[nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon

Fri Nov 27 18:03:08 UTC 2009

Hi Di, and all,

I also choose battles or pick them as is said. And this is one I pick. I
personally find that response rather interesting and somewhat perplexing.
Also the oft repeated "just live as I am that is the best example" as if you
must choose one or the other. In some ways to me I respectfully submit those
are cop-outs. It only took a small amount of my time to point out the harm &
falseness in it, I did not get twisted in knots and freaked out or think
about it for days or even hours. This post right here I will spend about ten
or so minutes...it also helps me to write/analyze/ponder...then it is
done...moving on.

I wonder how you would react if your own picture was cut and pasted into the
cartoon, would it be worth the time to speak a few educational words about
it? Would it be less funny then? To me every blind person I know could have
been cut and pasted into the cartoon. There is a vast difference to me
between laughing at you and with you. 

I wonder if a cartoon had a black farmer sitting eating a watermelon and
fried chicken and the turkeys expressing "Whew! What a relief" if that would
also be understandably funny and not worth mentioning.

Here are a few paragraphs from the letter I once sent to the Wash post to a
very famous cartoonist there about his stereotypical use of a blind
caricature, the letter is just too long to post the entire thing, but I got
a personal response and the cartoonist learned something and will never
again I can assure you portray either a blind person or some other group
with out thinking of the message. 

"These things (false ideas) create most of the problems he must deal with as
a blind person. If you are blind it is easy to get someone inspired (just
cross the street on your own!) but not so easy to get hired.

 The much bigger problems of a near 75% unemployment rate for the blind and
a near 90% of our blind children failing to learn Braille, and so losing the
chance to really read, stem from the seeds constantly sewn by the
perpetuation of the idea portrayed in your cartoon: Since the blind cannot
see it logically means they cannot know cannot discern.  Indeed it is in our
very language. If I say, "I see!" You think me to mean, everyone thinks me
to mean, I understand. 

You are not alone Mr. Toles. HBO put out an advertisement for The Sopranos
last year using actors portraying blind men with the same message. The blind
can not see, therefore they do not know, can not discern. I wrote the CEO of
Time Warner. I told him how this false idea cost people like my son real
jobs among other things.  He responded. The ad was pulled. 

A few months ago CBS news did a feature on a man who had been a barber all
his life. When he lost his vision he continued with his work.  He didn't
accept that a tragedy had occurred to him and he needed to give up his life.
He found a new way to continue his old life. Rather than give this man even
the regular respect you would think he was due, Ms. Katie Couric and the
reporter who did the story cracked jokes about him at the desk after the
story ran-on the national news. She said something like, good thing he
wasn't a surgeon before he lost his sight-uproarious laughter. GAWD, I
wonder how he felt sitting there probably watching the broadcast with his
family. Where was the public outcry? There was none.  

Flipping channels one recent late night I happened to flip to Conan O'Brien.
Not at all my taste, can't even understand how he keeps his job, but I
stopped flipping briefly because he was having a joke at the expense of the
blind. It was about the blind bowler who got all strikes in a game. There
was some crack about if he was sure he was in a bowling alley. Ha, ha, ha.
Garrison Keillor and Jay Lenno crack a few blind jokes of their own once in
awhile too. Who notices? How many people laugh and think the jokes are
understandable? There was a time when white people thought jokes about black
people were not the stereotypes and falsehoods recognized today, they
thought the jokes were funny and understandable. Unfortunately some still
do. How does one unravel the history of a false idea? One thread at a time.

This week my son's biggest problem is that last fall he registered and was
accepted to receive accommodations for testing from the College Board. The
God of standardized testing. He was to take the AP Statistics exam and
receive it in Braille the same time as his peers on or about May 5th. There
had been a momentum of study sessions up to the test. His Braille did not
come. A comedy of errors and claims by the College Board ensued. After many
calls and differing claims by the College Board but no action I called with
my lawyer on Thursday. On Friday we were again told it had been sent. He has
lost the momentum the other students had. The group study sessions are long
over. He has had other year end finals and large projects this month. He
just wants to take the test. We'll wait to find out if it arrives on
Tuesday.  He's got bigger problems than your cartoon. But I think they are
woven from the same thread. There is a lack of respect for the blind. I
couldn't help myself from pulling out the loose one I read this morning."

Sincerely, 

Carrie 

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Diane
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 7:16 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon

Ya know Carrie,
I have found that I have to choose the battles I fight.
A very good friend of mine sent the same cartoon to me, mostly because I 
love cows.  I took it with a grain of salt and giggled.
Di
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carrie Gilmer" <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 10:42 AM
Subject: [nabs-l] Turkey Humor and a Blind Cartoon

> Geetings,
>
> A relative forwarded to me some Thanksgiving humor~there were five 
> cartoons
> and photographs with the quote "ha these are very funny". One cartoon 
> showed
> this: a man with a cane which was red half the way up and the handle was
> crooked at the top, he wore dark glasses, his cane was held out forward 
> but
> not touching anything but the ground, he was sort of looking up a bit, he
> appeared to be walking amidst a flock of turkeys who each had a caption
> above their heads which read "Moo-Moo".
>
>
>
> Wondering what your reaction to a relative or anyone or just the cartoon
> might be. And what you think the ramifications of this perpetuated humor
> are/might be. I did something about this to the relative already and once
> wrote to a Pulizter Prize cartoonist about his cartoojn portrayal which I
> thought disrespectful and perpetuating of false ideas. I also wonder how
> important you think it might be to write to the originator/creator of such
> things after the fact when it can not be changed anymore. I know what I
> think, and I know when I have "complained" I am typically the only one 
> they
> have heard from, and I think it makes it harder. "No one else found this
> 'bad'".but I wonder what you all think.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Carrie Gilmer
>
>
>
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