…And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

The power dynamics of elitism in the Deaf community faces with the root of language superiority.

Dutch Sign Language formally recognized as a legal language of the Deaf. My mentor would have been proud if he was alive today.

3 PM EST. Noon PST. Sunday, October 25, 2020:

Beyond Fear: Confronting the Acts of White Supremacy.

This is a discussion of the intersection of political discourse and the rise of hate groups and crimes in 2020, especially with regards to impacts on the Deaf community.

Questioning Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano, President of Gallaudet University’s leadership, using the platform to preserve its white privileges and defend presidency either playing emotional game within the Deaf community. Can President Cordano break the systemic racism and be part of movers and shakers?

Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano, President of Gallaudet University makes a video celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day, but will the President Cordano make a radical move to remove one of the building’s namesake on the Gallaudet University campus?

After watching a documentary series: “Deaf U.” sharing my reflection through Deafhood journey and recognize whether the practice of elitism (elite) influences toxic masculinity, questioning Gallaudet University a safe space.

This month, October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Deaf returning citizens or returnee(s) who have experienced may be more prone to ostracization from the society than other groups, not all the people may not agree with this statement, but would they really understand the ostracization as a way of social status in stages of stigmatization?

The style of draconian practice has deprived from Athenian lawmaker Draco, known for creating the most cruel laws.

However, those Deaf returnees without a supporting system, can we discuss atrocity, the state of bullying? Recognizing that might be a strong, emotionally-charged word, and should be used with care.

Confucius: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”

Deaf returnees among the banned people because they are really “dangerous” because it deals with subversive topics: ostracization, injustice, and deprivation from freedom. The root of the problem is IGNORANCE. Deaf returnees deal with this every day with every ounce of their strength. Another problem they deal with, from within the Deaf community, is HATRED. Lecture on that reality, no?

For example, Deaf returnees, who are covered by the The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA, still encounter difficulties in trying to secure employment, have not benefited as much as non-returnees. However, it is a great achievement to get the ADA passed with strong bipartisan support, and fixing the criminal-justice system is an huge ongoing challenge, as anyone in the legal system could tell you. Because Deaf returnees are continually bullied.

And, the “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” prescription is widely misunderstood. It did not mean tit-for-tat revenge, but applied to financial hardships they face daily. The old justice might not be a cruel system, but the current injustice is a cruel system today; it was far more compassionate and merciful than the savage British system that prevailed for centuries and influenced American jurisprudence.

The abolition of bullying Deaf returnees makes the point that it is more costly, in economic terms alone, to shame a Deaf returnee than to implement life imprisonment of public shaming. The society makes rules to protect what they see as law and order, and to prevent violence, abuse, etc.

For example, Chen et al (2008) writes that people can relive and re-experience social pain more easily than physical pain and that the emotions they feel are more intense and painful than the experience of physical pain. “Physical pain is short-lived, whereas social pain can last a lifetime.”

If there is a rule against teaching tolerance, that affects the zero-tolerance policy. Then again, why should society bother with a criminal? Who is going to support an Deaf returnee? So let them take their punishment. Eighty-six that thought. Let’s go party!

Deaf returnees ultimately are going to get released and will be back in the society as a more-or-less free person. What are we doing to ensure a decent post-release life for a Deaf returnee? Sure, there would be people who say, “we don’t want someone like him or her in the Deaf community!” but the Deaf community contains some people who are, to put it mildly, not good citizens or decent people. We do not see anyone sending out lynching parties after them.

Deaf returnees have a right to live in society freely and be treated fairly and how often the second chances have changed their lives around, whether from expediency or honest conviction. On the value of civil rights, as best as much publicized in media, publicly espoused the civil rights movements movement, desegregation, and voters’ rights.

Public shaming Deaf returnees would publicize the “dangers” and would deplore the current tendency towards bowelderizing the past. When people start taking down their struggles, where do they stop? Those experiences should have given them empathy for others who have gone through the same experience. Life is about loss as much as it is about gain. Their long-suppressed pain is forgotten.

Deaf returnees have much harder access to employment and higher education so they could turn their lives around. Dealing with stigma being associated with a criminal record, it is like the subject of being labeled, if stigma encourages aggression even in a human space, how much worse might it affect mental health in a fashion, particularly when growing pain is involved? Helping Deaf returnees find jobs is much difficult more than people really understand;

Higher education [learning] is the gateway to transform in its social, economic, and human change, and many Deaf returnees struggle on the spot. When conflict and rejection of higher education applications, Deaf returnees are neglected. Irish poet W.B. Yeats once said, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst/are full of passionate intensity.”

The reality is that Deaf returnees who share their pain deal with a spectrum of hate and overcome the hostile environment that continues on the brink of fear, paranoia, and bullying. The beauty of higher education is that it is about healing and learning. They can make all the difference in society.

