Response to Slutzky’s Article in Rochester Newspaper
November 3, 2006
Democrat and Chronicle
55 Exchange Blvd.
Rochester, NY 14614
Dear Editor:
Jack Slutzky’s attempt to deny the existence of deaf culture (Speaking Out, Nov. 3) is one of the most mean-spirited and repugnant things I have ever read.
“Culture” has many meanings, and Slutzky conveniently overlooked this one: “The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social group.”
The irony is that deaf people developed their own culture as a response to the sort of insensitivity and discrimination that pervades Slutzky’s essay.
It is incomprehensible that someone with such a profound disrespect for deaf people was allowed to be an educator of the deaf for 40 years. If nothing else, this helps us to understand the sorry state of deaf education today.
I have been a deaf journalist for many years and I’ve followed the Gallaudet protest very closely. I can assure you that the protest had nothing to do with Gallaudet’s former president-designate, Jane Fernandes, being “not deaf enough.”
This was a cynical ploy created by the Gallaudet administration and promoted by the public relations firms they hired, with no regard for the damage they were doing to deaf people everywhere.
For goodness sakes, retiring President I. King Jordan was late-deafened and, like Fernandes, didn’t learn sign language until he was an adult. But no one cared, and he was embraced by the deaf community – until he tried to impose his will and hand-pick his successor.
The real reasons for the protest had to do with the underhanded way Fernandes got the job, her dismal track record over 11 years at Gallaudet and her utter lack of personal characteristics for the job. She is a cold, aloof and vindictive advocate of management by intimidation.
Did you know she dismissed the school librarian just one week before the woman’s 30th employment anniversary, denying her an immediate pension? Did you know she had campus police barge in on a counseling session after two campus murders, telling students to come to her office immediately, only to cancel the meeting when they arrived?
She even threatened the Gallaudet board of trustees in an email that was leaked to The Washington Post, warning them that Congress would investigate their failures if they were to dismiss her. To their credit, they ignored her threats and sent her packing.
But Slutzky’s misunderstanding of the Gallaudet protest pales in comparison to the contempt in which he holds the deaf community.
Perhaps he can be excused because he is obviously a very ignorant person. But what is the Democrat and Chronicle’s excuse for printing such an offensive, hate-filled piece?
Tom Willard
Rochester, NY
(Tom Willard is editor of Deafweekly and owner of Canal Street Press)
The link to the article: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006611030381
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Here’s the editorial response from Save Our Deaf Schools:
We are shocked at the level of bad logic and bigotry displayed in this opinion piece and are dumbfounded that the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle chose to print it.
First of all, no one is in a favor of a separatist vision of people using ASL and isolating themselves from mainstream society. There is absolutely no evidence of anyone supporting such a plan. For Mr. Slutzky to claim that such people exist is bizarre and flies in the face of all the evidence.
Second of all, Mr. Slutzky is the true bigot who paints with a broad brush, trapped in a pattern of outdated thinking based on false stereotypes. He bases his pseudo-conclusions on the absurd notion that advocating for Deaf culture in the education of the deaf is some kind of new phenomenon, being pushed on others by a few outspoken and
unreasonable radicals, when in actuality the idea is already more than 200 years old and, in fact, it was Edward Miner Gallaudet who established Gallaudet in 1857 based on that principle, being influenced by Laurent Clerc.
Slutzky is ignorant of the history involved. The existence of bigoted attitudes of this sort are why so many protesters in the Unity for Gallaudet Movement found it necessary to literally risk their lives in the name of truth and justice. Irving King Jordan, Jr played on such
ignorance as a method of exploiting deaf students for his own twisted purposes.
Tom – thank you for writing that letter to the editor about Slutzsky. I’m amazed that such a close-minded man has taught deaf students at NTID for many years and harbored that negative outlook on “Deaf Culture.” He probably has no clue that the library in the very institute he teaches recognizes “Deaf Culture.” Check out the Wallace Library online at:
http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/litdeafcu.html. If someone could get him to peruse the materials there like a real professor, he might get enlightened. Somehow, I doubt it….
Hey Willy! Good to see your name here and thanks for the nice feedback.
Boy, was I mad when I read Slutzky’s article. It’s like a white person saying black culture doesn’t exist. I even compared him to a Holocaust denier in my first draft but thought that was going a bit too far.
Still, if this guy averaged $25,000 a year over his 40 years as a deaf educator, that means he earned a cool million dollars off of us, all the time harboring an amazingly bad attitude about the people he worked with.
I remember him from my days at RIT. I never knew what the hell he was talking about … a sloppy, careless signer who didn’t make any effort to improve his communication skills (which, sadly, is all too common among hearing teachers at NTID/RIT).
I think we, as a community, have reached the point of that famous line from “Network” … we are mad as hell and not going to take it any more.
Was it (the letter) published in D&C?
I just emailed it to the D&C two days ago. I got a form letter response to say it was received and they will let me know if they decide to use it.
I was one of Jack Slutzky’s students in Animation course in RIT many years back, and I still remember I was always having difficult communicate with him. Be honest, most of the time I did not understand him at all, also most of deaf students do not respect him as a professor either because of his poor ASL and lousy personality. But sometimes I wonder how came NITD had kept him for all 27 years.
IceTea, it is a Rochester NY newspaper
As of today, the D&C has not published my letter and frankly I don’t expect that they will. They are more oriented toward the “establishment” as represented by retired RIT progressors, and not so much in tune with little deaf guys like me.
Oops, I meant to type ‘professor,’ not progressor.” Slutzky is not a progressor, unless denying the existence of deaf culture is considered progress.