[nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy & MLK JR. Rememberence & HisView of the U.S. Economy

Tue Jan 21 22:32:30 UTC 2014

People think we are stupid. Jamie, I've been preaching since 2005, without 
any problem. However, when applying for a pastoral job, the church told me 
flat out that my being blind posed a risk. Even though other churches in my 
area had already told this church what I was able to do, they denied me on 
that basis alone. Needless to say, my pastor was not happy. RJ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jamie Principato" <blackbyrdfly at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 5:23 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy & MLK JR. Rememberence & 
HisView of the U.S. Economy


> Very well said! I have had a number of these experiences myself, and have 
> seen, firsthand, many of my peers deal with the same sorts of 
> discrimination. Once, my partner and I were made to get off a bus and walk 
> to our destination because we refused to sit in the front and force a 
> young man with a broken ankle to give up his seat to us and stand in the 
> back. I was once denied service at a restaurant I visited with a group of 
> blind friends because they had no Braille menu, and when asked if we had a 
> sighted chaperone in our party, we said no. (We were totally capable of 
> using the online menu via smartphones). I was recently not only denied a 
> job at an ice cream shop due to the manager's assertion that the job would 
> be too demanding for me and they didn't have the staff she believed were 
> needed to train and assist me. She dismissed me almost instantly and 
> wouldn't even take my resume. I've been told by more than one institution 
> to go to another school that caters more to the needs of people like me. 
> I've been physically prevented from using escalators, stairways and moving 
> sidewalks, and even expected to forfeit my freedom to walk freely by 
> sitting in a wheelchair at airports, when all I ever ask for is brief 
> directions to security lines. And the list goes on. The problem with this 
> kind of discrimination, and the reason some may shy away from even 
> labeling it as such, is that it's often done out of a combination of 
> ignorance and concern for safety/liability, rather than malice, but the 
> actions are still discriminatory and result in many among us having to 
> endure treatment that is, in fact, subhuman (I.e. Less than adult human of 
> average cognitive ability).
>
> Jamie
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jan 21, 2014, at 2:37 PM, "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Joe,
>>
>> It is more than appropriate as we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday 
>> to consider what African-Americans have
>> endured over time and still endure.  I sometimes am a little uneasy when 
>> the parallels between what we have
>> experienced as blind persons is drawn too closely to the experience of 
>> African-Americans.  To that extent, I agree
>> with what you said.  Having said that, your statement that "Anyone who 
>> thinks the struggles of the collective
>> blind are remotely similar to the struggles of African-Americans is 
>> severely misguided," also seems extreme.
>>
>> There are certainly large differences between our experiences as blind 
>> persons and those experienced by other
>> mistreated groups here in the United States and around the world.  The 
>> motivations are different for one thing as
>> you also pointed out, and the level of endangerment is not the same.  The 
>> fact that we have a sort of safety net
>> that other groups do not have is significant.  It is unlikely that a 
>> blind person in the United States would be
>> left homeless or allowed to starve provided he or
>> she new which services might be available.
>>
>> Still, to say that we are misguided to even think our struggles are 
>> remotely similar seems to ignore some of our
>> history.  You should talk to parents who have had their children removed 
>> from their care simply because everyone
>> knows blind people can't be safe parents.  They might have a remote sense 
>> of what it feels like to at least not be
>> seen as an adult.  Talk to the man who, when taking his nine-year-old 
>> daughter and her friend to an amusement park
>> was told that his daughter had to sit with him instead of her friend 
>> because they required that he have a
>> responsible adult with him.  A "responsible adult" was defined as being 
>> more than four feet or so tall without age
>> limits.  In case you have read about that and know that it happened 
>> twenty years ago, ask me how I felt when last
>> summer a flight attendant ask my children to split up and each sit with 
>> their mother and father to take care of
>> them on the flight.  Ask a close friend of mine how it felt to have the 
>> airlines force the stranger sitting next
>> to her to be responsible for her.  Ask me how it felt to have a potential 
>> employer tell me that they would not
>> hire me because they could not spare another employee to be on call to 
>> bring me too and from the bathroom.  While
>> we are at it, ask me how I felt last week when a hospital staff person 
>> refused to give me directions to the stairs
