[nabs-l] Ignorance vs. Prejudice

Wed Jun 17 03:23:58 UTC 2009

Can we define prejudice? I know the meaning of the word but perhaps a  
clearer definition or an example as it relates to blindness would  
help. I'm just afraid this will turn into a sighted people bashing  
event; I've seen it before (not on this list) but it's a slippery slope.
Sarah

Quoting Antonio Guimaraes <aguimaraes at nbp.org>:

> Hi all,,
>
> We sometimes seam to do things to prove a point. I would rather take
> part in some activity because I enjoy it, and want to get something out
> of it than I have to prove to sighted people that I can dance, walk,
> swim, speak, read, sing, breathe.
>
> Some days we tolerate ignorance better than others, but we should not
> tolerate discrimination at any time.
>
> When have you been discriminated against, and what steps did you take
> to resolve the situation? What steps should you have taken instead, or
> do you think your actions were appropriate?
>
> Antonio M. Guimaraes Jr.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Alawami" <marrie12 at gmail.com>
> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 3:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Ignorance vs. Prejudice
>
>
>> Hmm this sounds like a seminar topic we once might have had at the LCB. I've
>> ben lucky so far. My dance teacher is making me, for the first fiew times so
>> I can get my barengs use my cane while doing the steps, and mainly so I can
>> get my ballence issues sorted out, but there will come a time, and there
>> already has where I am out there on my own with theother students and  we
>> have to perform this stuff in less then a month. Will I have my cane to
>> dance with, no, but I feel confident enough  to know the ruteen and bee in
>> the exact pisition I'm supposed to be in. Now the person who is helping me
>> just needs to tell me the steps and when to move and whair but like I said
>> bnefore there will come a time when even that will probably not happen in
>> performance day. Am I afraid, Yes. However, I know that if I know the steps
>> and get my barengs, I will be able ot show the sighted audience that I can
>> dance even though I have no site. There is a lot of truth in what you say
>> and I believe that by showing the sighted people, in my case that I can
>> dance, maybe not well, but I can dance, sing, and act, this will open there
>> eyes, and many doors for me, and other blind people in the future. I hope
>> what I said makes sence. Sorry I rambled it is way too early in the morning.
>> Hehaha!
>>
>> Oh just in case anyone is interested in the dance class and what we do
>> google "life long dreams" in Nevada.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
>> Of Arielle Silverman
>> Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 10:01 PM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Ignorance vs. Prejudice
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Recently we've been talking about airline discrimination, which has
>> historically served as a good representation of the kind of second-class
>> treatment that we often get in everyday interactions with members of the
>> public. I think Jedi made some good points in describing the tendency of
>> some sighted people to judge us as incompetent based on the role of sight in
>> their own lives and their assumption that losing their sight would leave
>> them incapacitated. It is true that we are a tiny minority (even within the
>> disabled
>> community) and that a lot of sighted people simply don't know how we perform
>> everyday tasks. In some cases this ignorance leads to discriminatory
>> treatment ("The blind person can't sit in the exit
>> row") or stereotypes ("Blind people are slow").
>>
>> What I've always found fascinating, though, is that lack of
>> knowledge-ignorance-doesn't always translate into discrimination. In fact
>> many sighted people are simply curious, and if we tell or show them how we
>> use the computer, read or travel, they quickly accept our alternative
>> techniques and treat us just the same as everyone else.
>> But this doesn't happen all  the time. And then, on the flip side, there are
>> those who know all the facts about blindness and still "don't get it". This
>> includes, for  instance, the mobility instructor who's taught O&M for thirty
>> years but who still insists that you should walk three blocks out of your
>> way rather than cross a busy intersection. Many of us find that our own
>> parents make more of a big deal out of our blindness than do people we've
>> just met, even if our parents have met competent blind people or been to
>> blindness workshops, know Braille, etc. So there definitely is a difference
>> between ignorance and prejudice. The combination of both is bad, but you can
>> easily have one without the other. And it's prejudice, not ignorance, that
>> actually causes us trouble.
>>
>> Unfortunately, while we can easily remedy ignorance with simple education,
>> alleviating prejudice isn't that simple. It seems like much of the
>> persistence of people's prejudices comes from their emotional or "gut"
>> reactions to blindness. The experienced teacher of blind students may know
>> all the facts about Braille, including the fact that children who learn
>> Braille while young can read just as fast as sighted children. And yet, on
>> some gut level the teacher feels an aversion to Braille, seeing it as a
>> stigma or a symbol of weakness. So no matter how well this teacher is
>> trained, if she gets a kid in her caseload who has partial sight, it's going
>> to be  a struggle for the teacher to actively teach the child Braille. The
>> parent who finds his child's blindness frightening, likewise, is going to
>> have a hard time letting the child play outside or do chores, no matter how
>> much he reads about what is best for blind children, unless he figures out
>> how to let go of  his fear. I think so much of the success of our training
>> centers comes from their ability to not only teach us practical skills, but
>> also help us  overcome our own fears and negative feelings about blindness.
>>
>> And yet, as Monica has demonstrated, there  are those sighted people who
>> display a lack of prejudice and who automatically include us and treat us
>> normally without any prior knowledge about blindness or education on our
>> parts. We all know sighted people like this, even though we often tend to
>> spend most of our mental energy grumbling about the sighted people who treat
>> us strangely. My boyfriend never met a single blind person before me, and
>> yet in some ways seems to instinctively "get it" more than my mother, for
>> example, who besides raising me for twenty-four years, also read many of the
>> leading  books about raising a blind child. (Never mind that many of the
>> messages espoused in those books are rooted in prejudices of their own).
>>
>> So  what do you guys think makes the difference between those
>> members of the sighted public who show prejudice and those who don't? Is it
>> something about their personalities or experiences? And if simple educating
>> isn't enough to address people's deep-seated emotional reactions, what can
>> we do about it? Do we have any control over whether the sighted guy on the
>> street grabs us or treats us with respect? It's easy enough for us to tell
>> who will be responsive to education about blindness and who won't. But for
>> those who aren't responsive, how do we deal with them civilly while still
>> protecting our rights and our freedom? And how do we deal with educators
>> like O&M instructors, who have power over what we learn or what
>> accommodations we get but whose judgments are affected by their
>> misconceptions about blindness?
>>
>> I look forward to a lively discussion on this topic, as it's central to how
>> we act as an organization and how we can really change what it means to be
>> blind for ourselves and for others.
>>
>> Arielle
>>
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