[Blindtlk] How do You Find your Interactions with Sighted People?

[Diane Graves]

Hi all,

I am chiming in a bit late on this discussion, but seeing Gary's message
made me think of a hurtful time in my childhood when my own family members
used to call me "blindy." They thought they were "playing," being cute, but
I remember it bringing me to tears more than once.

Like Michelle, I had/have some facial deformities as a result of the
radiation therapy I had as a child due to my retinoblastoma. I have also had
children get up and move because I sat down next to them, or people walk in
front of me just to get a look when I was young.

If I allow myself to think about this long enough it will still hurt and
anger me, but, if I use my head, I know I can't lump all sighted people into
one basket. Since I have been in the federation, my experience has been that
we love and appreciate our sighted federationists just as much as our blind
federationists. 

I'm sure there are some who have had very bad experiences at the hand of
sighted people and so prefer to "hang" with blind people. Just as there are
some African Americans that, as far as friends go, have no use for white
people because of the unspeakable treatment that they received at the hands
of the white man. This is unfortunate, because the people responsible for
that, of course, are no longer here, but you can see where that anger would
come from. I certainly can, and it has often made me ashamed of my Caucasian
heritage.

As for my own personal interactions with sighted people today, I work with
them and interact with them on a daily basis. Do I have many sighted
friends? Not really. I am not sure how much it has to do with blindness, and
how much it has to do with the fact that I am a somewhat introverted person.
In all honesty, I think I do have a bit of a chip on my shoulder because of
my past experiences, and I am always sensitive to the possibility that
someone might be condescending. 

I also have an issue in that I have a dual disability. I also have some
hearing deficiency. So, I often don't hear right away when people are
speaking to me in noisy environments, which can make me look inept or
stupid.

Diane Graves




-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gary Wunder
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 11:12 AM
To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] How do You Find your Interactions with Sighted
People?

I respect your right not to be a member, of course, but what force presses
harder for the elimination of such terms and the integration of the blind
and the sighted than the NFB? To me this integration is central to
everything we do. I do not like the term sighty anymore than I think I want
to be called a blindy or a blink or a bat. I am a blind person, a person who
happens to be blind, a person who has blindness as one of his
characteristics, but it is certainly not the dominant one in my life.

Gary



-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michelle
Medina
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 8:30 AM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] How do You Find your Interactions with Sighted
People?

Ol' sighty. . . that's a new one. Very original to.

I hate to confess here, but that's one of the reasons I'm not a
card-carrying member of any organization to do with us blind folk, because
it's the 21st century and myths still abound from both sides, both sighted
and non-sighted folks about each other.

On 11/13/12, Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net> wrote:
> Good morning, W.
>
>          Yeah. Ol' Sighty tends to avoid me like the plague although 
> acquaintances, there are many. It's okay though. What are ya gonna do, 
> yu want peple to act natural, unincumbered by anything that seems to 
> incumber these sighted people.PM 11/12/2012, you wrote:
>>Hi all
>>
>>I realize it's probably a strange one but how do you find your 
>>relationships with sighted people?
>>
>>I often find that, while I meet plenty of people through work and so 
>>on and get to know them quickly, I make very few real friends, more 
>>aquaintances.
>>
>>I was wondering why this is - perhaps it's the nature of my work - 
>>perhaps my personality and I wondered what the experiences of others 
>>were?
>>
>>W
>>
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>
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