[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi Arielle,

You raise some good points here, and I hope this starts a good 
discussion; one that I believe is good to have.  In my opinion, 
the difference between the public's stereotyping and 
discrimination of blind people and that of other minority groups 
is this: blind people have to deal with more misconceptions about 
us.  In other words, there are still widely-held misconceptions 
about us and what we can and cannot do, which are held by the 
public as being true.  This, of course, is a generalisation; not 
all of the public believes these misconceptions to be true, 
especially those members of the public who work directly with us 
or are friends or relatives of a blind person; those who know 
from experience what blind people can do.  It seems to me that 
these misconceptions are passed down through the generations; 
from one generation to their children, then passed on to those 
children's children, then to their children, and to their 
children, and so on.  When these beliefs are taught for a long 
time and are handed down through the generations, it becomes 
easier for people to believe them and they mostly do.  These 
misconceptions, which are widely believed by a vast majority of 
the public, are the beliefs from which the stereotyping and 
discrimination stem.  Then, the misconceptions of the public 
directly effect us, as we then become the object of 
discrimination and stereotypes.  To me, other minority groups 
don't have this problem.  Take the African-Americans for example.  
Are there any widely-held misconceptions about what they can do 
and how successful they can be? No! Are there any doubts as to 
their ability to compete on terms of equality with their white 
piers? No! Are their any questions about their ability to be 
employed? No! Even during the segregation era, this group was not 
discriminated against for the reason that there were 
misconceptions held by the white that they couldn't be on terms 
of equality with everybody else in society, but for the simple 
reason that they were different! During this time, I think the 
majority, the white population, forgot the undisputed fact that 
all people are different, and that having a different skin color 
doesn't justify looking down on a person.  The beliefs about 
blind people which make people discriminate against us are of a 
different character than the beliefs which make people 
discriminate against other minorities.  The difference is that 
the beliefs about blindness which cause discrimination against us 
to happen are stemmed from a lack of education about the truth 
about blindness, whereas the beliefs which make people 
discriminate against other minorities (I'm talking about 
minorities based on skin color, religion, political beliefs, 
sexual orientation, etc.) are just based on relatively untrue 
stereotypes and thoughts.  Therefore, people who might stereotype 
or discriminate against us wouldn't tolerate discrimination based 
on race, religion, etc, because the times have changed and the 
misconceptions and discrimination have no justification 
whatsoever, nor are even legal, in the case of outright 
discrimination.  However, they would stereotype about us because 
they don't have the education about blindness to see the fact 
that these stereotypes aren't justified either.  For this reason, 
we have organizations such as the Federation to educate and 
advocate.  We have a special responsibility, in my opinion, that 
many other minority groups don't have; to educate the public.  We 
have to make sure everybody knows what blind people really can do 
and prove that we can compete on terms of equality with our 
sighted piers.  Other minority groups have proven this already, 
and the little discrimination that still exists is generally 
thought to be ridiculous and baseless.  However, the public 
doesn't think of discrimination against the blind that way, 
simply because they don't think it's discrimination! They're OK 
with it, because they aren't educated.  So, it is our job to 
educate them! I should also say that we also need to educate by 
example, meaning that we must not discriminate or stereotype 
against other people.  Those are my thoughts.

Chris

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:09:24 -0600
Subject: [nabs-l] Blindness vs.  Other Minority Groups

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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