[nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon
Carrie Gilmer
carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
Wed Dec 2 01:21:32 UTC 2009
Hi Jason,
It is good to hear from you and I am so glad you are on this list. I have
noticed your posts before. You have many good mentors here and peers to be
comrades with and also I think young thoughtful smart people like yourself
have much to give, even to your "elders", smile.
As far as the cartoon goes, I do not think it matters in the end who made
the cartoon, I mean I have known blind people who would/could have come up
with the same joke. That to me would be worse possibly though. To me it is
harmful and hurtful whether a sighted person made it to joke about the blind
or a blind person made it to do the same. Here is why:
First let me say that I think the largest sign of emotional health and
sanity is the ability to laugh at yourself, truly to laugh. But is that
cartoon really a portrayal of you? Are you so unaware Jason that standing in
the midst of a group of turkeys (and this was a farmer in the cartoon so it
was his own turkeys in the cartoon) if they just made a different animal
sound you would be fooled? Is sight the only way to tell something or to not
be easily fooled? If it is true about you then laugh at yourself and I will
laugh with you. But if it is not true at all, not a picture of how it is to
be blind, then you are not laughing at yourself as a blind person, cuz that
is not how it is. You are laughing at a false portrayal that goes back
thousands of years and the idea of it which is still today at the heart of
the public's (including teachers, neighbors, relatives, employers)
discrimination and fears. If you are going to laugh at yourself laugh at
something true.
In France, just before Louis Braille was a man who "discovered" that blind
people could be taught to read and he started a school there. It is the
school that Louis went to. How he got interested in the blind was that they
all lived in an isolated terrible place and had to beg for money. Then the
blind people who lived there found a way to earn money for them selves by
making an entertainment circus which made complete fun of themselves. Do you
think this helped the French at that time learn the truth about blindness or
what blind people were capable of? (I do not blame the blind for trying
anything! I might well have been one of them had I been one of them.) When
this teacher saw the blind making fun of themselves like that he actually
got physically sick and vomited. I feel the same way. His name was Valentin
Hauy.
The reason people laugh is because they think it is understandable. That is
a very key point. People do not laugh or find humor in things that do not
make sense to them. I do not think it is funny that any people find that
portrayal of blindness understandable. It is nonsense to me.
Do not worry about Jordan I wrote the letter to the famous cartoonist a year
ago. He took the test finally, although he got an old outdated test, not the
current one his sighted peers had taken. He is now a freshman in college
here and loving it. We are all well. I think of you often with fondness. I
have no surprise at all that you love Social Studies. I still say you should
study and try and enter a geography bee, smile.
I am so proud of how you are growing up.
Carrie
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Polansky
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 5:14 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon
Hi Carry. It's Jason from buddy camp. I got your email on the NABS
list. I think that sense sighted people wrote the cartoons to joke
about blind people, then it is offensive to a blind person. On the
other hand at camp or at convention when your with a bunch of blind,
then it's funny to tell jokes like that. Just like you sead if you are
laughing with a blind person about a joke about a blind person, then
it's fine. If a sighted person made a joke about a blind person, then I
would take it as an insalt. I hope Jordan can take his stattistics
test. Tell him that I wish him good luck. How's life ben going? I am
enjoying eighth grade. My favorite class is Social Studies. We are
learning about American history, which is especially important because
it is the history of our country and where we came from. I am taking
algebra, which is fun too. I am taking Spanish, and the Spanish program
on my braille note is working well for me. I am really enjoying the
NABS list because it is a good way to connect with other blind people
like me, and to learn and ask questions about things that I've
experienced, and things I want to know about. Are you going to be at
the Washington seminarr this year? I think I might go down just for the
first day for the NABS seminar.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 1:03 pm
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon
Hi Di, and all,
I also choose battles or pick them as is said. And this is one I pick. I
personally find that response rather interesting and somewhat
perplexing.
Also the oft repeated "just live as I am that is the best example" as
if you
must choose one or the other. In some ways to me I respectfully submit
those
are cop-outs. It only took a small amount of my time to point out the
harm &
falseness in it, I did not get twisted in knots and freaked out or think
about it for days or even hours. This post right here I will spend
about ten
or so minutes...it also helps me to write/analyze/ponder...then it is
done...moving on.
I wonder how you would react if your own picture was cut and pasted
into the
cartoon, would it be worth the time to speak a few educational words
about
it? Would it be less funny then? To me every blind person I know could
have
been cut and pasted into the cartoon. There is a vast difference to me
between laughing at you and with you.
I wonder if a cartoon had a black farmer sitting eating a watermelon and
fried chicken and the turkeys expressing "Whew! What a relief" if that
would
also be understandably funny and not worth mentioning.
