Pursuit of Happiness – …And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

Nyle DiMarco: Do Deaf People Have a Disability?

December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Today, December 3, 2019: International Day of Disabled Persons.

When my state of being Deaf had been taught all my life, being told, and being controlled by the medical model of disability, I refuse to live in the negativity bias. Being Deaf is no longer viewed as a disability. What is negativity bias?

It was known as negativity effect (1), also known as the negativity effect, is the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one’s psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things. (2,3,4)

Do you tend to dwell on bad memories and experiences? It may be due to the negativity bias, because being colonized and taught that Deaf people are disabled.

The Deaf community is powerful in the human psyche. Indeed, at this level of humanity, would the Deaf community understand the painful history of what the term “disability” define Deaf people? Have the Medical Model of Disability had caused enough destruction in the Deaf community?

‘Do Deaf People Have a Disability?‘ published by Harlan Lane:

“A disability is a limitation of function because of an impairment. Deaf people are limited in some functions because of an impairment of hearing. Therefore, Deaf people have a disability.” (5)

We already know that Deaf people who embody rather healthy traits of higher learning, the pursuit of happiness, and respect, but sadly, though, they are often being colonized by the disability model. Consider the plight of the oppressed of today. Lane writes in, Constructions of Deafness:

“As a social problem, deafness can be variously construed. Each of the primary constructions of deafness today – disability and linguistic minority – has its archetypes but most deaf children match neither of them.” (6)

Why must Deaf people come under a disability label, despite the vast differences, would the Deaf community stop being labeled by the disability model, would they do so with a commitment to developing a healthy task to overcome indifference, a show of human compassion, that plagues the Deaf community?

Nyle DiMarco writes:

“My Deaf identity is not an obstacle but an advantage — an asset.”

But….the confusion……the disability model has been taking advantage of the Deaf community as an asset and live in negativity effect.

And, I learned that Nyle DiMarco and his twin brother are on a panel about disability inclusion sponsored by the World Bank at this hour. Will Nyle tell the world that being Deaf is not part of disability? I doubt so.

Will Nyle tell the world about The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public? I doubt so. Because Nyle thinks disability is a positivity effect. The opposite of the negativity effect. Does that mean Nyle DiMarco is also being colonized, too?

According to Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood:

“The culturolinguistic model thus leads to the situating of Deaf community experiences within the rubric of colonialism. Although most people conceive colonialism as formed around economic power visited upon cultures less able to defend themselves, there is undeniably a case to be made for the concept of linguistic colonialism, and it is this which provides a bridge across which discourses between signing and other colonised communities can begin.” (7)

We must always remind ourselves as well as all others how our Declaration of Independence makes our country different from any other nation around the world. The Declaration proclaims that we have inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Finally, Harlan Lane writes in the same book above:

-JT

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REFERENCES:

(1) Kanouse, D. E., & Hanson, L. (1972). Negativity in evaluations. In E. E. Jones, D. E. Kanouse, S. Valins, H. H. Kelley, R. E. Nisbett, & B. Weiner (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

(2) Baumeister, Roy F.; Finkenauer, Catrin; Vohs, Kathleen D. (2001). “Bad is stronger than good” (PDF). Review of General Psychology. 5 (4): 323–370.

(3) Lewicka, Maria; Czapinski, Janusz; Peeters, Guido (1992). “Positive-negative asymmetry or “When the heart needs a reason””. European Journal of Social Psychology. 22 (5): 425–434

(4) Rozin, Paul; Royzman, Edward B. (2001). “Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion”. Personality and Social Psychology Review. 5 (4): 296–320.

(5) Lane, Harlan L. “Do Deaf People Have a Disability?” Sign Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 4, 2002, p. 356-379. Project MUSE

(6) Lane, Harlan L. (1995) Constructions of Deafness, Disability & Society, 10:2, 171-190

(7) Ladd, Paddy (2003) Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, 17.

Be Greater than Average

May 9, 2018May 9, 2018 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Can mathematics (in terms of ASL/Deaf-centric thinking) become Deaf community’s best friend?

Lisa Lampanelli: Queen of Hate-Monger in Deaf Community

April 8, 2017April 8, 2017 The Last Hiccup3 Comments

Look at the date and the namesake of the theatre.

