On Examining Ourselves as a Society
Rainmond in his blog said:When Jane Fernandes started her “not Deaf enough,” business, she dehumanized us. How? Think about it. How many people became terrified of even saying they wanted a culturally Deaf person to be President?
This is a valuable topic for the sociology department to research. Have we become so hung up on classical Deaf values that we are losing sight of the varieties of deaf/Deaf people that need Gallaudet? Are we forgetting that they each all have something to contribute?
Also: is it correct that we have become shamed because we wanted a culturally Deaf president?Did we become dehumanized, so to speak, afraid of not being seen as cosmopolitan? Does this mean we are aware of the tendency to be clannish?
On the other hand: Is it true that Deaf culture is nearing extinction, as Dr. Fernandes implied in talking about cochlear implants and genetic selection to prevent deaf babies from being born?
Is Deaf culture so important that we need to be concerned about preserving it, or rather, should we focus on how it is evolving?
Indeed, is Deaf culture actually evolving? Or are we looking at the fact that in history, the more people change, the more they stay the same?
Deaf people have survived attempts at obliteration in the past…the Alexander Graham Bell proposal that congenitally deaf people be prohibited from marrying…the Nazi extermination of “defectives”, the oral proponents attempting to enforce speech and auditory training along with legislating mainstreaming…the never-ending research into hearing restoration…constant improvement of hearing devices including CI’s…and the ADA opening the way for Deaf people to access hearing cultural systems.
What happened? Deaf culture did not disappear.Historically, deaf people have simply come full circle from the educational philosophy of the day and sought out each other, opened clubs for the deaf, organized conventions and special programs for themselves, and built their own communities.
Even those with the latest buzz in hearing devices still maintained their Deaf identity and Deaf friends. We must not forget that even Jane Fernandes with the very best oral upbringing that would have made her an invisible member of the Hearing community, yet considered herself liberated when she met the deaf community and absorbed the sign language. Similarly, so did many other orally-raised Deaf people…on graduation, they found other deaf/Deaf people and found personal validation in their company.
So there will be a new wave of d/Deaf people coming into Gallaudet in the future. It won’t have the effect of diluting nor even transforming Deaf society into a weak imitation of the larger society. Despite waves of rubella epidemics, a majority shift from adventitiously Deaf to congenitally Deaf, and the oral movement, Deaf people still sought out each other and through the satisfying nature of sign language, generated a vibrant culture as exciting and interesting as any other ethnic group in the world.
What was that about “we must be ready for a new order of Deaf people?” Ahhh, wasn’t that always the case? http://www.xanga.com/dianrez
Reprinted at the request of the author.
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
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Excellent article!
There were four thought processes going on in my mind over the last couple of months — and, as you just pointed out, Rainmound nailed one of them. It went like this:
1) When Dr. Glenn Anderson was eliminated from contention, alarm bells went off in my head. I worried that the selection process was fixed. I also worried about racism. Eventually I couldn’t help but suspect it was more about stacking the deck in favor of Dr. Fernandes.
2) As more and more people — including parents and faculty — stepped up and expressed their feelings as to why Dr. Fernandes shouldn’t be president, I worried about the future of Gallaudet University. I began to feel that for many of the reasons people disclosed, it would be in the best interests of the university if she resigned. I didn’t care about how deaf or how fluent in ASL her replacement might be. I just felt it was time for her to step down, period.
3) At some point I was shown a video of Dr. E. Lynn Jacobowitz addressing two board members at an open forum. Dr. Jacobowitz was, well, Dr. Jacobowitz. She’s a powerful, captivating speaker, uh, signer. She had the entire audience on their feet. It was at that moment when I first thought, “Hey, now THAT’S an ideal president right there.”
4) Dr. Fernandes later played the “Not Deaf Enough” card and the mainstream media ate it up. At that juncture I thought I’d better keep my mouth shut regarding how much I’d love to see someone like Dr. Jacobowitz become president. To say anything like that would have validated Dr. Fernandes’ assertion that she wasn’t deaf enough.
Rainmound was right. I actually ditched an idea I had for an article about Dr. Jacobowitz and my vision for a new president. It would have been cannon fodder for the Fernandes camp.
It was more important to me that Dr. Fernandes resign than it was to step up and say “Hey, what’s wrong with wanting a culturally Deaf president?” The two issues were entirely unrelated to me — but try telling that to the media.
Well, now that the smoke has cleared: tell me, indeed: what’s wrong with wanting a culturally Deaf president?
There is nothing wrong with having a culturally deaf pres. except the board picked JKF who isn’t culturally dead and you all went into a temper tantrum. My guess you will not get a culturally deaf pres. now after your stellar performance at bashing the BoT and IKJ.
What would be wromg in having a Hearing president?
The next one may be!
Mark, great comments!
Jim, JKF culturally dead? Oh, my!
NO Thanks to have a hearing President. Enough is Enough! Consider to have a culturally Deaf President as soon as possible. Nothing wrong with Deaf President becuz Gally is the only the Deaf unversity in the world and the priority is to have sign language on campus.
A high hope to have a culturally Deaf one. Smile.
We need a president who will embrace all different groups of deaf folks. It’ll be interesting to see who they’ll pick because all eyes will examine every move this new president make. We definitely need a very strong leader to clean up all the mess