[nabs-l] Social Stuff

[Jedi]

Teal,

Oh, you're absolutely right! The absolutely insidious nature of 
prejudice and judgemental attitudes toward minorities always starts 
with assumptions that are confirmed by someone from said minority who 
acts them out and mirrors those assumptions back to us! I'm so glad you 
noticed that since it's the cornerstone of the blindness experience! 
Part of the issue we face is that the sighted base their responses to 
us on misconceptions. But we also must give validity to the experiences 
the sighted have in which some blind person mirrored the stereotypes 
back to them and thus reinforced them. Naturally, the blind often 
mirror stereotypes to each other and reinforce them. I'll give you a 
fantastic example.

When i was younger, I did more or less the same as the other partially 
blind students and guided the totally blind around campus during summer 
blind camps. I did this partialy because sighted adults told me to, but 
also because the totally blind in my space mirrored the stereotype of 
helplessness to me. That didn't change until I met Federationists who 
totally blew my thinking out of the water and changed my conception of 
what blindness (at any level) really means in our lives.

Thanks so much for bringing that up since It's definitely worth discussing.

As Dr. Jernigan used to say, "The blind often see themselves as others 
see them, and thus do much to make perceptions of blindness a reality." 
Okay, that's not a direct quote, but it's close enough.

Respectfully,
Jedi
Original message:
> all i said was that those people I.E. my friend blind from birth made
> questions arise that were there before i met him. But you know what i am
> going to be the bigger person here and know when to shut my mouth and you
> should do the same.

> -Teal

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jedi" <loneblindjedi at samobile.net>
> To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Social Stuff


>> Teal,

>> With all due respect, they didn't write that stuff because they were
>> lesbian. They wrote it because they were immature. If they were not
>> Lesbian, they might have said so-and-so loves dick instead. Not to be
>> crass, but it's important to remember that we often judge the behaviors of
>> those in minority groups based on their minority characteristic. I've seen
>> you do this twice: once with your friend born blind, and now with your
>> Lesbian room mates. I suggest you research what Beatrice Right called "The
>> Fundamental Negative Bias." C Edwin Vaughan discusses the concept
>> extremely well in his book entitled THE STRUGGLE OF BLIND PEOPLE FOR
>> SELF-DETERMINATION; THE REHABILITATION-DEPENDENCY CONFLICT; EMPOWERMENT IN
>> THE BLINDNESS COMMUNITY. Another example of this bias is when poverty and
>> skin color are directly blamed for street violence without looking at all
>> the possibilities and without considering that there are many darked
>> skinned (and light skinned) poor people who do not engage in violence.

>> Respectfully,
>> Jedi


>> Original message:
>>> they drew two girls touching each other and then put violet loves vagina
>>> and
>>> violet was my roomate. they also wrote other things like cunt scab and
>>> alyssa loves puss because alyssa was also homosexual.


>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Meghan Whalen" <mewhalen at wisc.edu>
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:57 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Social Stuff


>>>> I don't think their friends were doing that because they were
>>>> homosexuals.
>>>> It is important not to jump to conclusions in all aspects of life.

>>>> If these people who were writing inappropriate things on the doors were
>>>> friends of your roommates, I don't think it was because of your
>>>> roommates'
>>>> sexual orientation that their friends were writing on the doors.  Once
>>>> again, I think these were just college students being like a lot of
>>>> college students...having fun, goofing around, all of that.

>>>> Just my thoughts,
>>>> meghan

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