[nagdu] discrimination

Wed May 20 11:39:00 UTC 2009

Dear All,
    I lived in Michigan during the riots in Detroit and there was a great 
deal of fear that those events would happen in my small, rural town! This 
fear caused a lot of discrimination where I lived which was mostly 
caucasian. In fact, my school and church had no minorities of any kind.
    I, too, have spoken with this person and she has stated the same 
supposition to me. She is not angry about it, stating it to me as a 
matter-of-fact. As it has been stated, a great shift in consciousness has 
occured since the 50s & 60s due to the efforts of the civil rights movement. 
We, too, have our civli rights movement and it is my hope we will accomplish 
the same!

fraternally,
marion

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Laurie Mehta" <lauriemehta at yahoo.com>
To: "the National Association of Guide Dog UsersNAGDU Mailing List" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:36 PM
Subject: [nagdu] discrimination

I was obviously not there in the 1950s when Tracy's friend determined that 
she was a victim of discrimination.  In fact, I was not present in the 1950s 
at all. /smile/

But, I believe the friend.

I can say, from personal experiences, that discrimination can, in fact, 
happen and it can happen without it being a company's policy, or even 
without the person doing the discriminating realizing it.

Yes, any of us can be overly sensitive to situations that don't turn out in 
the way that we hope they will.  This is true of us, as blind people, as 
well as for those of us with other attributes that might become the
target of discrimination.
But, having acknowledged this fact, it is still true that people do 
discriminate and it is usually done in ways such that they get away with it.

We ought to respect the ability of others to assess the experiences that 
they (not us) have had.  If we happen to be present in a situation (we 
witness it) where someone claims discrimination but where we did not 
perceive that to be the case, we ought to ask the person who feels 
victimized what it was that gave them the impression that they had been a 
victim of discrimination.  Perhaps there was something that we just are not 
sensitive to?  Or, perhaps we have more information on the person who 
allegedly discriminated that could explain their behavior?

Often, it is only after a person witnesses a loved one  or friend being 
discriminated against, though, that that individual "believes" that it can 
happen, or that it is true.   Discrimination is generally subtle enough 
(particularly nowadays) so that the person doing it gets away with it.  The 
truth is that most folks just do not pay close enough attention to details 
of what's going on to notice and potentially intervene.

Ask, for example, anyone who is sighted and who is close with a blind person 
if they believe thatt blind people are sometimes discriminated against. 
Then ask the average Joe the same question.  It's likely that the response 
will be different.   /smile/

Ways that a guide dog program representative could make someone feel 
discriminated against, subtly, are:
asking questions about the person's lifestyle that seem unrelated to guide 
dog handling
asking questions (making assumptions) about the person's home-environment 
that the person perceives not to be likely for other applicants
comments or jokes made that reveal insensitivity
body language that makes the applicant uncomfortable (either too much 
disrespect for personal space, or avoidance of closeness)
and there are a lot more possibilities.

I can understand that anyone would prefer to think that organizations they 
respect just never discriminate, but all organizations are made up of humans 
and humans make mistakes.  /smile/

Not being program-specific at all, I'm sure that some types of 
discrimination occasionally happen (racial, anti-gay, anti-religeous group, 
etc.) even nowadays in the applicant interviews or in guide dog classes 
(particularly among classmates).  I am equally sure, though, that all of the 
guide dog programs would make the situation right if it is brought to their 
attention.  That's a good thing, imho.  /smile/
-Laurie

--- On Tue, 5/19/09, Brent Reynolds <burddawg at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> From: Brent Reynolds <burddawg at bellsouth.net>
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] nagdu vet reports and other issues
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 12:44 PM
>
> Tracy,
> I think if you read the published histories of The Seeing
> Eye, you will find
> that The Seeing established a no-discrimination policy on
> race as far back
> as 1929. A class was being arranged for a group of
> students in Harrisburg,
> Pennsylvania around November of that year and the subject
> came up about a
> prospective black student. William Debetaz asked
> Morris Frank if he had
> drawn a color line and he said no. They were to bring
> the guy in and test
> and treat him like anybody else. Frank allowed as how
> he did not think the
> school could be a legitimate organization serving blind
> people if it
> discriminated based on race. You can read the details
> in the first edition
> of, "Love in the Lead," by Peter Putnam.
>
> I believe that your friend probably fell into the trap of
> believing that if
> she was so good in her own mind that the only possible
> reason she could have
> been turned down by the school in the 1950's had to be
> because of race. I
> would just about be willing to bet that if she was turned
> down for training
> for a Seeing Eye dog, it was some other reason.
> Indications are that, not
> only did the school never deny a dog to a person based on
> race, they never
> even segregated classes of instruction based on race.
>
> Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA USA
> Email: burddawg at bellsouth.net
> Phone: 1-404-814-0768
>
>
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