Lets Stop Bein Crabs

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.-- Jawaharlal Nehru

Yesterday I left this comment in John's blog, Children of the Eye. I've modified it somewhat.


"I would like to suggest that someone needs to clarify some rules of respect (within the d/Deaf/hh community.) I realize we can't have a d/Deaf/hh police. We'll have to take it on ourselves to monitor our own comments and maybe talk to our friends when they speak out of line.

1)NO deaf/Deaf/deaf-blind/HH person should ever criticize another deaf/Deaf/deaf-blind/HH if their English skills are lacking when that person makes an effort to subtitle his/her vlogs or writes a blog or transcribes a vlog. This is unproductive and only serves to divide our community.

2)Likewise, no deaf/Deaf/deaf-blind/HH person should criticize another for having poor ASL skills –especially if that person is late-deafened or oral deaf and grew up without the benefit of ASL — because criticism is unproductive and only serves to divide our community.

3) No one–deaf/Deaf/deaf-blind/HH/oral deaf should criticize anyone’s speech. Again this is unproductive and only serves to divide our community.

4) Let us recognize that people within our community may prefer to communicate differently. Some prefer ASL, some prefer to cue, some prefer to speak orally. Our preferences for how we communicate involve many factors. Often communication choices were made for us when we were small, or in the case of late-deafness, lack of exposure to the D/deaf/hh community made it difficult to become fluent in ASL. The preference or ability to speak has nothing to do with being “uppity.” Our reasons for speaking are personal and varied, just as our reasons for NOT speaking. It is simply how we have chosen to manage our d/Deafness or hearing losses within our own personal environments.

5) Let’s recognize that speech has nothing to do with intelligence. Writing has nothing to do with intelligence. The fact that someone grew up hearing does not mean that person thinks he or she is better than everyone who uses ASL or can’t speak and/or write well.

6) Let's realize that we DO share many common bonds. We need to make it our goal to build on what we have in common in order to strengthen the D/deaf/HH community.

Can we all just RESPECT each other??"

It's bad enough when Hearing people don't respect us. Personally I think it's despicable when we don't respect others within our own community. Hurtful behaviors such as should never be tolerated against our own.

To be honest I understand why some of you don't want to write, transcribe or caption your vlogs. I get it. People have laughed at your writing and made you feel like idiots. I understand this. You wanna know why? I'm scared to death to ever sign in front of any of you-- because I'm a beginner. I'm afraid people will laugh and think I'm an idiot. And guess what?? Some of you have criticized others whose signing skills weren't what you thought they should be, so my fear is not completely unfounded. How do you think that made me feel as a beginner when I saw some of you criticize another beginner? I felt sooooooooooo discouraged. I felt like I would NEVER be good enough at ASL to suit some of you, and maybe I should just throw in the towel now instead of making a fool of myself.

Respect goes two ways.



That old crab theory. . . Someday we'll all have to start acting smarter---as a group.