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The Importance Of Deaf Culture

Decent Essays

It is quite a task to identify oneself within a “culture” due to the unique social, behavioral, and physical traits each culture represents themselves with. As I began learning about the hallmarks of Deaf culture such as “language, heritage art and history”, I began wondering about how the historical significance of each one impacted the modern choices of Deaf individuals (Holcomb 17). Our textbook Introduction to American Deaf Culture makes references to how important American Sign Language is to define the Deaf community which leaves me wondering how strong the foundation of Deaf culture would be if based on heritage rather than on language. Being Jewish I never learned Hebrew but knew all the prayers, values, and traditions to feel …show more content…

Language never played in a role in how people viewed me as a Jewish youth nor did people believe I was not culturally experienced because I could not hold a conversation in a certain language. The Jewish people went through oppression both in the stories I grew up learning as well as historical events like the Holocaust which emotionally changed the lives of the Jewish population to this day and for years to come. The point of my experience as a Jewish individual is to lay the idea of how I grew up feeling appreciated by my population without a language and how the community I grew up with experienced oppression much as the Deaf community faced and show how the events we endured made our culture stronger in the long run. I believe that much like the Jewish people, Deaf people show the same pride in their community because of the oppression they faced and how the pride they feel is attributed more to their history than to language.
When thinking about the historical impact against the Deaf community, the primary instance that arises in my head is the oralist movement which was supported by hearing people like Alexander Graham Bell. Many people opposed the idea of “Deaf Culture” and wanted to move Deaf children away from traditional ASL by teaching lip reading and speech to children instead of allowing them to use ASL in schools. While many could argue that this example proves

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