April 8^th. The theatre named after President Lincoln. It is the date when President Lincoln signed an important history to give Deaf people a new life to breathe for higher education by establishing National Deaf Mute College in 1864. I saw the sign when I was waiting for Metro train to come by and realized something about it.

Who might be Lisa Lampanelli? She is the Queen of hate-monger. She is a mean comedian on HBO and other TV series promoting hate speech. In 2007, she was in Rochester, New York for stand up show and made very hateful comments about Deaf people. I mean, really hateful.

Lampanelli: “God hates Deaf people. What’s wrong with you?”

Lampanelli: “Don’t you think Deaf students could be maybe just retarded, and they’re trying to sneak by saying they’re Deaf?” Oh, there are many more what she said about Deaf people. Where is the humor in these statements? In what way are these acceptable? NONE. NADA. ZERO.

Link: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/11524000.html

For Deaf people in Washington, DC, the home of Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for Deaf—they have been as an agent of change, and in many respects, an awakening in politics and Deaf culture. Deaf people are still reminded that that they are collectively still in pursuit of happiness, freedom, justice and equality in the land of America.

Lisa’s words supported mob attacks, medical genocide, cultural genocide, discrimination, hate speech, culture of fear and most importantly, Audism. How would Deaf people feel if the hearing peers approve a show of a hearing person mocking and degrading them? What kind of message is that sent to the Deaf people and their families who struggle discrimination and prejudice on a daily basis? What about the self-esteem of those Deaf people who already demoralized by the extensive Audism?

To add the salt on the wound, their money via public and private activity fees might finance the show. Lampanelli can practice her hate speech/literature elsewhere, but to do this in Washington, D.C.; with the major Deaf university sends a very negative message on the value of Deaf people and students. There is no going around this message.

Lampanelli still have not apologized for her hate speech ten years ago. She cannot get away with it. We need to remind her that it is not acceptable. Stop hate speech against Deaf people. I feel those Deaf people in 2007. I cannot imagine and I do not think it was funny at all.

85102630-5c08-11e5-b9e1-1dfd24f09c23_Lisa-Lampanelli-Donald-Trump-Celebrity-Appr.jpg

No wonder where Trump got this from Lisa for calling Deaf people retarded.

April 8^th is very special for Deaf people with the BIG help of President Lincoln. Bless his soul! Lisa Lampanelli knew that it was an act of hate against Deaf people, as well as an attack on them as the state of being Deaf.

I think that Lincoln Theatre needs to realize and have the show cancelled and respect Deaf people first. I wish Deaf people would protest there and make a difference.

-JT

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Deaf Art of the Decade

February 24, 2017February 24, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

David Call’s Deaf Soul Extraction. 2017.

That is exactly why Hate Watch should also monitor cochlear implant companies for the pillars of genocide. It is easy to think that the companies’ gets away with hate crimes. We should remember that many stockholders from the cochlear implant companies invading our lives each year, finding a way to dehumanize us, hoping to erase us as not productive members of the society.

With Hate Watch supporting Deaf community and rehabilitation, the survivors who once were a member of cochlear implant number like social security numbers; we need more stories from those survivors. As long as Deafhood framework heals those people, they will become more productive than ever. They can be pillars of Deaf community.

So, I decided to let my eyes to study Call’s work, I noticed that he was drawing 7th human subject, and decide to share my love of mathematics as Georg Cantor, a German mathematician once said, “The essence of mathematics lives in its freedom.” so, I went ahead and discovered with the help of numerology for 7 and seek for the meaning and it’s where it became interesting.

The number 7 is the seeker, the thinker, the searcher of Truth (notice the capital “T”). The 7 doesn’t take anything at face value — it is always trying to understand the underlying, hidden truths. The 7 knows that nothing is exactly as it seems and that reality is often hidden behind illusions.

By focusing on education, mentoring and empowerment, the aims are to eliminate hateful tactics. Cochlear implant companies are held responsible for the crimes they committed. Hate Watch would make all the difference. Appreciate cochlear implant survivors’ real life experiences, and frank and meaningful discussions in society.

The Deaf Soul Extraction by David Call should be the Deaf Art of the Decade. Period. Why not David Call earns the highest prestigious American honor called National Medal of Arts? The Deaf Soul Extraction should be brought and sealed into National Endowment for the Arts’ database. The United States Congress recognizes the National Medal of Arts. It was founded in 1984. The same year where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the biggest mistake of human evolution and authority.

