[nabs-l] Ignorance vs. Prejudice

Wed Jun 17 17:48:06 UTC 2009

Hi all,

According to social psychologists, prejudice is defined as an
emotional reaction (usually negative, but can be positive) to members
of a particular group. In common usage prejudice is often confused
with stereotyping and discrimination. The three are related, but
prejudice is the emotional component, while stereotyping is the
attitude/cognition component and discrimination  is the behavioral
component. In the case of blindness, prejudice might be someone's
reluctance to talk to us (fear or disgust), fear of  becoming blind or
anxiety about our safety. Stereotypes might include "blind people are
slow/incompetent/dirty/can't do X job" or "blind people are all good
at music". Discrimination would be actions like not teaching us to
read, not letting us sit where we  want on an airplane or giving us
preferential treatment like less homework or discounted bus fare. What
the three all have  in common  is  that, even though technically they
can all be either positive or negative, they arise from our group
membership and lead to us all being treated or thought of as the same
because of what group we belong to (i.e. blind  people) rather than
our individual strengths and weaknesses.

My argument before was that the emotional component (prejudice) is
what underlies a lot of the persistent and hostile discrimination we
get (no matter how many times you show someone how you do a job, they
still don't think you can do it safely/won't let you try)  as well  as
a lot of deficiencies in the services and education we  get (people
feel an emotional aversion twoard blindness, and so are less willing
to give us Braille/canes/let us have independent life experiences).

Arielle

On 6/17/09, sarah.jevnikar at utoronto.ca <sarah.jevnikar at utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
>
> 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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>>
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