“…Our now global community, which the deaf cannot resist no matter how they try, they stand a real chance of being sidelined, and the cultural ID taken by other sectors.”
OK. Now I have visions of the Borg chasing me and mouthing collectively, “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” No interpreters provided, though. Yikes!
The Borg we now face is now a more sophisticated apparatus that includes not only oralist organizations but also the medical and educational systems that are heavily invested in the pathological disability view of the Deaf. In the past twenty to thirty years, the cochlear implant and AVT industries have joined this colossal juggernaut in the quest to assimilate us into the mainstream society.
Resistance is futile, you say? I daresay not!
In almost 129 years, there have been Deaf people who have resisted the Borg’s oppressive attempts and preserved our Deaf Culture and ASL. We also have stories of Deaf people who grew up oral, but came to love ASL and identify themselves as Deaf. Our resistance to assimilation continues to this day.
Shel!
Wow, your article is awesome! You have made valid point to argue why Deaf people have been attacked for speaking out against other groups that are working very hard to cleanse Deaf people by assimilating us and forcing us to join their hives!
People who attack Deaf people for speaking out are dumbest and self-dehumanized.
The oral industrial complex are trying to dehumanize Deaf people at any cost. Their goal is to make money by using “resistence is futile”.
Deafchip
GREAT BLOG!
Many innocent Deaf and hearing people are now being to realize that the “Audist and Assimilationist Coalition” are the root of all the problems causing Deaf people stuck between The “Rock”(hearing culture) and the “Hard” Place(Deaf culture) because of their propaganda that natural visual language(ASL) should be disregarded and their(Audist and Assimilationist Coalition group) philosophy is that deaf people can speak and belong to the hearing culture which proved to be a BIG failure for a large percentage of the deaf oral people.
Shel, keep up your effort to tell the truth about the real reality of what makes Deaf people tick.
John
I don’t see too much resistance from the members of the Deaf culture against the technology of cochlear implant. In fact, the number of these members not resisting against the technology continues to increase. It is these members that are assimilating the technology of cochlear implant into their culture, not the other way as assumed by some people where the technology assimilates the culture.
How the technology of cochlear implant will affect the culture including ASL remains to be seen. It will take one, two or more decades for the researchers to identify and document the effects of the technology on the culture.
While I can understand the general point of your analogy between Borg and cochlear implant, I think it overlooks a key difference between two things. Borg uses force to assimilate other people (and destroy people that it considers obsolete) while the technology of cochlear implant does not use force itself on people.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
Great post.
I got chills!
I am one of those who grew up hearing, suddenly became deaf at 17 came to love and breathe ASL and identify myself now as Deaf.
CI’s are a choice. I get that. But so is championing the “noblest gift” of ASL and Deaf culture.
~ LaRonda
good analogy. For those who still have blinders on like Joseph Pietro Riolo, I truly beg you to explore the websites of the CI corps, AGBell, OptionSchools, etc. and get back here and tell me if what they are doing are just fine and dandy.
If you still think so, I shiver at your insistance of keeping the blinders on and not seeing how many real Deaf and hearing people out there who are fighting on streets, in schools, in governments, in organizaitons.
There is Resistance whether you see it or not. It doesn’t matter what the number is, but there is Resistance and it is for justice, for those of who who has a vision where being Deaf is ok and to screw us up with technology and denial of Sign Language is morally wrong.
Shel,..
Good One!
Resistance will never die as long as we continue to be treated like incompetent people.
Nothing makes more noise than the truth and yet they want us to hear. Why do we need to hear when we have the truth in our hearts, minds, and souls?
Keep a-goin’ my friends…
Joseph, I agree with the other commenters in relation to resistance. There is most definitely resistance out there and in here. You see it at DeafRead. You see it in infant organizations that have been founded in the last couple of years. You see it in faces and signs of survivors. You see it in people who work with such survivors. You see it in so many other places.
I am going to post another blog related to this topic mainly in response to your thought-provoking comment.
Shelley
LaRonda, I couldn’t agree more with your statement about choices. It’s bang on.
“Truth in our hearts, minds and souls.” Indeed, Jeff. It’s all in the values that are ingrained to such depth. We don’t see the need to hear. We often see MORE than those who can hear.
David, John and Ella, thank you for your comments.
Shel
I would like to response to the comment made by Shelley.
I won’t discount the fact that there will be some people who are resistant against the technology of cochlear implant. However, the number of these people will be relatively very small.
I based my observation on the demographics as provided by Gallaudet University that shows the increasing number of deaf children with cochlear implant and the increasing acceptance of deaf people with cochlear implant by many members of Deaf culture as seen at various places such as DeafVideo (a good example is Mr. Chris Bryson’s vlog) and DeafRead (Ms. Jamie Berke’s blog is a good example). The majority of the members of Deaf culture does not reject but always accept or welcome the deaf people with cochlear implant. Also, there is an increasing acceptance of the philosophy that ASL can co-exist with cochlear implant (as opposed to either-or approach).
