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

[Joe]

Steve,

It's never been my position to downplay our challenges as blind individuals.
Yet, I also don't want to get into a tit for tat, because it's all too
possible to get into a stark comparison of how one underserved population
has it worse than the other. The only thing I'll point out is that
discrimination against the blind appears to stem from a sense of
custodialism, whereas racism stems from just plain old hatred. We have a
good shot at changing the former, if we really were an organized movement of
blind people, but I don't know how you persuade someone to think of another
being as human. I don't think we disagree on the essentials, and I'll always
gladly accept your well-reasoned and thought-out personal lectures.

To the person who believes we should eliminate gender and other demographics
from government and employment forms, is it also your position that we
should eradicate affirmative action? I'm right there with you if that's your
argument, but I don't want to make assumptions about what you meant.

--
Twitter: @ScribblingJoe

Visit my blog:
http://joeorozco.com/blog


-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 4:38 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Stop Blaming the Economy & MLK JR. Rememberence & His
View of the U.S. Economy

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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