Dr. DonG.’s Deafhood Discourses

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(Showing vase) That was a gift for my wedding.  I can’t remember who gave it to us, but it was a gift.  My wife and I cherish that present.  We don’t put it carelessly in some place and leave it, we put it in a safe space — in that china cabinet behind me.  A place of honor, where we can look at it and let it bring back memories.  My mom tends to say I never learned proper social etiquette.  I don’t know if she’s right or not, but one thing I do understand: When someone gives you a gift, you don’t take it and say “This looks cheap.  Where did you get it?”  ”I don’t think this is very good” and comment in that vein, or comment about the gift to other people who might report back to the original gift giver.  You don’t want to hurt that person’s feelings, right?

In 1913, George Veditz referred to ASL as “the noblest gift God has given to Deaf people”.  He was right!  ASL IS a gift.  Without that gift, I wouldn’t be here.  I don’t know where I would be, but definitely not here, and not successful.  It took me a long time to realize that ASL is a gift, and now I appreciate it and treasure it.

But I see people out there who mock and belittle ASL, who say SEE is better, who actively HOPE that SEE signs will spread, and they think that SEE should spread and they encourage that spread.  Or worse, they say that SEE IS ASL!  What ridiculousness!  Or they talk negatively about Deaf people who try to preserve ASL, ridiculing them as “Deaf Culture Police” or “ASL Purists” and the like.

I don’t care if you yourself are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or a parent of a Deaf child.  When YOU belittle or insult ASL, when YOU promote SEE, or ridicule people who try to support and promote the improvement of ASL, when YOU spread any kind of linguicism against ASL, YOU are spitting in the face of those Deaf people who gave YOU the gift of ASL.  And worse, you are spitting in the face of those Deaf people who came before you who cherished, supported, and passed on ASL so YOU could have that gift, too.

ASL IS A GIFT!  CHERISH IT!

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Transcript: Know what I hate? I hate people that create businesses or organizations, or they join businesses and organizations — I’m talking about businesses and organizations that are targeted specifically to Deaf people — these people get into positions where they have access to money and then for some reason, maybe they planned it or it was a spur of the moment thing, but they end up embezzling that money from that business or organization. That really bothers me, especially with organizations that have the purpose of helping and supporting Deaf people.

I know many Deaf people who are resistant or can’t afford to donate money, and it’s hard for organiztions to gather fundraising support from our community. But when we do donate, we often find this money ends up gone. And it’s nothing new. It happens again and again and again. I’ve seen it since Gallaudet — I remember during my time, the SBG President was rumored to have made off with a large sum of SBG money at the end of his term. And this is seen again in other situations — people take advantage of our own Deaf people.

And what’s worse is that we shield these people. We don’t name names, we cite their right to privacy, or state they haven’t been found guilty in a court of law, etc. But we know that it happened, the story is out there. And it means these people are able to hide out in plain view, and they can continue their pattern of taking advantage of their own people, our community, our resources.

I really hate that.

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I recently learned that Jerome Cain had a lot of videos relating to recent Deaf history — DPN, UFG, and others relating to our history and community.  For some reason, he decided to burn these videos.  I was disheartened at that — why burn them?  They are part of our collective Deaf history and heritage.  We need to preserve and cherish all parts of our history and heritage, regardless of how trivial you might think they are.  They’re still important, although you might not think so.  For example, you might remember Nikki’s video of her family get-together from back in the 1930s or ’40s.  Maybe it was 1950s.  Anyway, seeing the family together, signing and chatting does seem trivial.  But they’re important because they can help linguists to see what ASL looked like back then in the ’50s and ’40s.  We can see how people interacted then, the cultural norms of the time, analyze interpersonal relationships, see peoples’ faces, there are many different things we can learn from those kind of films.  And to see them burned!  So much of our history is already missing.  We must preserve all of it, for the future and the insights we can gain from them.  To burn or throw these away — it’s sad!

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It is easy to argue that Deaf people are an ethnic group: we have a culture, values, norms, behaviors and artifacts, just like any other cultural or ethnic group.  One of my favorite researchers, named Dan Aronson, frames ethnic groups as “political action groups” which seek to obtain power.  Not power in the sense of controlling everything, but in the sense of being able to vote, have equality, money, resources, and the like.  That’s common to us all — power and equality.

He says that behind ethnicity are certain kinds of ideologies (belief systems).  There are two kinds of ideologies: class ideology and ethnic ideology.  In “class ideology”, the group that holds power, the “elites”, look down upon other groups and make the determination as to what “we” (the in-group) believes to be important and what the values are, and “we” decide whether “we will hold on to those values, share them, or take them away from you.  That is “class ideology”.

In “ethnic ideology”, the group that does not hold power says “we (the out-group) do not agree with your (in-group) value system, and we want you to leave us alone, but possibly with enough resources [money, land, rights, voting] so we can pursue OUR goals without interference from outside.

There is a tension between the two types of ideologies.  As an example, the American Indians lived on their lands here in America, and then the Whites came and took over their lands.  Of course the Indians fought back because the Whites were trying to take over their lands.  But the Whites had more power and more weapons (guns and technology) that the Indians didn’t have, so the Indians lost.  So the Whites decided to take away the Indians’ rights, including their lands.  In 1851, the “Indian Appropriations Act” was passed which set up the Indian reservations.  The Indians were forced to live on these reservations, whether or not they wanted to.  But the land that these reservations were established on was in areas which were felt to be undesirable by the Whites because they couldn’t farm on it or use its resources, so it was given to the Indians instead.

In 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave Black people the right to live as Free men.  Lincoln GAVE the right to the Blacks.  But there were still a lot of Whites who didn’t want to give those rights to the Blacks.  This was not resolved until the 1960′s, when Martin Luther King, along with other Black people, marched and protested to gain their rights to vote, to have equality.

In 1920, America passed the 14th Amendment that gave women the right to vote.  Before that, women had protested for the right to vote.  They were looked down upon by men as not being capable of handling their own affairs.  But by their protests, they were able to obtain their right to vote.

Back in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with these inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

Rights are rights, no matter if they’re given, earned, taken, or shared!

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Some people think calling themselves “deafless” is a good idea.  In this short but sweet vlog, I show why it is not.

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Some Deaf people’s comments about ASL and Deaf culture caused me to recall the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau and the “mess of pottage”.  In the vlog, I compare this story to Deaf people and outline what they are getting when they give up their linguistic and cultural birthright.

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Last weekend, I went to see “Fiddler on the Roof”, which has always been my favorite play, because it’s about Jewish culture and history, and that is a part of me.  But, when I saw it last weekend, I saw it with a new perspective on what it really is about.  In the vlog, I discuss what the play is about, which may surprise you to think about.

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Video Relay services are primarily FOR Deaf people.  But are they BY Deaf people?  In this vlog, I discuss how we can make VRS services FOR Deaf people and BY Deaf people, and share my New Year’s resolution with you all, which I hope you all will join me in making!

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Thanksgiving is a holiday that ultimately celebrates the colonization of the Americas by the British.  However, colonization is a process which often does not have benefits for the colonized peoples.  After reading a Newsweek article a while back, I realized that there are similarities to how the British colonized some peoples and how Hearing people colonized the Deaf.

Reference: “Did Britain Wreck the World?”  Newsweek, August 24, 2009, p. 78.

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My name is Don Grushkin, and I am a dysconscious audist…..

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