[nabs-l] nabs-l Digest, Vol 53, Issue 17
Bridgit Pollpeter
bpollpeter at hotmail.com
Sun Mar 13 22:04:09 UTC 2011
Culture is based on a civilization containing its own religion, customs,
beliefs, language and code of ethics. This does not define an
organization like the NFB or ACB. Yes, we have a philosophy about
blindness itself, but this "philosophy" is strictly about how one lives
as a blind person in one's own established culture.
In fact, there is information on the NFB's website regarding this very
topic, and the same point is made-- the NFB is not a culture or even
sub-culture.
Any values or beliefs we hold are only united by our blindness, but if
we were to look at each individual, we would find these concepts vary.
Organizations like the NFB contain people coming from all socio-economic
backgrounds with differing views on religion and belief systems.
And in anthropological and historical terms, we certainly do not have a
common language unique to us nor do we have customs specific to our
group.
Because we mostly agree on what blindness means-- a minor disability
that allows us to achieve equal success-- this does not mean we create a
culture. We use a cane or dog to navigate, but this is our equivalence
to using eyes; many of us use Braille, but it is merely a tactile of the
language already used by society at large; we have views about how blind
people should live and be treated, but these are based on our concepts
of disability, and they are based on general rules of how people in
general should be treated.
So I believe using the word culture is a misuse of the word. In fact,
saying that the NFB is its own culture places a distinction between us
and those who are not us which creates a divide. We live, work and play
in this society so our culture is the one adopted by our civilization
and the group (family and friends) we associate ourselves with.
By your argument, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are their own culture
too, or The Daughters of the American Revolution or PETA. Because we
have common interest and choose to organize to promote our common
interest and goals, does not mean we have developed a culture.
Bridgit
Message: 18
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:06:53 -0500
From: Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net>
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Future of the NFB
Message-ID:
<20110313060653.29087.71137 at domU-12-31-38-00-AD-3E.compute-1.internal>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed"
Yes, you are missing the mark. A culture has little to do with whether
or not you believe you can achieve within the greater society, unless
that is one of the questions that founds your culture as it is with
ours.
The blind community actually has at least four cultures that I can
identify: the NFB, the ACB, the unaffiliated consumer base, and the
unaffiliated professional base. Professionals affiliated with one of
the organizations are likely to build their professional values on the
foundation of their affiliation's values. The unaffiliated
professionals (and consumers) will have their own cultures, but that
could be considered a major cultural grouping.
A culture is a group of individuals sharing similar beliefs regarding
human nature, relationships between time and space, traditions, values,
etc. Just because one individual belongs to one culture, that does not
mean that the same individual cannot belong to other cultures
concurrently; this principle is called intersectionality. It is true
that an individual can belong to multiple cultural groups, but strongly
identify with some of their cultural markers over others for just about
any reason under the sun.
I would be happy to argue the NFB as a culture, but that would take
some time and a lot of analysis. And frankly, I'm just not up to the
task at the moment. The bottom line is that, anthropologically
speaking, the NFB is a culture and that you can certainly belong to
such a culture and maintain your cultural identity outside of the NFB
without compromising any and all of your cultural identities. Does that
make sense? The disability community also has multiple cultures, and
these may or may not have anything to do with a specific disability,
but may have more to do with how disability is defined. There are some
disability cultures that the NFB would most certainly not identify
with, others with which we would identify with some, and others with
which we share much in common in terms of our core values related to
the role of disability in our lives.
Respectfully submitted
Original message:
> Jedi,
> I'm still not sold on the idea of a "disability
> culture."...although, I think in the context of working with other
> disability groups with a similar mindset to us, it makes sense. But,
> for me, the point of the NFB is empowering us to be part of whatever
> culture we feel like with blindness being as minimal a factor as
> possible. I recognize that others have different interpretations of
> how to apply NFB philosophy, but that's what it means to
> me...blindness will not keep me from any of my goals in the world,
> even though it places some limits in the way I have to overcome. If
> part of assessing our future is examining what NFB philosophy means to
> each of us, that's probably a good place for me to start. Thoughts,
> anyone? Am I missing the mark?
> Best,
> Kirt
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