My response to a journal article written by Jane K. Fernandes and Shirley Shulz Myers, known as "Inclusive Deaf Studies: Barriers and Pathways.
Greetings brothers and sisters.
I find myself in this beautiful Great Basin Buckaroo Country (pictured here is the actual view of our family's ranch in northern Nevada) this afternoon, contemplating the idea of creating a blog in response to this important article, "Inclusive Deaf Studies: Barriers and Pathways.
Speaking of Barriers and Pathways, it's a bit of an irony for me as I am sitting next to a 24" x 36" window at the family's working ranch, with a world class view of vastness of open space with no signs of civilization. Use your imagination or better yet, rent a DVD known as the "Open Range" and you'll get an idea. Allow me to explain why.
As I gazed through this cozy window I see no shortage of rolling hills in every endless directions. Such endless view is what makes the valley even more precious and prettier. I see the valley as the coveted and desired "lush green" home place for these endless rolling hills, with each hill containing great wealth of characters, different colors, multiple shapes, and steep or shallow traits. I see hundreds if not thousands of black dots scattered through out the area, covering both hills and the valley. These are the black angus cattle with such liberty to roam wherever they please, always in pursuit of better grasses. This is a picture-perfect scenario I see from my window. Such beauty is an ideal world because everything has its' rightful place in this world.
As I step outside and face the reality I know that there are numerous barriers (roadways and fences) and pathways (gates and trail) scattered all over the place. See a fence line (barrier) and you'll always find a trail leading to a gate (pathway). This is the law of any ranching community.
I see the same kind of world out there, a world filled with barriers and pathways. I see a wealth of knowledgeable characters. I see great numbers of cultures and communication modes. I see different races as well. And I see them in multiple forms, steep and/or shallow traits. These people are born with the birth-right freedom to choose how to live their lives, but always in pursuit of pathways leading towards better and happier life. This is a picture-perfect scenario I see from my head. Such beauty is an ideal world because everybody has their rightful place in this world. I'm talking about human beings in general. It's a beautiful world.
However as I step inside and face the hard but un-necessary reality, I see exactly what has been verified and written by Jane K. Fernandes and Shirley Shultz Myers, a deaf world dominated by hierarchy few who took advantage of their privileged life to tout themselves as the Deaf superiors at the expenses of "deaf" others, placing the barriers upon these people that were not born into exactly the same world (ASL-life experience). Upon realizing the advantage they hold they like to tout their own definitions on what might be ideal and what might not be. It is how they begin to define the things that are acceptable and unacceptable, as in norms and the abnormals. They want us to believe that there is no pathways except through Deafhood Journey.
Thus the birth of U.S. version of Deafhood. I call it Deafhood II. The United States version of deafhood was created for this exact purpose, to draw a huge crowd and put them in an eternal chase that will never end. It's like the King or Queen who positioned the people in such condition that will forever keep them in the lower position where they would always find the need to beg and pray for betterment by worshipping and honoring the superiors. Therefore the birth of ranks and files. Deafhood II literally have a queen who savors such title. Not kidding you here. This queen has always imposed conditions upon me and others by requiring that we would have to agree with her long list of point of views. If we didn't agree with her then we'd face rejection by her and her controlled hoodized community. Naturally I choose rejection every time to show defiance against this self-appointed queen because she acquired such title at the expenses of other deaf people with lesser privileges.
The Deafhood II's adoption of Audism theory did not happen by accident. It was adopted because it worked to their advantage since it encouraged the deaf people to believe that they were being oppressed upon by "hearing people" and by so called colonized "deafless people" who were not deaf enough by Deafhood II's standard. It was a perfect recipe for anger, which will fuel these angry people towards the Deafhood II pathway, funneling them into one pathway towards the hierarchy's trap, under the control of a so-called queen.
These people failed to understand one thing that's been laid out by the JKF and Myers article. What might be ideal to Deafhood II is not necessarily ideal for other deaf people therefore the sense for people's security has been breeched repeatily when the Deafhoodized people tried to impose their hoodized world upon other people's world.
The questions coming from these people were frequently asked, "have you attend a deafhood workshop"? Have you read the deafhood book by Paddy Ladd? This particular question was asked often by Deafhoodized people because it gave them the desired power to declare that we're unqualified to discuss the subject if we've not read the book or been to one of their workshops. Such bogus notion I declare! I, of all people am from a very large deaf family and carrying the 7th generation label with my two boys carrying the 8th generation label. I grew up with nine deaf aunts & uncles as well as deaf parents and grandparents. Who in the world appointed these Deafhoodized people into hierarchies that they are, so that they are able to say that I'm not deaf enough? Talk about typical behavior coming from a hierarchy figure.
The "not deaf enough" argument was born as a form of barrier to keep us down. We were constantly labeled as "not deaf enough" because we lacked an identity by their standard. Thus the birth of DEAFLESS term, which I invented for fun but now view it as a PATHWAY to liberty, freedom and independence, steering us deafless individuals away from this so-called hierarchy's spell. Hell broke loose at DeafVideo.tv and DeafRead.com regarding the DEAFLESS term I created because the Deafhood II stronghold saw it as a threat to their hierarchy stronghold. Over sixty or seventy v/blogs were created during the stir over the new term simply because the Deafhood II stronghold felt threatened by it and rightfully so. We, not deaf enough, had no identity up until now and when we finally discovered an identity for ourselves as deafless, it generated so much energy coming from Deafhood II for an obvious reason. Such term violated their false sense of security, more particularly, their air space.
Bottom line? As explained in the article, many of us struggled in our quests to meet the expectation of the norms, failing to realize that we will never meet their expectations simply because we were not born into the same privileges and resources. Therefore barriers were un-necessarily placed upon us by pivileged few. But fear not, there is always a pathway wherever the barriers are.
In closure I wanted to say that I've read the entire article, word for word and I am very impressed with the contents. As a natural born strategist and critic I searched hard and long for certain line(s) that I’d want to disagree with but could not find any. Much of what was written was what I’ve fought for since day one so I’m very pleased with it. This article emphasized us as human beings, something I’ve preached every where. It also emphasized on the importance of recognizing different modes of communications and wealth of diversified cultures rather than limiting ourselves to what’s ideal to the hierarchy few. Watch my earlier vlog at DVTV known as "Deafless Dynamics Explained" on the subject of cultural wealth and how we invest ourselves.
I also created this blog with one other specific goal, to verify and confirm the article's contents / references that were made from my v/blogs. I did not see any incorrect information therefore I do not have any concerns.
Barry Sewell (aka DR Hocokan)
