[nagdu] vet reports and other issues

[Linda Gwizdak]

Hi Tracy,
I was surprized to hear about your friend who was turned down from TSE in 
the 1950s because she was black. This is very surprizing since Morris Frank 
was raised in a progressive family who was friends with George Washington 
Carver, a black professor who revolutionized the growing practices of 
peanuts.  Carver was a frequent guest at the Morris home in the days when 
Southern whites NEVER had blacks in their homes unless the black person was 
cleaning that home!

Did this lady have usable vision, maybe? The Seeing Eye did not accept 
people with any usable vision until sometime in either the '70s or early 
'80s.  Could the racial bias be a perception by the lady?

Now, before people of color jump all over me, there are non white people who 
seem to pull the "racist card" every time they have a disagreement with you. 
There is this black woman in our blind community here who actually does 
this. She said to me that we were all racist at our blind center - no 
reason, we just were!  Sure, we have ONE person who seems to teeter on the 
edge of that abyss but we are a pretty multi racial and multi cultural blind 
center.  It is the black people who seem to prefer to all sit together at a 
table but they certainly don't care if I choose to sit there with 
them(grin!)  I was raised all my life to care more about what kind of person 
one is rather than what color they are. I sit at the tables with guide dog 
users because many of the non dog users don't like the dogs under their 
feet.  So, we don't sit there and listen to them bitch about the dogs!

Anyway, I don't know any schools today who would pull a racist attack on 
anyone now.  As a white Californian, I am definately in the minority - and 
that's OK!

Linda and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:22 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] vet reports and other issues


>I wonder if it would be useful to also say when these incidents happened.
> Maybe what happened 20-30 years ago is still relevant to a school now, and
> maybe not.
> For instance, a friend of mine says that in 1952 TSE turned down her
> application because she is black.  This surprises me, because I've read
> about black men being in class in the '40's, but on the other hand, my
> friend is a person of great integrity.
> Anyway, if it's so it wasn't right. But it wouldn't happen today.
> In the same way, something that happened 30 years ago could be completely
> different now.
> Tracy
>
>
>
>
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