[nabs-l] Blindness vs. Other Minority Groups

[Chris Nusbaum]

I agree, Julie! This is what Dr.  Maurer means when he uses the 
phrase "misguided benevolence."

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 6 Nov 2011 23:40:03 -0600
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Blindness vs.  Other Minority Groups

Hi all.

I know this was mentioned a bit in previous messages, but I think 
the
big difference is the fact that sighted people believe that we 
are
always in need of help.  They take it as a matter of course that 
we
are helpless and can't do whatever it is by ourselves.  Now I am
speaking generally; I do not mean all sighted people.

I don't believe that other minority groups deal with this 
problem.
White people don't try to help African Americans with simple 
tasks
without asking them if they need it as sighted people often do to 
the
blind.  When blind people refuse help or get annoyed when they 
are
treated differently, then the sighted people are offended when 
the
blind speak and advocate for themselves.

I actually think that educating complete strangers is easier than
educating people I know.  I have been called angry and prideful
because I refuse to allow people to grab my arm and propell me 
along,
and I get very frustrated with people who will not talk to me in 
favor
of speaking to my sighted friends.  It was said to me by a friend 
that
I should just deal with it and accept the help because it is 
easier
that way.  I don't even know if this person even understood how
offensive that comment was to me.

When I am in the middle of a situation where in I have to educate
someone, I try to handle it with firm politeness.  It helps to 
keep a
smile in place and explain it as though these things happen all 
the
time, which they do.  You can complain and rant to your friends 
later.
 :)

The other problem is that there really is a time and a place for
advocacy and education.  I am a performer, so I must walk on 
stage.  I
prefer to do this independently.  I am a singer, and I work with 
an
accompanist.  We have been working together for about five years.  
She
knows that I will walk on stage on my own.  This weekend at a 
singing
competition I had to work with another accompanist.  This one 
thought
it necessary to grab my arm and stop me at my place in front of 
the
piano and try to turn me around to face the audience.  I was 
stuck.  I
could not give her a speach then and there of course, but I was 
afraid
that it would look bad that she was litterally trying to turn me
around like I didn't know which way to face on my own.

Unfortunately, even when I tried to explain it to her later, she 
did
not understand.  I have also taught my guide dog to stop when 
people
grab my arm.  This is actually quite fun.  The person trying to 
pull
me along will get annoyed and inquire as to why I am not moving.  
When
I explain calmly that my dog stops when people try to guide me 
because
it is her job to guide me, and she does not need to compete with
others, they understand and don't get too offended.

This is a very interesting thread, and I've been enjoying reading
about all your thoughts and experiences.

On 11/6/11, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
 Chris,

 People of Color have had to deal with misconceptions about their
 capabilities and still do.  For along time, there was a 
psychological
 science devoted to explaining how Black people are mentally 
inferior to
 White people in order to justify segregation and the prejudice 
that
 African Americans face in schools.  Lots of White people still 
think
 that Blacks are more prone to violence and stealing than Whites.  
And
 don't get me started on GLBT: you'd be horrified to learn what 
they go
 through.  The point is that discrimination and prejudice, as 
well as
 misconceptions about their cabilities and characteristics, are 
alive
 and well; people have just gotten a lot better at hiding their 
negative
 judgments.  And as to the disabled populus, I think the reason 
why
 people don't hide their prejudices is because they don't 
associate that
 kind of prejudice with hatred, a certainly undesireable attitude
 socially speaking.

 Respectfully,
 Jedi

 Original message:
 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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--
Julie McG
 Lindbergh High School class of 2009, participating member in 
Opera
Theater's Artist in Training Program, and proud graduate of 
Guiding
Eyes for the Blind

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life."
John 3:16

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