[nabs-l] Blindness and other minority groups

[Chris Nusbaum]

Count me in too, Jedi! I would, as I said in an earlier email, 
contact Dr.  Maurer about setting this up as a national program.

Chris

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Bridgit Pollpeter <bpollpeter at hotmail.com
To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 17:46:44 -0500
Subject: [nabs-l] Blindness and other minority groups

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


_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
for nabs-l:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dotkid.nusbau
m%40gmail.com