealistic to demand 100 percent quality in such a scenario. It is only with time, on an individual basis that it does improve.

As for Dead Tired, since I do not know her personally and know the background I must respectfully decline to make her the topic or to use her as an example. Without intimate knowledge of her situation, I cannot predict the outcome of any course of action she pursues. However, I will say this - I too work in a hearing company and I have encountered similar difficulties (though not as difficult as hers) but I also have experienced close friendships derived from workplace and have had that carry over. I have learned, quite frankly, that it was more to do with personality and finding common interests outside of the workplace.

And let us be honest, there exist too in the deaf workplace exclusion of other deaf people on the basis that well, they don’t share common interests. This is not a cultural phenomenon limited to deaf people in hearing workplaces. Granted, the communication barrier makes it difficult to have a quality conversation but it is not insurmountable and should not be resisted on the basis that you won’t be able to debate the virtues of Karl Marx verses Jefferson in the very first conversation.