“In 1984, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first cochlear implant for use in adults ages 18 and older. Five years later, the FDA approved the first cochlear implant for use in children ages 2 years and older.” [The link will be shown in references below]

Food for thought. Notice something? Five years later, that’s 1989, right? That year where 12 Deaf children had been extracted their souls only to be carried into 12 coffins. It is a lifetime nail-biting experience. Cochlear implant companies and FDA’s actions raise the question–what are they getting out of destroying Deaf human beings? Will their business profit from a stripped-down Deaf community?

There are a lot of illegal conflict of interests and stop the bigotry and unconstitutional activity by cochlear implant companies and…FDA to the full extent of extraction and soul-wrenching fear of going against human authority and pursuit of happiness–Deaf community do not deserve to be target of a hidden agenda.

The art says it all! Deaf subjects have the essence of mathematics to live in the name of freedom! Cochlear implants are in the danger of hidden mathematical truth. They are now hidden behind the web of lies. Call’s work is all behind the illusionary art. It is a brilliant work. I nominate this artwork to be Deaf Art of the Decade.

-JT

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References:
https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=83http://www.numerology.com/numerology-numbers/7

A Powerful Deaf Documentary

August 4, 2016August 4, 2016 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

There is a quote that keeps me thinking about that all the time, Adorno once said: “The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying glass“

The magnifying glass will make you think as long as you watch a documentary by Deaf Nation; Deaf People in Tibet is sure inspirational and powerful! The best thing is that it is free to watch and it will worth every minute of your time-I mean, appreciate the filmmaking as the magnifying glass where Deaf people share their survival stories.

It is true that two percent in the world that Deaf people have access to education. We all know that education is the mother tongue of all in Deaf world today. There is no way we cannot be ignored from educational wonders. I would like to share my reflection about Deaf people in Tibet-first of all, we need to take a serious look at ourselves and realize that we are selfish in many ways. The documentary shows it all: the field of sociology and human-environment interactions what Deaf People in Tibet had shown.

We need to study more into the social dimensions of major education problems where Deaf people there have been banned. It’s incredible the society allows that kind of behavior. We also need to step back to consider the broader concepts, for example, education use to explain the causes of social problems and their possible solutions. With these insights in hand, we need to take a closer look at how social movements have responded to and shaped outcomes of different educational controversies.

In the last part of Deaf People in Tibet, it has applied what we have learned to an analysis of current education for Deaf people around the world chosen by oppressors of the hearing world. Because…this is a human fact that Deaf People in Tibet should not be suffered at all. Deaf people around the world, corners of it, have every right to education, among other things, the art of making distinctions.

Yes, Deaf culture is wrapped up in silence; a surge of information, knowledge, and communication is the major key to Deaf people’s pursuit of happiness today. The documentary is worth watching and helps us to honor our past and to heed our possibilities for the future.

Here’s the link to watch a documentary with subtitles–remember, it’s free!

http://joelbarish.com/video/deaf-people-in-tibet-english/

-JT

Copyright © 2016 Jason Tozier

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Deaf Returning Citizens Deserve Happy Holidays!

December 26, 2015May 3, 2017 The Last HiccupLeave a comment

Dear Readers,

As we gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate the holiday season and give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy and the freedoms we cherish, let us take a moment to remember those people, for example, Deaf returning citizens who are less fortunate. They usually are left out alone. Employment and higher education across America, is the biggest struggle for Deaf returning citizens who continue to set an example of rebuild their lives in the community for its service and pursuit of happiness.

We all have a part to play to make our world a better example in Deaf community. During this holiday season, we all need to reach out to those who need help the help the most and commit to our fellow Deaf returning citizens and resolve to build a better future free from severe oppression, hunger, and injustice. In this season of reflection, Deaf community needs to come together and make a difference.

Giving a lecture “Deaf Returning Citizens as Forgotten People” at California State University Northridge (CSUN) sponsored by Deaf Studies Association for a conference called Social Justice: BY, FOR, OF People, is a great honor, and I am grateful and humbled by the opportunity to continue to do so. I am excited to get work and make a major change in 2016.

