[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Joshua Lester]

I actually did a presentation at my college, for "Meet the Blind,"
month where I showed everyone how to guide a blind person, and I
taught them the blindness courtesy rules, from the NFB.
I'd encourage all students here, to ask if you can do the same thing,
at your colleges.
Blessings, Joshua

On 11/4/11, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> These are all great points. Thanks for humoring me with this
> discussion. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it important.
> As some of you may know, there was a time not too long ago when
> African Americans were perceived to be less intelligent than white
> Americans. In fact, there was a brief scientific movement called "race
> science" to try and quantify this intelligence difference and link it
> to racial differences in brain structure. Of course, this belief has
> been heavily challenged and is no longer popular. Additionally,
> psychologists have identified specific factors in the social
> environment that can lead to racial differences in performance on
> standardized tests that were once mistaken for differences in
> intelligence. For example, questions on IQ tests are sometimes worded
> in a biased fashion to favor people from white American backgrounds,
> and sometimes fears about being stereotyped can cause people to
> perform worse on tests than they are actually capable of. Because
> African Americans were stereotyped as less intelligent, this
> stereotype itself can lead to poor test performance.
> As we all know, there are lots of beliefs out there, among the sighted
> public, blindness professionals and blind people ourselves, about the
> inferiority of blindness and the many deficits and lack of ability we
> have. We know that a big part of our inequality comes from the social
> environment-parents and teachers who have low expectations, lack of
> instruction in Braille and other blindness skills, and lack of
> accessibility-and only a small part of it comes directly from the
> condition of blindness. I dream that in time, hopefully in our
> lifetime, this will become the widely accepted view, and the majority
> of the sighted public will understand that we can be equally
> successful as our sighted counterparts under the right social
> conditions, just like most people (at least most educated people) now
> understand that African Americans are just as intellectually capable
> as whites if the social environment supports their success.
> We definitely have a long way to go in this regard and it will be
> difficult to drive this point home. As others have said, some sighted
> people just don't know what our capabilities are. I think that in our
> culture there is a lot of focus on vision as a major sense, and people
> assume that vision loss is invariably a deficit. It explains why
> literature geared toward parents of blind children often highlights
> the fact that 80% of what sighted children learn is learned visually,
> and it explains why blindness professionals are often so unwilling to
> teach Braille and prefer to focus on vision-based literacy. People
> have trouble believing that all the other senses combined plus some
> mental effort can make up for loss of vision. People's beliefs about
> the primacy of vision for functioning are powerful, often unconscious,
> and are rarely challenged-because we are a minority, and because these
> beliefs are difficult to challenge. Truly understanding how blind
> people function requires some creative thinking and mental
> flexibility-something I frankly don't think some people possess or are
> willing to engage. And unfortunately, it is hard to get people on
> board for the environmental modifications we need to be
> equal-accessibility etc.-unless they truly believe that these changes
> will give us equal opportunity.
> Jedi, you make some interesting points about how we should start
> standing up to the sighted. I agree that we are often conditioned to
> accept treatment we shouldn't be accepting, and that the errant
> behavior of the sighted so often goes unchallenged. The problem is
> that I fear that attempts to stand up for ourselves will be
> misinterpreted. The treatment we get differs from treatment to other
> minority groups in that we are rarely treated with violence or
> outright hostility, but so often discriminated against under an
> illusion of kindness. Too often, an honest response to this kindness
> is simply shrugged off as rudeness or ingratitude instead of really
> being given proper attention. For example, when I was a teenager, I
> often refused offers of "help" from people I didn't know well and
> would let people know I didn't like it when they grabbed or manhandled
> me around. I am told that several of my schoolmates thought of me as a
> b**. I don't think they ever actually thought about changing their
> behavior toward me, but just wrote me off as a rude person. So I
> definitely think we should make an effort to communicate frankly and
> directly with the sighted, but I'm unsure of how to do it in a way
> that is accepted in dialogue rather than just dismissed. I would be
> interested in learning more about the dialogue strategies you mention.
> Best,
> Arielle
>
> On 11/4/11, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
>> David,
>>
>> With all due respect, I think that's exactly the logic that rewards us
>> for keeping our mouths shut thus maintaining the status quo. When we
>> say to ourselves "Sighted people don't mean to be malicious," we
>> somehow send ourselves, and each other, the second half of the message
>> which ultimately says "So lay off," "No need to worry about it," or
>> ""It's no big deal." If that works for you, great. But what about those
>> of us whom such logic doesn't work for?
