Somewhat Silent

Gallaudet?

5 Responses to “Gallaudet?”

1. lette :
   October 22nd, 2006 at 7:33 am

   hey katie, I dont see anything in the linkie

2. barakta (User Verified) :
   October 22nd, 2006 at 3:52 pm

   I have read a few things abut the Gaullaudet kick offs but I tend not to ‘waste’ too much of my time on it because I think the big D deaf communities in both the USA and UK are way too insular, elitist and definitely too small. The way I see it, both sides have legitimate grievances in the Gaullaudet stuff but neither is being sensible or reasonable about it. I have only blogs and biased sources to rely on for my information. I know no one personally who is involved, and I of course don’t have opportunities to check it out for myself. As such I don’t consider myself decently or accurately informed…

   I reckon many minority communities are similar to the D/deaf communities, ones which come to mind that I have had some interaction with are indeed the feminists (who is or isn’t a real woman? who is or isn’t feminist/activist enough? etc etc), the LGB(T) communities, is one gay enough, too gay, “ewww we don’t like those bisexuals” “We don’t like transgendered people”, “women who have sex with men who self-identify as lesbians because sleeping with the enemy makes them a sellout to the cause”. I’ve seen this from personal experience and have very little time for it.

   I think all minority communities tend towards tighter and tighter definitions and within minorities there are further minorities which consider themselves better/purer/more-ideal etc than everyone else.

   What annoys me most about the D/deaf communities is that they claim they are culturally deaf and that hearing children in deaf families are culturally deaf too. Yet if they have a deaf child in a deaf family, their arrival is more lauded than that of an equivalent hearing child in the family. They still use audiological deafness as the definition for their cultural identity.

   I don’t think either the sign language cultural deaf purists, or the oralism is best camps are right. In fact the extremes of both of these are wrong, so wrong that they cause a lot of harm to many individuals. I think many people forget that individuals are different and that there is indeed no one true way!

   One of the things I have liked about this place is the lack of one-true-wayist attitudes and behaviours. Most of us here have in common that we have some kind of hearing loss - some of us don’t even have a hearing loss, but have experiences which they share which still enrich us as a loosly defined group. We have shared ideas and information as well as being supportive and decent to one another. Even where we differ in belief and philosophy we respect other people’s beliefs and can discuss them like sensible adults.

   Incredibly that is something which is very difficult to maintain in social networks terms - especially online social networks. This is something we should work to preserve as it would not take much to destroy our stability, a few nasty comments, a bit of spam, a flamewar or two and everyone would bugger off to different corners of the Internet and this place would become quiet for a time, or indeed fade into obscurity…

3. karen :
   October 23rd, 2006 at 10:55 pm

   I spoke to a woman who teaches at Gallaudet on Friday evening at a social event. She said that the PR the dust-up has been getting is presenting the issue as “she’s not d/Deaf enough”, which she thought made the protesters look silly, when (according to her) the issue is really more that the search was not conducted correctly. She says that what they’re really saying is that there were many candidates who were better qualified that didn’t make the “final three”. I don’t know whether she has an accurate picture of what’s going on or not, but I thought I’d add that to the mix

4. Katie :
   October 24th, 2006 at 6:43 am

   Great breakdown of the “_______-enough” situation that so often arises with minority groups, Natalya. Yes, I definitely like this site too for its diverse members and open discourse.

   Karen, thanks for adding those two cents- you’re right to note that there’s most likely something else going on. It wouldn’t be the first time that news outlets picked up on the story and blew one of the details out of proportion in order to sell it.

   Lette… let me try again- here’s the dry link:
   http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/10/19/gaulladet/index.html

   (Salon.com is free, but you will need to view a “site pass” ad in order to view the complete story. You could try logging in at http://www.salon.com/ first, then try the link I provided above- hope this helps!)

5. athina (User Verified) :
   November 3rd, 2006 at 4:52 am

   When I first strayed to this site the first thing that caught my attention
   was the two little notes that Sara put at the left and right sides of
   the page, that politeness is an implied requirement,and that the
   members would LOVE to have me here. I find this site way cool. I’m old
   enough to be your mum and you welcomed me with hugs, smileys, grins
   even. My own kids get mortified with some of the things I try to say.:(
   Nice, nice, I love it here.

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