[nabs-l] Blindness and other minority groups

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Jedi,

I completely agree with you. I always tell people that if with every
encounter I decide to think, hmmm, they don't mean to be insulting or
harmful, and keep my mouth shut, no one ever learns, no one is ever
educated. We should be respectful and diplomatic, but we don't need to
cater to the feelings of the ignorant if it keeps us from being viewed
as equals and equally capable.

With my blogs and speaking engagements, my message always centers around
how what we think is the truth of reality is often just a perception of
reality. Not only do I end up with people changing their minds about
blindness, but they tell me how much they can relate to this concept of
separating truth from reality.

One of the biggest problems I have observed is our own attitudes and
ideas towards blindness. In my experience, I find more sighted people
willing to explore this concept than fellow blind people. We can teach
the world we are capable and equal, but if blind people don't digest and
believe this, it really doesn't matter. We need to start realizing our
own true potential and distinguish truth from perception.

Jedi's idea of sending ambassadors to affiliates and chapters is such a
great idea. It's one thing to tell Federationist to go into their
communities and dialogue, but it's an entirely different thing to be
armed with knowledge of how best to execute such dialogues. As a
collective, we need more cohesiveness, and we need better tools in order
to effectively communicate our message.

>From past experience, we know the nonblind world isn't going to
encourage and stimulate the type of equality we are not only capable of
but deserving. Though they may think they have our best interest in
mind, past experience shows we didn't always fare well from these "good
intentions." This is not to say non-blind people can't learn and grow
and be active, vital parts of our collective, but we must be the
leaders. This means we don't sit back when encountering ignorant
mindsets, but actively work to change those mindsets even in casual
encounters. I don't believe Dave meant to imply sighted people have no
ill will so therefore we do nothing, but simply reminding us that,
though misinformed and misguided, most sighted people just have no clue
that what they do and say can be insulting, demeaning or just plain
ignorant. We should handle situations with grace and diplomacy, but
there's nothing wrong with taking the opportunity to inform and educate
when people give us an open shot with ignorant slips. Think of it as
Providince giving us a sign to open up a round of dialogue! Smile.

Count me in, Jedi, to assist in forming some cohesive collaborations
teaching us to better communicate. 

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: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:05:54 -0400
From: Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net>
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups
Message-ID: b2ce4224-e61f-4bcb-b738-c1d756a97073 at samobile.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed"

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