>>
>> I tried to soothe myself with the notion that the sighted just don't
>> know better. And for me, that made the problem all the worse because I
>> started to think that there was something wrong with me for feeling
>> upset by what the sighted person had said or done to begin with. I
>> started questioning the validity of my own experience as the person to
>> whom ignorant comments are made and ignorant actions are pressed upon.
>> Like I said in a previous post, I had to rearrange my thinking or else
>> go nuts. *grin*
>>
>> Yes, the sighted don't intend to be malicious, but the fact is that
>> what they say and do is still harmful. Humans never meant to be
>> malicious toward Earth, but our actions over the last hundred years or
>> so have badly depleted our natural resources and will continue to do so
>> until we realize that, despite our lack of bad intensions, we're
>> harming something that's as much a part of ourselves as anything. I
>> hope the analogy is not too remote.
>>
>> My bottom line is this. I think it's time to stop excusing the sighted
>> when they treat us in ways that they themselves would never wish to be
>> treated. I think it's time we start alerting ourselves and the rest of
>> the world to the fact that our interpersonal relationships with the
>> sighted public haven't changed as much as we would like them to, and
>> that these interpersonal (and intercultural) relationships are, to a
>> large extent, a huge part of why we have such a high unemployment rate,
>> why we experience discrimination in our recreational and personal
>> lives, and why the public still largely considers us a non-entity in a
>> lot of ways (I think internet accessibility is a great example of this).
>>
>> Yes, what i'm suggesting is, i suppose, quite radical. But I think we
>> can have our cake and eat it, too. I think it's possible to develop
>> excellent interpersonal and intercultural relations with the sighted
>> thereby getting our basic societal needs met. But the first step is
>> realizing that nothing is going to change unless we intend that change
>> to happen and take the steps to start it.
>>
>> Here's what I think we could do to get the ball rolling. I think we
>> need to start publishing another round of Kernel books. I realize we
>> still have a bunch left over from the last set we did, but they are out
>> of date in that they don't address some of the newer issues that have
>> cropped up in the last ten years or so. And frankly, we need fresher
>> faces in these stories. we need more stories from the current
>> generation because that's who will be reading these stories on the
>> sighted end of things. I'm willing to write for the kernel books.
>> anyone with me?
>>
>> The second thing we need to do is to formally teach ourselves how to
>> communicate more effectively with the sighted. Last time, i talked
>> about educating through dialogue rather than dialoguing through
>> education. How is that done, anyway? Well, there are a few ways of
>> going about it and there are some amazing groups and institutions who
>> specialize in teaching people how to communicate based on their
>> experience. I immediately think of the Swil Kanim Foundation, the
>> Institute of Cultural Affairs, and the Center for studies of the
>> Person. All of these entities have trained facilitators who can help
>> groups of us learn how to communicate our experiences more effectively;
>> we could potentially hold encounter groups during our next NFB
>> convention in Dallas. The groups would be small to start out with;
>> maybe twenty to fifty in each. But it's a start. Alternatively, the
>> Federation could start a project wherein some of us volunteer to train
>> as facilitators through one of these entities and then go around from
>> affiliate to affiliate, chapter to chapter, and have these encounter
>> groups locally. What would come out of either approach is a group of
>> people who are more willing to be truthful with the sighted and can do
>> so in a way that's honoring to everyone concerned.
>>
>> Anyway, these are some thoughts I've been playing with for some time,
>> and I'm willing to participate in a project like this, but i'm going to
>> need some help.I've said it before, but I'm interested in hearing from
>> anyone who's also interested in this kind of thing and who think we
>> could come up with some crazy way to get it going.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>> Jedi
>>
>> Original message:
>>> Arielle:
>>
>>> I think that it is in part that we are a small minority, but the
>>> biggest factor is people's ignorance about the capabilities of the
>>> blind.  When someone shuts their eyes, they don't see how they could
>>> do anything, (pun partially intended.)  Without training -- which
>>> they don't have, they can't imagine how we get around etc.
>>
>>> I don't think their statements are malicious, just ignorant!
>>
>>> Dave
>>
>>> At 10:09 PM 10/31/2011, you wrote:
>>>> 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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