Yehuda Berg writes: “When you fight through difficulties, you reveal your greatness. And since we have all had to fight through challenges at some point in our lives, we all have greatness inside of us. The measure of one’s greatness is found in the size of the challenges overcome.”   

We can discuss how to stop bullying whose views are not in accordance with today’s and to put their hatred into the proper historical context, without engaging in censorship, whitewashing or hearingwashing. The political storms generated by corruption and bullying develop a plan and lead to a human abandonment of strategies in favor of an idea to “dehumanize” that relies on hate.

Speak up. Ostracization is part of direct bullying, indirect bullying, physical bullying, and verbal bullying, does not make YOU a better person.

A vision of justice and repairs decades and even years of violence has been forgotten upon Deaf returnees even if ever ‘Deaf returning citizen nor returnee’ was punished in modern times and all who have been systematically rejected out of the society.

-JT

Copyright © 2020 Jason Tozier

This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.

LINK: https://thischarmingcharlie.tumblr.com/

#DEAFU #Netflix #NyleDiMarco @NyleDiMarco

This is my part ONE of [sociological] critical analysis on a documentary: DEAF U.

Keep in mind, those Deaf students who are being forced into getting cochlear implants or being encouraged to use linguicism, it is not their fault, it is the step to the pedagogy of the oppressed.

The image above shows how to sign: TRUTH.

During the 5th century B.C., there was a painting competition between Zeuxis and Parrhasius. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes that is so lifelike that it attracted the birds. However, Parrhasius’s painting deceived people. The nation here is that the truth is the deception, and vice versa. Does truth use the concept of imitation as in the 5th century B.C. painting competition?

George Veditz once said in 1896, “[When enforced], the oral method is recognized as the root of all evils which afflict the deaf”

…as DEAF U. using the power of the documentary to sell their linguicism, oralism, audism, and cochlear implants to rationalize the standardization of hearing supremacy for personal profit, in the name of the capitalism, as motivated by systematic economic failure whether linguicism continues to profit on the campus of Gallaudet University.

Can we hold onto a path to dismantle hearing supremacy? Linguicism can easily hide invisible language that could easily perpetuate harm. Yet, DEAF U. ignores the threat of hearing supremacy. Why? Invisible Audism.

There was one clip about cochlear implants in a bar scene, promoting power of auditory: pertaining to hearing, to the sense of hearing, according to the dictionary. That is where it comes in from Tom Humphries in 1975:

“Audism…appears when deaf people in positions of power keep that power by oppressing other deaf people.”

Linguicism that destroys the value of Gallaudet University. It fails in every category, and yet, shielding the power of hearing supremacy, whether it is the rise of economics, for example, the invisible hand of the profitertation has been feeding hearing supremacy, is the greatest danger to the Deaf culture.

How can we fight linguicism, oralism, audism, and cochlear implants and capitalism? Gallaudet University supports DEAF U.–yet, has practiced gross injustice at every turn throughout the life of Deaf, isn’t that a good example of the hearing supremacy gateway to the Deaf mind? Isn’t that also a good example of internalizing audism?

The power of documentary series on Netflix, 182.8 million subscribers would understand linguicism does not do anything wrong, but it opens the door to public shaming, social shaming or even hatred of the Deaf by the majority of the hearing world?

Would the executive producer understand the harm of doing a business model, with the practice of linguicism simply means that Gallaudet University wants a sensationalist story to usher in their profiting paper? 

That is a widespread violation of the Deaf space. Back to the power of documentary series, Would it lead to the media bias as the means of getting informed, continuing to disregard the painful effects of linguicism clearly illustrative of a dark consciousness? 

The image of DEAF identity and American Sign Language (ASL) trait, who takes full responsibility for afflicting the Deaf? George Veditz’s mind gave us how to understand the capacity of bullying: “If oral magicians who yank educational rabbits out of silk hats and pearls of speech out of the mouths of those who have never heard, choke over it, why bless ’em!”

It is the stain of the past, what is more, today [October 10, 2020] is the World Mental Health Day and October as Anti-Bullying Awareness Month recognizes the stigma of linguicism and colonialism that targets the Deaf bodies in ways that are neglected by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders volumes.

The documentary has created a social environment for the culture of linguicism, this is bigger because of millions of Netflix subscribers. The digital age of the Internet is far from denial, is a form of Surdophobia, coined by Gary Van Gils, described “Fear Against Deaf People” primarily focused on public shaming the Deaf. This is a pure oppression, often, people use ignorance and compare it to their own oppression.

And finally, George Veditz’s quote for the third strike: “We constitute ourselves a militant vigilance committee to guard the interests and welfare of our class.”

That’s part I. Upcoming part II.

-JT

Copyright © 2020 Jason Tozier

This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.