Gallaudet University Protestors Responsiveness Argument

The rich history of American Deaf culture in conjunction withlanguage displays the determination along with the brilliance of these people. Though the hearing world had called them sin, denounced them as dumb, these people rose up against their oppressors, making a new world for themselves.

Have you ever wondered the differences between deaf and hearing cultures? Last week I had a chance to watch "See What I Mean" and this video gave me a humorous and enlightening look at the differences between them. In this movie "See What I Mean", issues such as attitudes toward time, taking time to say goodbye, complain about the use of phones and pagers, sharing information, giving and receiving criticism, and comments on personal appearance are explored and humorously discussed from the point of view of both cultures.

All throughout the entire "Deaf President Now" movement, the message was clear that deaf people have the self-determination and capability as any other hearing person. To watch hundreds of deaf students and supports protest from Gallaudet University to our nation's capital, using American Sign Language as their only medium of communication. Only shows the effect of the "power and intelligence" (Van Cleve p. 173) behind sign language. "With similar unity in the future, they may move into a

The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually

By embracing the Deaf culture, he found his career and his family, and he is a much happier person living for himself and not trying to fit in with what he previously viewed as “normal”.

In the movie, “Audism Unveiled,” they were many testimonials of different deaf people explaining their stories of oppression simply because of the

In the movie they show many people who share their stories of oppression due to the fact that they are either deaf or hard of hearing. They discuss that they don't want to be seen as people who need help or want sympathy because being deaf is not a disability. In the movie they state just some of the misconceptions that people have of deaf people. One being that they can’t do the same jobs as hearing people because its hard for them and theyre going to need assistance; that is not true; it’s sad that people believe that just because they can’t hear that they’re anything less than intelligent in a certain field.

The board wanted a hearing president because that is who they thought would do a better job and they assumed that a deaf president couldn't fulfill certain roles. On the other hand, the students demanded that there be a deaf president to represent the college to its fullest potential. It is known that a deaf person can do everything a hearing person can besides hear((University 1988). The reason the students protested is because the deaf candidate was best suited for the position. The assumptions the board of trustees made were not very accurate and fair compared to the rest of the community. It was surprising to see that the board members were not supportive for the deaf community since they are associated as top leaders of the

After reading Deaf Again I learned a lot of new things about Deaf culture and was drawn in by the story of Mark Drolsbaugh. "The hardest fight a man has to fight is to live in a world where every single day someone is trying to make you someone you do not want to be" e.e cummings. I was brought into the book immediately from this quote and realized how difficult it must have been for Mark to find his identity. He was trying to hang on to his hearing in fear of going deaf as if there was something wrong or not proper with being deaf. It took him a long time, twenty-three years to realize that the Deaf culture is receiving and it was there for him to embrace the entire time. It would be difficult to be able to hear and then slowly

Ryan noticed that although other scholars had interviewed deaf survivors, there were several others who had not received the opportunity to share their recollections on video. The author writes, “The experiences of deaf people, who are often overlooked and underserved because of communication barriers, have been difficult for most historians to include. But the fact that people with physical and cognitive disabilities were selected for forced sterilization, marriage prohibition, and ultimately extermination was all too logical an outcome of Nazi racial theories and widely held eugenics beliefs” (Ryan, 2005, p. 44). Schuman and Ryan visited Canada, eight European countries, and cities in the United States to attend deaf community conventions in a search for witnesses. Ultimately, the researchers made some contacts through their affiliation with Gallaudet University, which is the only liberal arts college for deaf people in the world. Because Schuman is a CODA (child of deaf adults), his association with other CODAs allowed them to discover a group of deaf Jewish survivors in Budapest, Hungary. Schuman and Ryan then interviewed a dozen survivors over the duration of five days.

However, hearing audience members often leave the show with a greater understanding of the Deaf experience in areas other than the language. (Lane 144) The Deaf theatre production Children of a Lesser God had an extremely powerful impact on society when it was turned into a popular movie, spreading awareness of the Deaf World to a wider

It was very interesting to see how strongly the deaf people identified with deaf culture, and how much of an impact deaf culture played into the decisions they made. It reminded me a lot of religious dogma, and the impact it can have on one’s life decisions when the community around you is highly dogmatic, regardless of your beliefs. I felt myself strongly allied with the paternal grandparents who in my opinion made very good points to the deaf family, and I found myself quite angry with the decision made by the deaf family in the end, though I understand why it was made. I do however think that there is a debate to be had about whether or not keeping your child deaf is abusive, and I for one think it certainly is. Whether that somehow makes me “ableist” or not I feel it is wrong to force your child to do anything for your own comfort and “cultural values”, especially if it takes away that child’s ability to experience life to the fullest.

They movie provided a very balance views on scientific research, culture norms, and major issues. They showcased the most common hearing parents concerns in raising a deaf child. They explain that many parents feel a sense of loss of a child when finding out the child is deaf because their image of the child future path is destroyed. Many hearing parents also very a limited knowledge of ASL and the deaf culture which makes it even harder for the parents to adapt. They also pointed out that many parents indicated that the ability to speak is more important than any other ability the child can have which indicated a belief system that is not beneficial for a child who is deaf.

Is there not a better way to protest America's problems without protesting America? Given that the First Amendment allows us to protest our grievances we should be allowed to take a knee during the national anthem if we feel it’s necessary. The again, there are other ways to protest our country’s problems without protesting the United States, so people with a higher status should not take advantage of the status to protest.

In recent years, college students nationwide are protesting for various causes they strongly believe in. There are peaceful and violent protests that include hunger strikes and rioting that catch the attention of the media and its viewers that follow the events. Regardless of the method the students are using the focus is that their message comes out across loud and clear. Most recently the incidents that took place at the University of Missouri on the topic of race are wildly discussed and reviewed by all. This specific incident at the University of Missouri dealt with racial equality on sports teams and on the campus which ultimately led Tim Wolfe to step down as president of the university. Some of the common reasons why students protest