[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Ashley Bramlett]

Chris,
good idea; glad you told them your're open to questions.


-----Original Message----- 
From: Chris Nusbaum
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2011 2:19 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

Hi Joshua and everyone,

I am in 8th grade and am mainstreamed in the public school system
here in Carroll County, Maryland.  I'm also an anchor on my
school's TV-LIKE morning announcements program.  So, one day
during Meet the Blind Month when I was on the program as an
anchor, I made an announcement on the air regarding Meet the
Blind Month and its purpose, to "educate the sighted public about
the truth about blindness, and our real capabilities." I also
encouraged them to ask me any questions they had about blindness,
no matter what it was.  I wouldn't be offended.  I closed the
announcement with a slogan that my TVI thought up; "I encourage
all of you to open your mind and meet the blind!" This has
started a great opportunity for me to educate my peers, and for
them to openly ask me questions.  My family and I also do a
program for my teachers each year, in which we do a blindness
simulations where the teachers have to make a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich blindfolded.  This also helps them get an glimpse
into my world, if you will.  I'd love to hear what you guys did
for Meet the Blind Month, if anything!

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: Joshua Lester <jlester8462 at students.pccua.edu
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 17:59:21 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness vs.  Other Minority Groups

I actually did a presentation at my college, for "Meet the
Blind,"
month where I showed everyone how to guide a blind person, and I
taught them the blindness courtesy rules, from the NFB.
I'd encourage all students here, to ask if you can do the same
thing,
at your colleges.
Blessings, Joshua

On 11/4/11, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
These are all great points.  Thanks for humoring me with this
discussion.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it
important.
As some of you may know, there was a time not too long ago when
African Americans were perceived to be less intelligent than
white
Americans.  In fact, there was a brief scientific movement
called "race
science" to try and quantify this intelligence difference and
link it
to racial differences in brain structure.  Of course, this
belief has
been heavily challenged and is no longer popular.  Additionally,
psychologists have identified specific factors in the social
environment that can lead to racial differences in performance
on
standardized tests that were once mistaken for differences in
intelligence.  For example, questions on IQ tests are sometimes
worded
in a biased fashion to favor people from white American
backgrounds,
and sometimes fears about being stereotyped can cause people to
perform worse on tests than they are actually capable of.
Because
African Americans were stereotyped as less intelligent, this
stereotype itself can lead to poor test performance.
As we all know, there are lots of beliefs out there, among the
sighted
public, blindness professionals and blind people ourselves,
about the
inferiority of blindness and the many deficits and lack of
ability we
have.  We know that a big part of our inequality comes from the
social
environment-parents and teachers who have low expectations, lack
of
instruction in Braille and other blindness skills, and lack of
accessibility-and only a small part of it comes directly from
the
condition of blindness.  I dream that in time, hopefully in our
lifetime, this will become the widely accepted view, and the
majority
of the sighted public will understand that we can be equally
successful as our sighted counterparts under the right social
conditions, just like most people (at least most educated
people) now
understand that African Americans are just as intellectually
capable
as whites if the social environment supports their success.
We definitely have a long way to go in this regard and it will
be
difficult to drive this point home.  As others have said, some
sighted
people just don't know what our capabilities are.  I think that
in our
culture there is a lot of focus on vision as a major sense, and
people
assume that vision loss is invariably a deficit.  It explains
why
literature geared toward parents of blind children often
highlights
the fact that 80% of what sighted children learn is learned
visually,
and it explains why blindness professionals are often so
unwilling to
teach Braille and prefer to focus on vision-based literacy.
People
have trouble believing that all the other senses combined plus
some
mental effort can make up for loss of vision.  People's beliefs
about
the primacy of vision for functioning are powerful, often
unconscious,
and are rarely challenged-because we are a minority, and because
these
beliefs are difficult to challenge.  Truly understanding how
blind
people function requires some creative thinking and mental
flexibility-something I frankly don't think some people possess
or are
willing to engage.  And unfortunately, it is hard to get people
on
board for the environmental modifications we need to be
equal-accessibility etc.-unless they truly believe that these
changes
will give us equal opportunity.
Jedi, you make some interesting points about how we should start
standing up to the sighted.  I agree that we are often
conditioned to
accept treatment we shouldn't be accepting, and that the errant
behavior of the sighted so often goes unchallenged.  The problem
is
that I fear that attempts to stand up for ourselves will be
misinterpreted.  The treatment we get differs from treatment to
other
minority groups in that we are rarely treated with violence or
outright hostility, but so often discriminated against under an
illusion of kindness.  Too often, an honest response to this
kindness
is simply shrugged off as rudeness or ingratitude instead of
really
being given proper attention.  For example, when I was a
teenager, I
often refused offers of "help" from people I didn't know well
and
would let people know I didn't like it when they grabbed or
manhandled
me around.  I am told that several of my schoolmates thought of
me as a
b**.  I don't think they ever actually thought about changing
their
behavior toward me, but just wrote me off as a rude person.  So
I
definitely think we should make an effort to communicate frankly
and
directly with the sighted, but I'm unsure of how to do it in a
way
that is accepted in dialogue rather than just dismissed.  I
would be
interested in learning more about the dialogue strategies you
mention.
Best,
Arielle

On 11/4/11, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
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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