I like to watch Star Trek movies and shows. I think that the character Geordi La Forge is a more appropriate analogy for deaf adults and children with cochlear implant. He uses a device called VISOR and later in the movie, he has ocular implants. He is well accepted by the people in the futuristic society. The very large majority of the people are not completely resistant to the technologies, although there is always a very small minority that goes against few, some or many technologies. I think that this is what the Deaf culture will become like but I am far from a foreteller and could be completely wrong.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
Joseph,
I enjoy Star Trek shows and movies as well. Star Trek Next Generation is one of my favourite series. I find it interesting that you choose Geordi LaForge as an analogy. I wonder, though, if Geordi was Deaf rather than blind. What would the show be like? Would he be as accepted in that futuristic society as he is? It seems to me that blind people are more accepted than Deaf people because the former can usually hear. Perhaps this is a naive viewpoint.
I’ve made another posting already. You should find it interesting. I chose the Borg analogy to compare it to the oral system rather than just the cochlear implant per se.
I also noticed that all of my commenters immediately thought of the cochlear implant when I made the Borg analogy when I was thinking of the entire oral system. I guess this is because the picture of Locutus really makes us think of the cochlear implant, and also that the CI issue is uppermost in our minds as evidenced in DeafRead and Deaf Village.
A good discussion, Joseph!
Shel
speaking of Star Trek, if I recall, there was one or several episodes with Howie Seago as a Deaf person in Star Trek (or the 2nd series “next generation”) which had nothing with modifying the body of the Deaf person, correct? Why compare to the blind person? its always a shame when people think Deaf and blind people share a lot of stuff but in reality they experience practically the opposite…and they do not share the language issues. Except of course Deaf-Blind people…which leans towards tactile signing anyway.
Yes, Ella, I remember Howard Seago’s character in the Star Trek: Next Generation. He had three, (or was it ONE?)interpreters with him who worked telepathically with him. That was one unforgettable episode! You’re correct that the deaf character’s body wasn’t modified in any way.
I would like to explain my reason for bringing up the character Geordi La Forge in response to the criticism made by Ms. Ella Lentz. It was not my intention to use the character to show the similarity between deafness and blindness. I brought him up precisely because he is, by definition, a cyborg. He is still accepted by the people in the Star Trek society regardless of whether he has interface to or incorporates the electromechanical devices. There are people who don’t want any interface to or don’t want to incorporate any electromechanical devices and they are still accepted by the Star Trek society.
People who have heart pacemaker can be considered as cyborg, depending on how the term “cyborg” is defined. So are people with the insulin pump. People with cochlear implants can be considered as cyborg. (I know that they don’t want to be labeled as “cyborg” due to too many negative connotations associated with it and I use it here only for the philosophical discussion. In the real life, I would not use it to label people with cochlear implant.) I used the character Geordi La Forge to show a similarity between him and people with cochlear implant only in respect to the merge of biological and electromechanical systems.
The Star Trek episode that Ms. Ella Lentz and Shelley talked about is titled “Loud as a Whisper” and the detailed description of the story can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loud_as_a_Whisper . In the story, Captain Picard did ask Dr. Pulaski to look into the possibility of a hearing device for the character Riva. This shows two things. It shows that merging with electromechanical systems is not something that the Star Trek society would resist against. It also shows that even if Riva is without a hearing device, the society still accepts him as he is. This is somewhat similar to what is happening in the Deaf culture where the very large majority of the members are accepting deaf people regardless of whether they have cochlear implant, in spite of very small minority that continues to resist against the technology of cochlear implant.
In response to the comment left by Shelley where she clarified what she meant by the analogy of Borg (dated January 10, 2009 at 7:48pm), I see where I misunderstood (big time). I see that you wrote the next blog entry clarifying your analogy of Borg. I will read it again and if I have any comment to make, I will leave one.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
How interesting about Deaf Candy copied your blog title –
‘Resistance if Futile, …..”, then putted down the use of ASL with use of statistics and asked upon readers why we have to demand ASL at Gallaudet.
Uh-huh! That’s why we ought to fight to preserve our linguistic use among deaf people than letting the general society stomping all over us.
Here is Deaf Candy’s blog posting just 2 hours ago –
Resistance is Futile : Who is Gallaudet?
Candy As a former Gallaudet student, one of the things I enjoyed and always looked forward to was The Buff and Blue student newspaper. So, it is not surprising that I would check out The Buff and Blue online. Of course, the actual Buff and Blue on print is way better than the online version. The [...]
Dashboard
Sun, Nov 21 2010 · 2 hours ago
The full blog posting by Deaf Candy –
http://candysweetblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/resistant-is-futile-who-is-gallaudet/
Thank you for the heads up. I will be checking that out.
Yes, COCHLEAR IMPLANT is Borg!
I agree. I grew up Oral only and fully mainstreamed, it was not a happy experience and now at the age of 40, I’m learning ASL and meeting Deaf people and it’s been a wonderful eye-opening experience. I now identify myself as Deaf.
Donna,
I didn’t say that cochlear implant is Borg. The cochlear implant is just another tool to make Deaf children fit into society. The oralist organizations and people who support the listening/speaking ONLY ideology behave pretty much like the Borg. They attempt to eradicate Deaf culture and ASL in the quest to make us forget that we are Deaf.