[stylist] question about philosophy

[Priscilla McKinley]

Listers,

While I don’t have a problem with donations online, the can or cup
sitting on a table gives a negative image.  Throughout history,
persons with disabilities, including blindness, begged for money,
sitting on street corners with cans or tin cups.  The NFB has been
struggling for years to change what it means to be blind, including
ridding the public of such images.  In 1970, Dr. Jernigan gave his
banquet speech entitled “Blindness: The Myth and the image” in which
he discusses the tin cup:

“How does the tragic view of blindness find expression in modern
society? I would answer that it takes two forms: among the public it
takes one form, and among professionals another. On the public and
popular side, it tends to be conveyed through images of total
dependency and deprivation—images, that is, of the "helpless blind
man." A typical recent example occurred on the well-known TV program,
"Password," in which a number of contestants take turns guessing at
secret words through synonyms and verbal associations. On one such
show the key word to be guessed was "cup." The first cue word offered
was "tin;" but the guesser failed to make the connection. The next cue
word given was "blind"—which immediately brought the response "cup."
There you have it: for all our rehabilitation, all our education, and
all our progress, what comes to the mind of the man in the street when
he thinks of a blind person is the tin cup of the beggar!”

In his speech, Dr. Jernigan goes on to say that we can’t go back to
those times, to those images.  We need to move forward.  In my
opinion, donations are fine, but not charity, which the cans and cups
and containers have represented throughout our history.  In fact, many
people in disability studies believe that the term “handicap”
originated from that image, the hand to cap, from the beggar, which is
one reason the term disability is now used.

Anyway, just thought I would share.

Priscilla





On 8/20/10, The Crowd <the_crowd at cox.net> wrote:
> Here here, well said Joe!
>
> Atty
>
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