>> because they were not safe for me but would direct me to the elevator. 
>> Ask
>> someone I knew personally how he felt when the sheltered workshop for 
>> which he worked tested his speed to
>> calculate his subminimum wages on machinery that was defective, and only 
>> as soon as he arrived or just before
>> quitting time when he was likely to work least efficiently?  Ask another 
>> friend of mine how it felt to be denied a
>> teaching position because the school district required a specific level 
>> of vision.  Ask the numerous blind people
>> who, before the mid-1950's, were not allowed to apply for civil service 
>> jobs because they were blind, how they
>> felt.  An African-American member several decades ago was involved in a 
>> protest over a policy that required blind
>> people to sit in the very front "priority seating for the handicapped" 
>> seats on busses.  He remarked that he never
>> thought he would have to fight for the right to sit in the back of the 
>> bus.  He understood that it is as wrong to
>> tell responsible adults they have to sit at the front of the bus as it is 
>> to assign them to the back of the bus
>> even if the motives were different.
>>
>> We face many barriers now.  Some of our accessibility issues with 
>> technology are very important to keep us from
>> sliding back into the back rooms of society.  Yet, our battles are not 
>> all of the same significance, and it is
>> right for us to take some care when drawing parallels.  Nevertheless, I 
>> have really just scratched the surface
>> above, and most of my examples involve people I know personally.  How 
>> many other situations go unnoticed or
>> unresolved.  Some of our battles are not as critical as others we have 
>> fought, nor are they of the nature of the
>> battles faced by others.  I believe it is therefore reasonable for us to
>> take some care as to how we draw parallels.
>>
>> Still, when I listen to Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, it often 
>> brings chills and even tears.  He exhibited
>> so much courage as he worked to change society.  I can remember the news 
>> coverage of the demonstrations when the
>> Little Rock schools were ordered to integrate in the late 1950's, and it 
>> made Dr. King's dream seem real to me
>> even though I am a very fortunate white American who did not have to face 
>> those struggles.  But I also found his
>> words to fit my dream of blind people not having to worry about having 
>> their kids taken away or having the deck
>> stacked against us when evaluating our speed in a workshop or being 
>> eliminated from consideration for a job
>> because of an irrelevant visual requirement.  I have a feeling that Dr. 
>> King would understand that deciding for
>> someone that they should sit at the front of the bus because of someone 
>> else's perceived sense of safety is at
>> least remotely similar to having someone requiring that someone else sit 
>> at the back of the bus because of their
>> race.  I believe he would see that there is a similarity between being 
>> required to use a particular drinking
>> fountain and being required to use an elevator because someone else has 
>> decided the stairs were not safe.  Are
>> these examples completely equal in their severity?  No, of course not, 
>> but I maintain that they are "remotely
>> similar" to use your words.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Steve Jacobson
>>
>>> On Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:26:41 -0500, Joe wrote:
>>>
>>> Anyone who thinks the struggles of the collective blind are remotely 
>>> similar
>>> to the struggles of African-Americans is severely misguided. It is true 
>>> that
>>> blind people are discriminated for being perceived as helpless, but
>>> African-Americans face, and in some cases continue to face, 
>>> discrimination
>>> for being thought of as less than human. I think Martin Luther King 
>>> would
>>> have appreciated laws that would have protected his people from 
>>> employment
>>> discrimination. I think he would have loved laws that intercede in the
>>> interest of a child's equal educational opportunities. We may not have
>>> always counted on Braille bathroom labels, but we have certainly enjoyed
>>> equal access to them. Similarly, we may not count on these laws and 
>>> policies
>>> always working, but the privileges we enjoy have always surpassed the
>>> disadvantages of a lot of other underserved and vulnerable populations. 
>>> And
>>> yet, despite the challenges African-Americans faced, MLK used this very 
>>> same
>>> speech you share to promote the hard work African-Americans were doing 
>>> to
>>> build housing and create jobs throughout a troubled region traditionally
>>> rallied against them. If anything, you prove the point that it can be 
>>> done.
>>> It seems grossly incompetent to pretend the challenges of a population 
>>> that
>>> can receive monthly checks, special transportation, special hiring
>>> authorities, and in some cases free college tuition are anything like 
>>> the
>>> struggles of our African-American peers.
>>
>>> Joe
>>
>>> --
>>> Twitter: @ScribblingJoe
>>
>>> Visit my blog:
>>> http://joeorozco.com/blog
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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