Have a Merry Christmas and a joyful holiday season! As in Native American literature, on Christmas, bring peace on Earth.

All my best,

-JT

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In The Name of Deaf Hate Crime: Time to Stop Silence!

February 15, 2015April 29, 2017 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

Ellen Mansfield’s Art Work. “Deaf Hate Crime” was added to the jigsaw puzzle. Feb 2015.

The unfolding of history of the Deaf points to nothing more clearly than the vast ignorance of our language and culture; While I am fully aware that my message, be it factual or thinking, must be evaluated in terms of history as the uninterrupted welling of Deaf community in a multitude of currents and counter currents formed by our ever-changing society. My belief that our community must be renovated through the principles of happiness, that is deeply rooted in the American doctrine—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“It is our hope” as George Veditz, signed in the film, The Preservation of the Sign Language in 1913. It is very important that we must remember that it is each person’s right to know what being Deaf means. We also need to know that where it comes from as well as the activities and attitudes, which it describes. If we do not know, with confidence, our part in the whole and our place in history, we can become frustrated by what we have to do. If we know what being Deaf means, our self-esteem and self-determination would be much more sure. Today the world remains ignorant of Deaf people and their language and culture. Fact or myth?

I announce that my most important work shall restore Deaf Hate Crime (DHC) back to life. This time, it is in my own right. As an author of DHC, late Carl Schroeder has given me to go ahead and continue this important work before his unexpected death. The history of DHC establishment with Carl was in early 2010; we both realize that it would be very controversial and realized that it was not in right direction.

First of all, Carl wrote me e-mail in 2010 recognizing me as an author of DHC.

“Deaf Hate Crime is novel to me. I am basically a linguistics student, not a sociologist. Everything I learned about hate speech/crime IS from Jason Tozier. He IS my resource. He’s brought to my attention a vast knowledge of hate crime: academics, books and contacts. Jason does not come in any cheap! Deaf Hate Crime is now entertaining respect and attention across the nation and around the world. However, “Deaf Hate Crime” IS Jason Tozier, not me. I very much prefer to discuss languages….”

“…..I am forever in debt to Jason for bringing me to a national and international platform on Deaf Hate Crime, which is not my enterprise. Socrates had Plato; Plato had Aristotle…I have Jason, and I am not going to fail this.”

Back in summer 2010, Carl and I gave a presentation for City of Portland Office of Human Relations and Coalition Against Hate Crimes (CAHC), which has helped the coalition to better understand, how hate crimes affect Deaf people. That presentation led to a meeting with Oregon Attorney General to advocate for the inclusion of “disability” in Oregon’s bias crime statues. In 2011, the Attorney General presented such a bill to the Oregon legislature. That bill was passed and the new expanded hate crime law went into effect on January 1, 2012. That was a direct result of MY commitment to this issue. Oregon Association of the Deaf (OAD) NEVER had any part of it at ALL.

The question you would ask, where is my credentials in this? I signed up for Hate Crimes and Bias, a Sociology credit, in which students have to conduct original research projects and digest some rather dense material along diagram theories. My paper, Negative Perceptions of Deaf Individuals in Relation to Knowledge of American Sign Language was a scholarly paper and gave myself a taste of my commitment to the rights of Deaf people.

The intent of Deaf Hate Crime we need to recognize that has a long history, but it is not officially labeled as such. It is to subordinate and intimidate not only Deaf Hate Crime but also the entire community in which it is used. Deaf Hate Crime is therefore symbolic in that it sends a message to the entire world that Deaf Hate Crime is different and that DHC does not matter because it is socially constructed without self-evident definition.

It means different things to different people. Our challenge to DHC has not been in vogue because the majority of our world society holds that DHC seeks to cease language discrimination, language bigotry, language hegemony, and the layers of Audism.

My goal of DHC is to become a useful tool in the movement to fetch a better future. There are lots of us out there who are frequently silenced. What I am attempting here is to map out how research on DHC might be done. Deaf people cannot be forgotten and silenced.

Again, there were few books that have influenced my important work. For one, Barbara Perry in 2001, wrote:

…. Hate crime is a crime like no other…it is implicated not merely in the relationship between the direct “participants”, but also in the relationship between the different communities to which they belong. The damage involved goes far beyond physical or financial damages. It reaches into the community to create fear, hostility, and suspicion.

