[nobe-l] NEW THOUGHT PROVOKER #145- Looking Blind

[Beth]

Uh, what?  I couldn't read the provokr.  Where is it?
Beth

On 5/3/09, Robert Newman <newmanrl at cox.net> wrote:
> Educators
> RE: Looking Blind
>
> This newest THOUGHT PROVOKER asks the question- "Is there a blind look?" And
> if so, is that a good thing or not? If you have not read the PROVOKER, it
> follows.  Recall that I collect responses and post them upon my web site for
> all the WWW to read and learn from and that URL is-
> Http://thoughtprovoker.info <http://thoughtprovoker.info/>   If you wish to
> receive THOUGHT PROVOKERS sent directly to you, just write me and ask, at-
> newmanrl at cox.net
>
> THOUGHT PROVOKER 145
> Looking Blind
>  "Do I look BLIND," the young man wearing dark glasses exploded.
>
> "sorry.ah, you.you all looked blind," the pedestrian said, releasing Bob's
> arm. Without an invitation, she had grabbed Bob as she offered to assist the
> three friends to cross a busy downtown street. Apology said, she sped off.
>
> "Guys, what is this 'you look blind,' thing?" Bob addressed his two friends,
> Jose (partially blind, a dog guide user) and Jamal (totally blind, a long
> white cane user). "And I'm sorry guys. I was.ah, shocked. That's never
> happened to me before. I mean --- I know it is respectable to be blind. And
> hey, where was this sweeping generalization coming from --- all blind people
> will need help to cross a simple not too busy street? But for real, when
> this woman came up to us, put the vice-grip on my arm, thinking we all
> 'looked blind,' I was just.flabbergasted. Guess I flipped-out, felt I had to
> prove to her I wasn't blind. I lifted my shades, looked her in the eye, even
> dangled my car keys in front of her nose and.said what I said. I've just
> never had that happen before and now I know what you guys mean about how
> sometimes you are treated."
>
> "Bobby boy, my fully sighted friend," answered Jose, his teasing tone
> stressing the Hispanic accent in his voice. "And ah." pointing first to
> himself and his dog, then over to Jamal and his cane, "you with your dark
> sunglasses and no travel tool, I'd say the lady saw three blind men and you
> were the dude who really needed the help."
>
> "Huh," responded the now self-conscious Bob?
>
> "Yeah man, that was priceless!" Jamal chimed in. "Didn't your mama ever warn
> you that you become who you hang with?" Chuckling, his tone slipping deeper
> into the accented tones of the African American vernacular of the
> neighborhood of his birth. "With them shades, if we rub a little color onto
> your lily white skin, next time, she'd be see'n you as a Brother."
>
> "Come on you guys, I'm serious," irritation was again showing in Bob's
> voice. "You can't always tell by just looking!"
>
> For a couple of beats the two blind guys said nothing, just staring at their
> sighted friend. Then Jose spoke first. "Well.you are right and wrong. For
> example, take Jamal and me. You strip us of our obvious blindness related
> stuff," jiggling the handle of his dogs harness, "and look at us just
> standing here, then no. Like even if they come up and look us in the eye,
> then maybe. Hear what I'm saying? But sometimes, it pays off to be
> recognized as blind. Before I started using a dog guide, back when I was
> young and full of foolish pride, I wouldn't be caught dead with a cane. So
> man, I'd play it cool and fake it. Guess we might as well call a stereo type
> a stereo type, I tried to look sighted. Then one day I finally had too much.
> I was out here trying to cross a busy street with my little amount of
> screwed up sight, couldn't do it and couldn't get anyone to help me. I mean
> get real, a good Samaritan like that woman would have looked at me and seen
> this young Hispanic dude with the spiked up do, and she'd be think'n of
> newscasts about Mex gang-bangers."
>
>
> "Yeah," Jamal added, "Some times it pays to be looking blind. Remember that
> Mac Donald's commercial I was in? They wanted a blind guy with a cane. I
> wasn't about to allow them to dress up a sighted guy."
>
>  "Ya, Ya, YA," jumped back in Jose. "Like let's get real, dude! It's okay or
> should be to look like what you are. It's not your look that is the problem,
> it is how the guy doing the looking is thinking that is the problem." An
> expression which could only be labeled as "inner-examination" came over his
> face, then he finished with an earlier impulse, "And get'in personal and
> real. The problem with this cause and reaction thing, also lies within the
> blind guy, too. So ah, Bobby Boy, we got to work with you on your response
> to the judgmental public."
>
>
>
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Email- newmanrl at cox.net
> THOUGHT PROVOKER Website-
> Http://www.thoughtprovoker.info
>
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