[stylist] Heroes of the blind community

Thu Apr 2 02:55:49 UTC 2009

Judith:

You don't seem to get what I am saying.  I did not say that calling people
who have doctorates Dr. makes us who don't feel inferior.

What I said was that our insistence on calling them Dr. suggests that we
have a collective inferiority complex.  This complex makes us rush to call
anyone with a doctorate a Dr., to stress it, as if we are trying our best to
say that, yes, blind people can be doctors!  Look, look!  We have Dr.
Jernigan!  And there was Dr. tenBroek!  And our president is Dr. Mauer!

In more developed and empowered communities, it is not necessary to use
every single opportunity to use Dr.  Take the black community.  It used to
be that blacks with doctorates were always, always called Dr.  Why?  Because
it was thought of as very special.  But once the black community grew up
some more, they dropped the whole Dr. thing, because they realized it as
pretensious.  Women doctors were always called Dr. in all the feminist
publications during the first movement, but during the second movement it
was dropped.

Again, the insistence on using Dr. does not suggest a higher status or
anything like that.  No, what it suggests is immaturity, that it is still
way too special, so much so that it gets to our heads.  But it shouldn't be
so special and it should mean next to nothing.

After all, don't those blind doctors have accomplishments that stand out
enough?  The need for us to call them Dr. and their need to call themselves
Dr. suggests we do NOT have much else to go on and so we have to depend on
that title for respectability and credibility.  That's a very unhealthy
position to be in.

A far healthier position to be in is to not need that title at all, and let
real credibility and respectability and status take care of themselves in
understated yet far more powerful ways.

I hope this helps!

John

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Judith Bron
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 7:49 PM
To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Heroes of the blind community

If someone goes through the education and dedication to receive a doctorate,

they are referred to as Dr.  This title does not infer that those of us 
without it are inferior.  Think of it as a title like Mr., Mrs., or Ms.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Heroes of the blind community

> Hey, all:
>
> I notice NFB's tendency to take pains to refer to people with doctorates 
> as
> Dr.  Am I to read into this a kind of inferiority complex and if you have 
> a
> doctorate you make sure it is known and touted?
>
> If so, Ii recommend scrapping this altogether.  You may think it builds
> credibility, but the fact you mention Dr. at all suggests it is SPECIAL 
> for
> a blind person.  But it shouldn't be considered special, but only a matter
> of course--of course you've got a whole colony of blind doctors!  Even if
> you don't have that many, it's good to be nonchalant about it.
>
> But I can sympathize.  The Deaf community used to make a big deal of the
> title Dr. but that was back in the 1930s.  Nowadays, Deaf Ph.Ds are common
> as dirt.
>
> But I make this suggestion only from the perspective of language
> manipulation.  Understatements are better than overstatements.
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of LoriStay at aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 8:16 AM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Heroes of the blind community
>
> Start with the leaders:   Louis Braille, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek, Dr. Kenneth
> Jernigan, and many other leaders from NFB.
> Lori
> In a message dated 3/31/09 11:59:04 PM, jbron at optonline.net writes:
>
>
>>
>> >> Who are the biggest legendary figures or heroes of the blind 
>> >> community?
>> >>
>>
>
>
>
>
> **************
> Feeling the pinch at the grocery store?  Make dinner for $10 or
> less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)
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