[nabs-l] prejudice vs ignorance

[Jedi]

Jim,

First of all, congratulations on your explanation of prejudice versus 
ignorance and how they're related. Your message was eloquent and well-thought.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my role as an educator to the 
sighted community. I've also been thinking a lot about my role as an 
ambassador and how those relate together.

Jim, I think you're right. the internet allows anyone to be educated on 
just about anything. The NFB is usually in the top ten Google results 
for just about any topic related to blindness these days, so our 
message is spreading. Tons of NFB members have their own personal web 
sites espousing our philosophy, and the NFB itself has reached further 
into the ether than it's ever done before. So Jim is right: anyone who 
is ignorant about blindness is doing so willingly. With the speed of 
technology, there isn't really a community in the United states, or 
even the world, that doesn't know something about blindness even if it 
has no blind citizens. But truthfully, i'm not convinced that there 
aren't any communities out there who haven't been touched by vision 
loss of some kind.

That said, Jim made the observation that it's a blind person's job to 
educate. Lots of people in the NFB feel its our job to be something 
like an ambassador for the blindness community. To some extent, I 
believe that's true. We have to set a good example when it counts, and 
we can't cry equal rights without taking equal responsibility. At the 
same time, how many of you (myself included) wished that you could just 
be human beings and hell with educating? I think that sometimes, we 
forget that we are human beings and that it's okay to say no to the 
sighted person who wants to be educated right this minute. for example, 
have you ever been studying at the student union building when someone 
notices you reading Braille? You really want to study, but this sighted 
person is just so curious! Given that said individual doesn't know you 
from Adam or Eve, given that the individual doesn't have anything you 
need or want, given that the individual doesn't have any authority over 
you, and given that you really want to study, and given that it's not 
your job to be a human FAQ page, you do have a right to say no to 
answering the question. Sure the sighted person may be disappointed and 
may even be put off that you said no and may think every blind person 
is rude. But you know, that's their problem. If you've said something 
like "You know, I'm sorry but this isn't a good time for me," then you 
haven't been rude at all. same goes with any other inquiry that a 
sighted person may make, any help they may offer, etc. If a sighted 
person really seriously must know, there is, as Jim observed, the 
internet upon which a person can Google "Braille" and get more 
information than they could possibly go through in a lifetime.

here's another one that I've been working on. I personally don't feel 
comfortable sharing my medical history when it comes to my blindness 
with total strangers. People with other conditions aren't expected to, 
so why should I be unless I choose to be? Really, it has nothing to do 
with me. Again, it's all about the sighted person who wants to tell me 
about their amazing blind aunt who can fold her laundry even though she 
can only see shadows. It's all about the sighted person who wants to 
use this information to figure out how to communicate with me, how to 
help me, what they can and can't say to me, etc. Naturally, sight 
doesn't really help a person figure all that out. And what about those 
who are just curious? Again, we do have the right to say no and do it 
politely yet confidently. Again, if they get upset because I didn't 
entertain their curiosity, that's okay. I can simply say, "I'm sorry, 
but I don't believe I know you and I don't feel it's appropriate for me 
to share this information with you at this moment." Now, if you want to 
answer, go ahead. But for those of us who don't, that should be okay, 
too regardless of what the sighted or blind think about it.

Surely, some of you may be asking, "How would you handle someone you 
know but you still don't feel it's helpful or appropriate to answer a 
question?" then don't. When I'm at a job interview, I don't think I 
have to educate my employer about what I can and can't see. They just 
need to know that I can do the job efficiently and safely. So, when I 
get the "How much can you see?" question, I simply say "I find that 
sight doesn't matter much since I use X and Y blindness techniques to 
get Z done." That usually suffices for most people. If they keep 
pushing, I might use the appropriacy line because, technically, it is 
inappropriate based on the fact that we don't know each other and ADA 
law. And, if they're so hell bent on this idea that sight is required 
for the job, I'm probably not going to get hired even if I'm a high 
partial since my vision loss would still be pretty substantial in most cases.

These are just my musings on blindness, ignorance, and education.

Respectfully,
Jedi
Original message:
> Arielle,
> It seems to me that ignorance is the willingness or desire to be 
> uninformed, and prejudice is a fearful reaction to the unknown, thus 
> ignorance and prejudice are related and somewhat self-perpetuating. The 
> reason I consider ignorance to be a condition of the willing is because 
> the Internet makes it so that anyone can learn anything about any topic 
> they choose to learn about. But at the same time, why should someone 
> learn about something that is irrelevant to them? For example, in my 
> case, prior to affiliating myself with the NFB and MAB,  I have never 
> in my life known or interacted with a blind person, therefore I had no 
> reason to learn about them.  Additionally, sometimes ignorance is 
> fueled by the fact that people simply don't know what they don't know. 
> For example, before I went blind, I did not know that there were 
> different types and degrees of blindness.  I did not know that not all 
> blind people are totally blind.

>  I know for me, my ignorance of blindness was definitely a conscious 
> choice that was based on fear. I knew I was going blind, but I felt 
> that somehow denial and ignorance were better than truth and knowledge. 
> If a blind individual is afraid and unwilling to learn about a 
> condition that affects his daily life, how can we expect sighted 
> individuals to care about, or to understand blindness?

> Perhaps another relevant question here would be, "If blindness is 
> irrelevant to an individual, should we care if that individual is 
> ignorant about blindness?" Personally, I see no reason why every person 
> in the U.S. needs to know about blindness. Before you all get pissed at 
> me (again), let me explain. If a sighted person lives in a community 
> where there are no blind people, who cares what that sighted person or 
> the community as a whole thinks or knows? If there are no blind people 
> in the community, it doesn't matter what the community knows, or thinks 
> about blindness. Once a blind person moves into the community, then 
> there is a reason for the community to learn about blindness, and it is 
> the job of the blind individual to actively educate people, but it is 
> also the job of the blind person to act in a way that demonstrates 
> confidence and ability.

> While I would not consider myself prejudice against blind people or any 
> other group, I have held anti-blind positions in the past (related to 
> hybrid cars and Kindle DX lawsuits). Those anti-blind positions stemmed 
> from my ignorance of,  and apathy towards blindness issues that were 
> not related to, or applicable to me. The problem was, I considered 
> myself a sighted person, and as such,  I had no reason to care about or 
> to consider the needs of blind individuals or the blind community.  For 
> me, at that point, I did not view NFB actions as serving my needs or 
> the interests of the blind community, instead, I saw NFB actions as a  
> threat to the interest of the sighted community, thus, by extension, 
> NFB actions were a threat to my interest.

>  How do issues that pit the needs and interests of the blind community 
> against the needs and interest of the sighted community lead to 
> prejudice against blind people? Things that threaten the status quo 
> create fear, both fear of change, and fear of the unknown. Naturally, 
> that fear extends not only to the issue that threatens the status quo, 
> but that fear also extends to the individuals who are, or are perceived 
> to be causing the change.  In this case prejudice and fear are not 
> aimed at the person as an individual, but rather that prejudice stems 
> from what that person represents.

> I got to go, my O/M instructor should be here any minute.

> Jim

> "From compromise and things half done,
> Keep me with stern and stubborn pride,
> And when at last the fight is won,
> ... Keep me still unsatisfied." --Louis Untermeyer



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