Caution: Pro Culture

Gallaudet U. needs to take great care in how they will portray deaf community, culture and language to the world. Choosing a leader who will exemplify those characters will also need to take great care in welcoming those who are "outsiders" of the culture. This caution applies to any subculture among the world.

Becoming pro-deaf does not allow a person to become broadened in experience and education. Hearing assistive device users are in the core group in the community, so are people who practice oralism, cued speech, and other communication methods are also in the core group. Each one of us have a hearing loss ranging from mediocre to profound. Why would each of us be exempt from core group in the Deaf community?

I am profoundly deaf, a hearing aid user, fluent in ASL and Spoken English, a crazy reader and a mediocre writer and the majority in my families are hearing. Does this exempt me from being in the core of the Deaf Community? I'm not for cochlear implant, nor do I want one - yet those who wear them are exempt.

As I mentioned two or three posts ago, the hype of cochlear implant is the same hype that hearing aids - the value of CIs will go away. Still remains, communication needs are being met? CI users like hearing aid users are essentially deaf. A new hype is coming up - genetic manipulation.

I'd prefer the term "manipulation" because that is going too far to make a socio-political term "abnormal" child into "perfect". Genetics is studying how genes work, especially when those genes are "mutations" causing difference in how animals and invertebrates are developed. Those "mutations" could be evolutionary traits to help us adapt to a world changing before our eyes, under our feet, feel in the wind, smell and hear around us.

Anyway back to the point, the caution is to not make Gallaudet U a pro-deaf community but a deaf community/university that accepts a wide range of people with hearing losses, regardless if they have a hearing assistive device or none or practice oralism, cued speech or ASL. Sign language needs to be strongly encouraged because Gallaudet U will be practicing the Bi-Bi Philosophy. People are already speaking two languages at Gallaudet U. The languages need to be respected.

What is Bi-Bi philosophy? Indiana Deaf School (ISD) was one of the few schools to adopt this philosophy, where Deaf Culture/ASL and Hearing Culture/English is put to work together. In fact, any attempt to create a mulatto language (meshing of ASL & English) is not a language, nor does it create respect for each language. Known mulatto methods are Cued, SEE I, SEE II, and Pidgin English. Each gear children to the English language, which we as any American citizen uses to read and write.

See here for ISD's presentation on the Bi-Bi Philosophy at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in 2003.

Gallaudet U needs to remember that the world is bigger than the University itself, in doing so, they will need to select a leader who encompasses all diverse cultural and lingual aspects of deaf community and lead the University to a strong educational base and send forth their students ready. Many Gallaudet U graduates did go on to other universities and graduated as educators, lawyers, doctors, administrators and the like.

However, it is the middle and poor class that suffer the barriers imposed by employers who do not understand the need of anyone with a disability's desire to work. I believe the Midwest and the South suffers greatly from this disadvantage - the Gallaudet U. clusters are based in large cities, no one goes back home to their hometowns - "its too hard to find a job there". Not only that, generally (as I've seen and heard myself), Gallaudet U graduates have a high opinion of themselves and see that other people are not important to their group. That is not what reality is.

I applaud others who have went their separate ways and become leaders, activists, and community educators in their own right. Their true heart lies in the communities they live in. They make the effort to educate the businesses, encourage deaf people to become more than welfare users, abusing government systems, and being more than deaf and putting face to and about the deaf community. It's hard. Really hard.

Why is it hard? Pro-deaf consider themselves separate from the mainstream, in a world of their own, oppressing others like them or unlike them (CI users, oralists and the like). Pro-speaking/hearing practioners effectively oppress information that hearing/deaf parents and deaf adults could use to encourage their children or themselves to become activists and independent.

Imagine the wealth and the opportunity to share, respect and accept culture and language as a part of who we are. That is where Bi-Bi philosophy comes in. I certainly hope that the concept has not been abused to meet the satisfaction of either culture/language. As Deaf people, we have no choice but to learn how to read and write English; however, we can be "told" that we can sign, speak or don't do either one. As Hearing people, they have no choice but to read and write English; however, they can make the choice of speaking (that actually is not an option), signing or do nothing of either. Why can't we have the same choice of signing (not an option) but choose to speak just as a hearing person can choose to sign. Guaranteed, not everyone can be fluent in speaking or signing - that's what language is. Again - choice.

For the pro-deaf, pro-speaking & hearing, and Gallaudet U - make your choices to include and emcompass everyone, make no limitations and we all will get along eventually.