[Massachusetts-NFB] Possible Initiative for Our Affiliate

Wed Jun 28 22:34:51 UTC 2023

Hi all,

I think this is an idea that may reflect feelings of the person who suggested it about his own perception of being discriminated against throughout lifetime, and is not a good move for oh so many reasons; first, you would have to prove among other things that Perkins (the school and the man) outwardly discriminated against people. Second, too many people not just in this country but internationally know the good work of the school. I would strongly discourage taking this approach, as I feel it would take the discussion of race relations backwards.

Jeanette Kutash

From: Massachusetts-NFB [mailto:massachusetts-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Hai Nguyen Ly via Massachusetts-NFB
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 5:30 PM
To: NFB of Massachusetts E-mail List
Cc: Hai Nguyen Ly
Subject: Re: [Massachusetts-NFB] Possible Initiative for Our Affiliate

Hi Justin:

I think you raise some great points and feel that a first step could be to see if something like a social media campaign might be enough to move the needle. With that being said, I’m not confident that this is an initiative that would further the goal of the affiliate to better or enrich the lives of the blind. I’d happily listen to arguments that would prove otherwise. Perhaps we can have a conversation on this sometime during the upcoming convention.

Cordially:

Hai Nguyen Ly

On Jun 28, 2023, at 3:21 PM, Justin Salisbury via Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I have an idea for an advocacy initiative that we could take on as an affiliate. I am wondering if it is something that lots of members in our affiliate would be interested in addressing.

Many of us are familiar with the Perkins School for the Blind, but I bet most of us do not know who the school is named after. His name was Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Here is a Wikipedia article about him: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Handasyd_Perkins

According to the Wikipedia page about him, he was one of those rich boys who received lots of money from his grandfather and father-in-law, and then he found some really nice things to do with that money. According to the Wikipedia article, he became a slave trader and opium smuggler. According to the article, from these activities, he amassed a greater fortune and then used that to philanthropically support the Perkins School for the Blind, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, McLean Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. 

I imagine there are a lot of people who have appreciated some of the work of some of these institutions that he may have supported with donations. If we think about the Perkins School for the Blind today, though, there seems to be a real contradiction between being a school that is supposed to provide services to a diverse group of blind students and being named after a guy who got rich as a slave trader. Being a school named after a slave trader undermines the equal treatment of people of color at the Perkins School for the Blind and the blind community in Massachusetts more broadly; this is a rigid fact regardless of our political persuasion.

Now, the question that can have multiple answers is this: Do we want to do anything about it? I understand that we all have our priorities. Since the Red Sox are terrible this year, we all have a little bit more free time this summer. Do we want to raise this conversation? Do we want to talk to the Perkins School for the Blind about renaming?

I think this would be a good thing to do, but I’m interested in taking the temperature of our affiliate members before trying to do anything about it.

Thanks, everyone,

Justin

Justin Salisbury (he/him)

2117 Chestnut Hill Ave

Athol, MA 01331

Phone: 808.797.8606

Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu

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