Read Online The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry by Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, Ulf Hedberg - Free Book Online Page A
Tags: Psychology, Clinical Psychology
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for the selection of a Deaf candidate, and they laid the groundwork for civil disobedience if it were needed.
When the university board of trustees announced the choice of the non-Deaf candidate, with seeming disregard for the two Deaf candidates for that office, the Deaf-World and its faculty and staff allies reacted with shock, anger, disbelief, and tears. Then they closed down the university and prevented the newly selected president from assuming office. Deaf organizations around the country staged demonstrations of support. A torrent of Deaf people converged on Washington, D.C., to protest. Labor unions and candidates for U.S. president publicly took the students' side. There was wide media coverage of the demand for a Deaf president and donations poured in from individuals and organizations. At the end of a week of protest, there was a march on the capitol; in the vanguard were Deaf leaders carrying a banner borrowed from the Martin Luther King Museum that proclaimed "We Still Have a Dream."
For the protestors, the demand for a Deaf president was clearly a civil rights issue, and they presented it as such to the media. The Gallaudet Board of Trustees reversed itself and agreed to name a Deaf candidate. In the years since DPN and the Gallaudet Revolution, there has been a marked increase in Deaf activism, including protests for more Deaf teachers and a larger role for Deaf culture in the curriculum of Deaf education programs. There has been an increase of Deaf people lobbying state governments and the movie and television industries, and an increase in the numbers of Deaf people heading education and rehabilitation programs for the Deaf.89
The four students who led the Gallaudet uprising were Deaf children of Deaf parents; they were deeply imbued with a sense of DeafWorld, and they were natively fluent in ASL. One of them explained to USA Today the significance of the event as it relates to the identity of Deaf people: "Hearing people sometimes call us handicapped. But most-maybe all deaf people-feel that we're more of an ethnic group because we speak a different language. We also have our own culture.... There's more of an ethnic difference than a handicap difference between us and hearing people."90
The revolt at Gallaudet was a reaffirmation of Deaf culture, and it brought about the first worldwide celebration of that culture, a congress called The Deaf Way, held in Washington, D.C., the following year. More than five thousand spokespersons from Deaf communities around the world, including scholars, artists, and political leaders, took part in lectures, exhibits, media events, and performances. On the Gallaudet campus, there was a spectacular display of Deaf arts: mime, dance, storytelling and poetry in sign languages, crafts, sculpture, video, and fine arts. It is clear that Deaf leaders and artists in many nations have a sense of ownership of the Gallaudet Revolution, just as they have a sense of special fellowship with Deaf people in the United States and around the globe. This sketch of the history presents a culture that has been constantly evolving, as culture does with ethnic groups. The ties that bind exist in all ages but the expression of ethnicity varies with time and place. Anthony Smith's Ethnic Revival puts it this way: "The soul of each generation ... emanates from the soul ... of all the preceding generations, and what endures, namely the strength of the accumulated past, exceeds the wreckage, the strength of the changing present."91
ETHNIC TERRITORY
"Ethnic minority groups have an imagined and often mythologized history, culture and homeland that provide important sources of iden- tity."92 As with the claim of common ancestry, to which it is closely related, the claim of a historic common homeland should not be taken literally. The ancestors of Hispanic Americans did not come from one place, nor did those of Cuban Americans, nor, presumably, those of the "indigenous" peoples who lived in Cuba
When the university board of trustees announced the choice of the non-Deaf candidate, with seeming disregard for the two Deaf candidates for that office, the Deaf-World and its faculty and staff allies reacted with shock, anger, disbelief, and tears. Then they closed down the university and prevented the newly selected president from assuming office. Deaf organizations around the country staged demonstrations of support. A torrent of Deaf people converged on Washington, D.C., to protest. Labor unions and candidates for U.S. president publicly took the students' side. There was wide media coverage of the demand for a Deaf president and donations poured in from individuals and organizations. At the end of a week of protest, there was a march on the capitol; in the vanguard were Deaf leaders carrying a banner borrowed from the Martin Luther King Museum that proclaimed "We Still Have a Dream."
For the protestors, the demand for a Deaf president was clearly a civil rights issue, and they presented it as such to the media. The Gallaudet Board of Trustees reversed itself and agreed to name a Deaf candidate. In the years since DPN and the Gallaudet Revolution, there has been a marked increase in Deaf activism, including protests for more Deaf teachers and a larger role for Deaf culture in the curriculum of Deaf education programs. There has been an increase of Deaf people lobbying state governments and the movie and television industries, and an increase in the numbers of Deaf people heading education and rehabilitation programs for the Deaf.89
The four students who led the Gallaudet uprising were Deaf children of Deaf parents; they were deeply imbued with a sense of DeafWorld, and they were natively fluent in ASL. One of them explained to USA Today the significance of the event as it relates to the identity of Deaf people: "Hearing people sometimes call us handicapped. But most-maybe all deaf people-feel that we're more of an ethnic group because we speak a different language. We also have our own culture.... There's more of an ethnic difference than a handicap difference between us and hearing people."90
The revolt at Gallaudet was a reaffirmation of Deaf culture, and it brought about the first worldwide celebration of that culture, a congress called The Deaf Way, held in Washington, D.C., the following year. More than five thousand spokespersons from Deaf communities around the world, including scholars, artists, and political leaders, took part in lectures, exhibits, media events, and performances. On the Gallaudet campus, there was a spectacular display of Deaf arts: mime, dance, storytelling and poetry in sign languages, crafts, sculpture, video, and fine arts. It is clear that Deaf leaders and artists in many nations have a sense of ownership of the Gallaudet Revolution, just as they have a sense of special fellowship with Deaf people in the United States and around the globe. This sketch of the history presents a culture that has been constantly evolving, as culture does with ethnic groups. The ties that bind exist in all ages but the expression of ethnicity varies with time and place. Anthony Smith's Ethnic Revival puts it this way: "The soul of each generation ... emanates from the soul ... of all the preceding generations, and what endures, namely the strength of the accumulated past, exceeds the wreckage, the strength of the changing present."91
ETHNIC TERRITORY
"Ethnic minority groups have an imagined and often mythologized history, culture and homeland that provide important sources of iden- tity."92 As with the claim of common ancestry, to which it is closely related, the claim of a historic common homeland should not be taken literally. The ancestors of Hispanic Americans did not come from one place, nor did those of Cuban Americans, nor, presumably, those of the "indigenous" peoples who lived in Cuba
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