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

[Jedi Moerke]

Steve and Joe,

And don't forget that it wasn't so long ago when blind people were sterilized because folks thought it would stop the propagation of the blind. More recently, genetic counseling has brought to light some very difficult bioethics issues related to parents choosing not to have potentially disabled children due to misconceptions about disabilities including blindness. Though I haven't heard of any particular cases recently, there is also the issue of late-term abortion due to a disability discovered during a routine prenatal checkup.

I would agree that the outcomes of racism versus ablism  are definitely different. I would also agree that racism comes more from hate and ablism  typically from pity and sometimes discussed. But in both cases, the root  emotions  are  discomfort and fear. I would be willing to go so far as to say that overcoming ablism  in society will be harder than racism because it's a difficult thing for someone to realize, let alone a whole society, that something meant for another's well-being is actually harmful. I suspect that's why we are having such a difficult time repealing section 511 of the rehabilitation act.

We have mostly been discussing racism and Ablism  in this country. Keep in mind that the experience of racism and ablism  change when discussing countries outside of the United States. In Europe, especially Great Britain, racism is still ever present, but not as openly discussed. In fact folks are less willing to acknowledge racism against people of African descent over there then they are here. Meanwhile, there are countries in the world where blind people are still abandoned and left to die.

Bringing things back to Martin Luther King Jr. I believe that he fought  to stop inequality and injustice of any sort regardless of where it happens and to whom. As to his commentary on capitalism, I think he said that capitalism and communism are two extremes and that perhaps the best political system lies somewhere between the two. As a matter of fact, he said that capitalism could be a thesis, communism an antithesis, and said political system the synthesis. I happen to agree, but that's a discussion for another day and a whole other list.

Respectfully,
Jedi

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 21, 2014, at 3:37 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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