Here are a few paragraphs from the letter I once sent to the Wash post
to a
very famous cartoonist there about his stereotypical use of a blind
caricature, the letter is just too long to post the entire thing, but I
got
a personal response and the cartoonist learned something and will never
again I can assure you portray either a blind person or some other group
with out thinking of the message.
"These things (false ideas) create most of the problems he must deal
with as
a blind person. If you are blind it is easy to get someone inspired
(just
cross the street on your own!) but not so easy to get hired.
The much bigger problems of a near 75% unemployment rate for the blind
and
a near 90% of our blind children failing to learn Braille, and so
losing the
chance to really read, stem from the seeds constantly sewn by the
perpetuation of the idea portrayed in your cartoon: Since the blind
cannot
see it logically means they cannot know cannot discern. Indeed it is
in our
very language. If I say, "I see!" You think me to mean, everyone thinks
me
to mean, I understand.
You are not alone Mr. Toles. HBO put out an advertisement for The
Sopranos
last year using actors portraying blind men with the same message. The
blind
can not see, therefore they do not know, can not discern. I wrote the
CEO of
Time Warner. I told him how this false idea cost people like my son real
jobs among other things. He responded. The ad was pulled.
A few months ago CBS news did a feature on a man who had been a barber
all
his life. When he lost his vision he continued with his work. He didn't
accept that a tragedy had occurred to him and he needed to give up his
life.
He found a new way to continue his old life. Rather than give this man
even
the regular respect you would think he was due, Ms. Katie Couric and the
reporter who did the story cracked jokes about him at the desk after the
story ran-on the national news. She said something like, good thing he
wasn't a surgeon before he lost his sight-uproarious laughter. GAWD, I
wonder how he felt sitting there probably watching the broadcast with
his
family. Where was the public outcry? There was none.
Flipping channels one recent late night I happened to flip to Conan
O'Brien.
Not at all my taste, can't even understand how he keeps his job, but I
stopped flipping briefly because he was having a joke at the expense of
the
blind. It was about the blind bowler who got all strikes in a game.
There
was some crack about if he was sure he was in a bowling alley. Ha, ha,
ha.
Garrison Keillor and Jay Lenno crack a few blind jokes of their own
once in
awhile too. Who notices? How many people laugh and think the jokes are
understandable? There was a time when white people thought jokes about
black
people were not the stereotypes and falsehoods recognized today, they
thought the jokes were funny and understandable. Unfortunately some
still
do. How does one unravel the history of a false idea? One thread at a
time.
This week my son's biggest problem is that last fall he registered and
was
accepted to receive accommodations for testing from the College Board.
The
God of standardized testing. He was to take the AP Statistics exam and
receive it in Braille the same time as his peers on or about May 5th.
There
had been a momentum of study sessions up to the test. His Braille did
not
come. A comedy of errors and claims by the College Board ensued. After
many
calls and differing claims by the College Board but no action I called
with
my lawyer on Thursday. On Friday we were again told it had been sent.
He has
lost the momentum the other students had. The group study sessions are
long
over. He has had other year end finals and large projects this month. He
just wants to take the test. We'll wait to find out if it arrives on
Tuesday. He's got bigger problems than your cartoon. But I think they
are
woven from the same thread. There is a lack of respect for the blind. I
couldn't help myself from pulling out the loose one I read this
morning."
Sincerely,
Carrie
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf
Of Diane
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 7:16 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon
Ya know Carrie,
I have found that I have to choose the battles I fight.
A very good friend of mine sent the same cartoon to me, mostly because
I
love cows. I took it with a grain of salt and giggled.
Di
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carrie Gilmer" <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 10:42 AM
Subject: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon
> Geetings,
>
> A relative forwarded to me some Thanksgiving humor~there were five
> cartoons
> and photographs with the quote "ha these are very funny". One cartoon
> showed
> this: a man with a cane which was red half the way up and the handle
was
> crooked at the top, he wore dark glasses, his cane was held out
forward
> but
> not touching anything but the ground, he was sort of looking up a
bit, he
> appeared to be walking amidst a flock of turkeys who each had a
caption
> above their heads which read "Moo-Moo".
>
>
>
> Wondering what your reaction to a relative or anyone or just the
cartoon
> might be. And what you think the ramifications of this perpetuated
humor
> are/might be. I did something about this to the relative already and
once
> wrote to a Pulizter Prize cartoonist about his cartoojn portrayal
which I
> thought disrespectful and perpetuating of false ideas. I also wonder
how
> important you think it might be to write to the originator/creator of
such
> things after the fact when it can not be changed anymore. I know what
I
> think, and I know when I have "complained" I am typically the only
one
> they
> have heard from, and I think it makes it harder. "No one else found
this
> 'bad'".but I wonder what you all think.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Carrie Gilmer
>
>
>
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