[nabs-l] [Nfb-or] Racism in Blind History

[T. Joseph Carter]

Haben,

The first leader of the NFB, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, took a pretty 
strong stand against racism in the early Federation.  Some argue this 
was a contributing factor in the NFB/ACB split--though it certainly 
was not the only factor.  Even so, it's almost certain that during 
the days of the split we lost Federationists to the emerging ACB with 
its laissez faire approach.

I cannot guarantee that racism in the NFB ended with the split, given 
that I was born decades later.  I don't know if even those who have 
been around long enough to know could be certain.  What is clear from 
the record, however, is that the Federation went forward with the 
clear intent to welcome all of the blind, regardless of something as 
meaningless as skin color.

Mention of racism in either organization is hard to find now, since 
it is so widely recognized as wrong in our modern world.  As with the 
rest of society, I'm sure that it is true both that there is more 
racism out there than we realize, and that some see it in places 
where it isn't.

We may draw some consolation from the fact that the blind truly are a 
cross section of society, even in this.  We may perhaps be no more 
enlightened than our sighted peers, but neither are we blissfully 
ignorant of this truly visual aspect of the world around us.

Joseph

On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 11:03:28PM -0700, Haben Girma wrote:
>
> 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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