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

[Linda Stover]

Gedi,

I'm really glad to see LGBT issues being brought up.  I'm relatively
new to the NFB and don't know how much networking/support for those of
us who identify as LGBT there is, but it's definitely an area to look
in to and improve if necessary.
Courtney

On 3/16/09, T. Joseph Carter <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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