[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Melissa Green]

Hi all.
This is a very interesting topic.
I see myself as having three minorities.  I am black, blind and a woman.
All of these things are taken into account when I go in for a job interview. 
The hardest thing for me though is the fact that blind people make more of a 
big deal about my minority status.
For example, many blind men will not take the time to get to know me because 
I am totally blind.  Then there are those who make racial slurrs about me 
when they don't know me and are going on what they have been told.
I know that there are lots of barriers for me to knock down.  However, I 
feel blessed to be a part of all of my minority groups.
Just my two-cents.

Blessings!
Melissa Green
Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its
colors appear.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arielle Silverman" <arielle71 at gmail.com>
To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:09 PM
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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