The factors that stands in the way of effective DHC as following in a quote by Boeckmann and Turpin-Petrosino in 2002 set the tone by stating that:

There is no consensus among social scientists or lawmakers on definitional element that would constitute a global description of hate crime. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that cultural differences, social norms, and political interests play a large role in defining crime in general, and hate crime in particular.

In Solidarity,

-JT

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Bad Cochlea: How Cochlear Implant Corporations Mislead Deaf Children

June 10, 2014February 13, 2017 The Last Hiccup1 Comment

COCHLEAR IMPLANT= SCIENCE

DEAF= CONCRETE

Cochlear implants has been called the language of miracle deeply “rooted” in Deaf Culture. Wrong! Science means experiment. Concrete constitutes a real thing. We must remind ourselves that our Declaration of Independence makes our country different from any other nation around the world. The Declaration proclaims that Deaf people have inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—being Deaf is the pursuit of happiness. Cochlear implant is a man-made and it is for awareness, not acquisition like a pumping hot balloon for many innocent people, figuratively speaking to target Deaf babies.

Most recently there are several published articles that are showing that cochlear implant causes high risk for developmental delays in memory and higher thinking, etc. is painful to read. The study of higher socialization of Deaf children due to their assimilation into hearing society (cochlear implants)—Deaf populations in America and globally have been stigmatized and discriminated against throughout history.

Deaf implanted babies who have been the highly oppressed group, falling subject to discrimination and in the past, genocide. This oppression is due to the fact that implementing American Sign Language (ASL) and sign languages rears Deaf children to be intellectually equivalent but socially stunted in comparison with their peers.

There are several articles about cochlear implants that state that the higher social acceptance of cochlear implant makers is the result of only having to know how to be hearing. Technological improvements in cochlear implants mean that all children can have plenty of useful residual hearing. It’s a myth. Cochlear implants rely on the individual’s ability to utilize a defective sense of hearing to understand their world.

Aristotle’s first writings on Deaf people laid the foundation of logical fallacies that were followed for centuries later. He believed that being Deaf is synonymous with being intellectually inferior, and thus coined the phrase deaf and dumb. Aristotle had begun it all.

The Deaf are outsiders in the hearing American world. Shany Mow, the author of How do you dance without music? American Deaf culture: An Anthology wrote that each deaf person has experienced “mental isolation” which he describes in detail; “while everyone is talking or laughing, you are as far as a lone Arab on a desert that stretches along every horizon. Everyone and everything are a mirage; you see them but you cannot touch or become a part of them. Your thirst for connection”

Deaf people who are forced and pushed to get cochlear implant is illegal. Deaf people would get mocked if they do not get cochlear implant. Deaf people come from many angles–from the standpoints of economics, politics, history, ideology, and many disciplines and the laundry list can be breed misery among Deaf people for generations to come. Remember the pursuit of happiness above?

The concern is that Deaf American and other Deaf people everywhere, could enact the strategic multilingualism policies to ensure the protection and preservation of our beloved and precious language (ASL, LSF, BSL, and other more) from possibility of linguistic extinction/loss and sociocultural genocide or undermine the existence of minority language usage. Deaf people everywhere ought to call for the non-intervention policy to make our natural language of the Deaf to the protected status to the listing of endangered language usage in the United States and other countries.

Beginning with the work of AGB in the late 19th century, Deaf people have been frequent and prominent targets of the eugenics movement. It is not widely known by the general public that, in addition to his work as an inventor, Bell was also a leading figure in the education of the deaf in the late 19th century and 20th centuries. In order to put this issue into context, it is important to consider Bell and the educational and social programs he promoted.

In a time of great economic, scientific, and technological advancement of cochlear implants, it is a mistake to believe that it is a miracle. Cochlear implant corporations are trying to be “global” in scope. They target Deaf people everyday. Clearly the cochlear implant corporations have shown themselves to be guilty of bigotry and excluding Deaf people from consideration. What bothers me the most is that cochlear implant makers are promoting “rags-to-riches”, “unknown-to-known” and “Deaf person-can-now-hear” hoax. It is not necessarily a privilege to be Deaf, but it is certainly has it benefits. That is why we have ASL and Deafhood. Deaf people are concrete!

-JT

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