Comments on: What is Enough?

By: jachocoteaja

jachocoteaja — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:58:56 +0000

So, being one is enough. Being who one is is enough. Living the life the way one strive to live is enough. Believing in how one see is enough. So..when will it ever be enough for everyone at the same time? It’s like asking, when will one have enough of being arrogant, racist, sexist, oppressor, or whatever?? When will it be enough for the ones who are victims of those experience?

Got it. I guess….

By: Jeff S

Jeff S — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:22:48 +0000

Katherine, thanks for the link. Those interesting letters also provided further links to additional Chronicle items, all of which were good to see.

My qualms about the fixation on identity do not extend to political or social activism. It is necessary to offer one another moral support or criticize discriminatory practices. All the same, I think it would be worthwhile to explore a post-identity agenda. In a way, one might speak of post-Deafhood in matters of identity.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:59:52 +0000

I hear (or rather see you). Especially liked what Sidney Poitier said.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:36:04 +0000

Check the link I posted in response to Jeff S.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:34:29 +0000

Omit the “to” between “across” and “the” in the sentence!

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:30:29 +0000

Thought you’d find this to be interesting as I stumbled across to the letters to the editor in response to Larry Davis’ “Deafness and the Riddle of Identity.” Here is the link:

http://chronicle.com/temp/emai.....psDGzNH68x

I do appreciate what Dr. Thoryk and Dr. Krentz have to offer.

By: Julie Rems-Smario

Julie Rems-Smario — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:25:13 +0000

Ohhh I cracked up and almost fell of my chair!!!! This is just great! Especially at the end! Love it!

By: SChevy

SChevy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:11:38 +0000

Discussion of religion, my belief in God is like what Empedocles wrote, “God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.”

By: SChevy

SChevy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:53:35 +0000

After what almost all vlogs and blogs showed me during the protest, I have seen plenty of complaints that Jane Fernandes is Not Deaf Enough by saying that she can’t sign ASL well, and she is too much of an oralist. I still do not understand why protesters continue denying this main reason for the protest.
By the way, Erin, your post is great and I enjoyed reading it very much.

By: Jeff S

Jeff S — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:03:36 +0000

I agree that years of oppression are behind many manifestations of identity politics. But I’m not certain that the strife among different subsets of minority groups is necessarily between those whose have supposedly freed themselves from majority values and those who haven’t.

I think it’s possible for there to be more than one way to free oneself from majority oppression.

In a sense, however, it seems to be awfully convenient for the majority to see the minorities mired in discussion about deafness, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Such protracted discussion makes the minorities fixate on their status as minorities.

I do think there has been some beautiful writing and vlogging about, for example, notions of deafhood, but I also feel like this discourse simply reinforces the separation imposed on us by a hearing society.

And I also think that if a hearing person shouldn’t have to expend so much mental effort on being hearing, a deaf person shouldn’t have to compose identity narratives about being deaf.

As you said, it may be “easier said than done”. But I remain skeptical that all this thinking about deafness is beneficial, when hearing people don’t even think twice about hearing.