[nabs-l] Blindness vs. other minority groups

Bridgit Pollpeter bpollpeter at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 2 20:14:41 UTC 2011


Arielle,

I don't have the energy to discuss this topic- at least today. It is an
important one though and something to be considered. It's not just
blindness, though we tend to get the worse of it in my experience, that
have to deal with societal stereotypes. We're still deemed less
fortunate and viewed with fear and sadness. Those of us who "manage" to
pursue higher education and employment and families, we're just brave
and some exceptional breed of disabled people. It's interesting that
people don't equate their comments to providing an underlying message
that we're somehow less of a person or not as capable.

It's tough to argue that kindness can be discrimination. I've tried, and
even though I'm the one living the experience, most won't concede to my
argument, and instead choose to think I'm a horrible person who likes to
cause trouble. Okay, that may not be far from the mark, but there's a
principle here! LOL

One of the reasons I've stepped down from a lot of my involvement with
the Federation for now is because I, to be honest, get tired of my life
revolving around blindness. I believe in the Federation and know how
important it is to continue the work of this organization, but before I
lost my sight, I had dreams, desires, goals, passions, and they didn't
go away just because my sight did. I want to pursue those same things.
But I must admit buckets of cold water are thrown in my face each time I
enter a situation and all people see is an indefinable person with a
cane. I'm the monkey in the zoo; the rare wonder happening before
peoples eyes. It takes a lot of aggression on my part just to prove that
I am capable and to get others to understand I can participate. It's
tough, and I am tired of always having to do this instead of being able
to show up and just be accepted.

You ask about those with blindness who also are apart of another
minority- don't forget women. I notice how different I'm treated as a
female who is also blind. There's chivalry and courteousness, and then
there's annoying, demeaning and unfair. I've been told to my face that
as a blind woman, I'm more of a victim and in danger. My dad has always
pushed for me to use a service dog because a dog "could protect me." No
matter that I explain that this isn't the job of a service dog, to him,
I'm not safe on my own. Ross, my husband, who's also blind, is often
treated differently than me even when together. I've been wrangled like
a cow while Ross is left alone. Or, people will think that if Ross is
with me than I'm okay, but if he's not, then I'm vulnerable.

This makes me feel like I'm somehow not as capable as a man. I am
cautious and understand that I need to be aware of my surroundings in
order to keep safe, but anyone does. It's not about being feminist or
trying to assert some power over men; it's about feeling equal and as
though as an adult I can care for myself instead of being treated like a
child. I notice women tend to be on the bottom of the barrel no matter
what. Race, ethnicity, disability, gay, if female, it seems like more of
a struggle. African-Americans were given the right to vote long before
women. Women weren't expected to cultivate their intellect until the
70's and 80's. Before then, we attended university to find husbands. If
women had to work, there was a small field of employment we could choose
from. Women are still paid less even when working the same positions as
men. My point is that women are still fighting for equality. I'm not
against the traditional "roles" often attributed to men and women, but
the problem is that we've often considered the "feminine role" as
inferior; until we view everyone as equals, we will continue to struggle
with these issues.

I also want to point out that while most don't openly disrespect other
minorities or make stereotypical comments out loud, things are said
behind closed doors. It's become politically incorrect to comment like
this, but racism and prejudice are still in existence and continue to
flourish.

I'm often called a cynic, but I only speak from life experience.
Equality is a goal spouted by many but understood by few. As long as
there are agendas to push, beliefs to be instilled, or forced,
distinctions made to gather prejudicial statistics, equality and respect
for all won't be achieved in this world.

It's cold, raining and sleeting in Omaha today; perhaps the weather is
affecting my mood. I apologize.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:09:24 -0600
From: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com>
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups
Message-ID:
	
<CALAYQJAPAqHssuA8M10iDwhrM5u9dmfWzPOg-OLu3K79zyC5JA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Warning-this topic has the potential to start a heated debate, but I
also think it is an interesting and important topic for us as blind
people to think about. Lately I have been thinking a lot about how the
problems faced by the blind are similar to or different from those faced
by other minority groups in this country historically and in the
present. More than that, I have been thinking about how the general
public sees us as a group in comparison to how they view other minority
groups. It has struck me that oftentimes members of the general public
treat us in discriminatory ways or stereotype us without even
considering that this kind of treatment resembles stereotyping and
discrimination against other minority groups. Let me give a concrete
example. In his book Freedom for the Blind, Jim Omvig writes of a time
when he was directing a training center and a female staff member at the
center commented, "You do your job so well, sometimes I forget you're
blind!" Seeing the teachable moment, Mr. Omvig brought up this incident
to his students during a philosophy class, and to illustrate his point
he said to the woman, "You are such a good teacher, sometimes I forget
you're a woman!" From what I recall, the staff member got a bit upset
and insisted that "no, what I said about you being blind was very
different from what you said about my being a woman. I was just trying
to give you a compliment!" Now, as blind people most of us understand
the problem with her comment-the implication that being blind must not
be very good, so someone who does a good job isn't like other blind
people. To me this sounds like the same problem as making the analogous
comment to a woman-but she didn't see it that way. Why not? Is there a
difference here? I have often been quite frustrated when people I know
and trust-friends or family members, who have very liberal views about
race, would never utter a racial slur or support discrimination against
racial minorities, women, gays etc. who nonetheless have no qualms about
saying negative things about blindness. Like saying blind people are all
worse than the sighted at something, or that blind people are more
dependent or less successful than the sighted, etc. They will sometimes
say these things to my face and don't understand why I don't like to
hear these things. Sometimes family members will make comments comparing
me favorably to other blind people. They think they are giving me
compliments, and fail to understand that I don't want to hear negative
things spoken about the blind as a collective. Yet these same people
would never tell an African American that they are "smart for a black
person" etc. I remember during the protests against the Blindness film
in 2008, I was perplexed by how many people just didn't get it, and
didn't see what harm the film could do-and yet an analogous film where
everyone developed black skin or female anatomy with such dire
consequences would never be accepted in our modern society. And finally,
in my research, I have observed that the college students in my
experiments have no problem saying on a survey that the blind are much
less competent than the sighted, yet would never say such things
directly about another minority group-in fact, lots of fancy indirect
measures have been developed to tap those attitudes because people
nowadays are so unwilling to admit their prejudices, unless it's toward
the blind. So, what's up? Are stereotypes about the blind somehow more
accurate than stereotypes about ethnic minorities? Is discrimination
against the blind somehow more justified? Or is it just that we are such
a small group that we haven't developed the same history, had the same
scale of civil rights activism, etc. to raise people's awareness? Do you
guys think we deserve the same considerations as other minorities in
this country? If not, am I missing something? If so, how do we get
members of the public to see this? Also, as an aside, I'm curious to
hear from those of you who are "dual minorities" being both blind and a
member of a minority group in this country (ethnicity-wise, or a
different group like GLBT, uncommon religious beliefs etc.) How do you
think your two identities are similar? Different? Do you feel they
interact with one another? I look forward to the discussion. Best,
Arielle





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