[nabs-l] Racism in Blind History

[sarah.jevnikar at utoronto.ca]

Hi,
How unfortunate! The blind community could have made some huge strides  
for integration and inclusion here. Too bad none thought of it.
Sarah

Quoting Haben Girma <habnkid at aol.com>:

>
> I've been doing research on the dynamics of guide dog partnerships for
> an anthropology class, and came across a really interesting passage. In
> Peter Putnam's book, Love in the Lead: The Miracle of The Seeing Eye
> Dog, I came across this fascinating statement: "As late as the 1950's,
> an association for the blind in a Southern city was posting sighted
> monitors at the doors to its Christmas party in order to segregate the
> blind guests who could not see each other's color" (Putnam 106).
>
> Race is in some ways a very visual thing. There's a myth out there that
> blind people will not judge other's by their appearance. Through Putnam
> I've learned that some gatherings of blind people in the South have had
> sighted monitors to ensure the segregation of the colorblind
> participants. In such racist environments, it occurs to me that some of
> those blind people probably requrested the assistance of sighted people
> to uphold segregation... Gosh, here's a whole dimension of racism my
> high school teachers never dwelt on! What did racism mean to a blind
> person in, say, 1940s Burmingham? In that setting and time, were the
> dialects of the blacks and whites so similar that a blind person needed
> a sighted person to monitor segregation?
>
> After reading that one statement in Putnam's book, I realized I know
> very little about racism in the history of blind organizations. If any
> of you have more information on this topic, please let me know.
>
> Best,
> Haben
>
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