[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi Jedi,

Your idea sounds like a good one.  I would contact Dr.  Maurer 
about this idea, by sending an email to 
officeofthepresident at nfb.org to see if he would be interested in 
starting these groups on a national level.  However, you could 
probably start this first in your affiliate and/or chapter, so I 
would contact your affiliate and/or chapter President about this.

Chris

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:05:54 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness vs.  Other Minority Groups

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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