Ending racism in the Deaf community is a goal many people share. We at ASC would like to take a moment to respond to Aidan Mack’s vlog, “Calling on Deaf People of Color“, by addressing the topic of how white people can most effectively work to understand and end racism.

Deaf People Telling Stories: As psychotherapists who listen to people’s stories every day, our radar is especially attuned to the subtle conditions that must be in place before many people will venture to share their deepest thoughts and feelings. As white people, we wonder how Deaf people of color feel about being asked by white Deaf people to tell their stories of racism.

How many Deaf people of color trust their stories and feelings to white Deaf people? Do Deaf people of color appreciate being told that white Deaf people want to empower and help them?

Perhaps some Deaf people of color do want an invitation to come forward and share their stories with white Deaf people. Some, however, may not.

Looking Inside Ourselves — Our White Privilege: It’s quite possible that some Deaf people of color are tired of pointing out racism to white Deaf people, just like some Deaf people are tired of pointing out audism to hearing people. In the same way that Deaf people often wish hearing people would examine their own audist beliefs and attitudes, so might some Deaf people of color wish that white Deaf people would take a closer look at their white privilege and racist beliefs and attitudes.

Instead of expecting Deaf people of color to jump up and share their stories with us, and going, “oh well, we tried”, if they choose not to, perhaps white Deaf people may do better to make a conscious effort to become more aware of our own racism and the subtle, and not-so-subtle, ways we reveal it everyday.

What do we understand about white privilege? How often do we think about the advantages we have because of our skin color? How many of us think “reverse racism” if we lose out on a job to a Deaf person of color or question a Deaf person of color’s qualifications for a job?

These are all questions we would do well to spend time considering. Not until we truly recognize how white privilege benefits us, will we ever begin to “get” what racism is all about.

REFERENCES:

Baer, A. (2007, October 15). The stark difference between being self empowered and being empowered. Anne Marie’s metaASL. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from http://annemarieasl.tumblr.com/post/15740078

Duchesneau, S. M. & McCullough, C. A. (2006, June 19). Majority privileges. ASC on the Couch. Retrieved October 16, 2007), from http://www.ascdeaf.com/blog/?p=53

Mack, A. (2007, October 11). Calling on Deaf people of color. Deaf Cinematic Flimblog. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from http://deaffilmblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/calling-on-deaf-people-of-color.html

Mutti, S. F. (2007, October 15). Deaf leaders adopt zero tolerance for racism. DeafDC.com Blog. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from http://www.deafdc.com/blog/?p=1089

October 12, 2006

Dear Colleagues in the Mental Health Field:

Like many people in the Deaf community, the Gallaudet University protest weighs heavily in our hearts today, as we are sure it does in yours, whether or not you have taken a public stand. As Deaf-centered psychotherapists and alumnae of Gallaudet University, we cannot sit back on the couch in silence, hiding behind a mask of professionalism, while grave social justice issues are at stake. We address this letter to our fellow colleagues in the mental health field – psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, rehabilitation counselors, program administrators and coordinators, educators, interpreters, lawyers, medical personnel, and other specialists in the field, Deaf and hearing alike.

Neutrality or Authenticity: Those of us who work in the mental health field have often been taught that neutrality is one of our necessary professional behaviors. Outside of the therapy office, we ask, in what way does neutrality serve us, our clients, and our Deaf community? How do we act as role models of authenticity and social responsibility by remaining silent, by pretending to have no opinion, or by looking the other way during discussions about the issues of oppression underlying the Gallaudet protest?

Oppression = No Mental Health: Audism and racism (and many other isms) have a negative impact on our clients’ and our own well-being. Years of oppression have taken their toll on the mental health of our Deaf community, both at individual and collective levels. Mental health cannot exist where there is oppression, for oppression leads to hopelessness; where there is powerlessness, for powerlessness leads to despair; where there is inequality, for inequality leads to anger and resentment; where there is audism and racism, for audism and racism lead to self-hatred and low self-esteem. As professionals, how can we be neutral about oppression, when it is the enemy of mental health?

Social Justice is the Issue: There can be no such thing as neutrality when it comes to oppression, inequality, and prejudice. When there is outrage about the appalling statistic that only 3% of Gallaudet faculty members are Deaf African Americans or Deaf Black Africans, when there is anger about the University’s continuing hiring of hearing faculty, despite the already existing excessively high ratio of hearing to Deaf faculty members, when there is bitterness about departments refusing to provide interpreters for professors when students cannot understand their signing…social justice is absent. No matter if we agree with the specifics of the Gallaudet protest or not, the greater issue of the day is social justice, and it should be one on which we all can agree.

Our Concerns: We are concerned for the well-being of the protesters, who have spent long days and nights fighting to be heard by the Gallaudet Board
of Trustees and administration. We are concerned for the parents, who
worry, with good reason, about their children’s safety on a campus with a less than stellar record for protecting its students from harm. We are concerned for the staff and faculty, who are taking great risks by joining in the protest. We are concerned for the alumni, near and far, who dream that future generations of Deaf children will be able to attend an oppression-free Gallaudet. We care about our Deaf community and we are concerned.

The Harm in Hiding behind Professionalism: Being mental health professionals does not preclude us from having our own opinions, nor does it preclude us from taking a public stand. What is more harmful to our clients and our Deaf community: hiding behind the mask of professionalism by remaining neutral, or choosing to be authentic and speak up against injustices?

Fear or Freedom: Some of you, at Gallaudet University and elsewhere, may be afraid that speaking up could result in the loss of your job or future job opportunities. If you are Deaf, we ask, what price are you willing to pay to work in a place free from oppression? If you are hearing, we ask, is not the likelihood that you can find other employment in a hearing environment sufficient to inspire you to rally for social justice?

Willing Participants or Not: Do we, as mental health professionals, want to be willing participants in the social injustices of audism and racism? If not, we must take a stand. Supporting the request for the resignation of Jane K. Fernandes is one way to begin; true progress toward social justice, however, can only continue if all of us, individuals, University departments, professional organizations, and mental health centers, commit to righting what is so obviously wrong, now and in the future.

We ask you, our colleagues in the mental health profession, to get off the couch and take a stand.

Respectfully,

Candace A. McCullough, PhD
Sharon M. Duchesneau, MA, LCPC

What Exactly is Mental Health?: Mental health equals emotional well-being. It means feeling good about yourself, the people around you, your job or school, having healthy relationships, enjoying life, and being able to deal with its many challenges. Lots of things affect mental health: biology, psychology, education, politics, social structure, and religion, to name a few.

In a chapter of a book devoted to multicultural mental health, Marsella and Yamada (2000) describe how society’s long-standing and deep-rooted social injustices can hurt people’s mental health. We thought about the implications of these injustices for our Deaf community’s mental health, especially today at Gallaudet, where so many Deaf people are struggling with issues that impact their mental health. Summarized below are the authors’ main points, which we think are well worth repeating.

There can be no mental health:

Where there is powerlessness, for powerlessness breeds despair.

Where there is poverty, for poverty breeds hopelessness.

Where there is inequality, for inequality breeds anger and resentment.

Where there is racism, for racism breeds low self-esteem and self-denigration.

Where there is cultural disintegration and destruction, for cultural disintegration and destruction breed confusion and conflict.

Believe It or Not: Sexism still exists in classrooms today, and we wonder – is anyone paying attention? Consider these scenarios that we recently witnessed:

1. A girl comes home from school, crushed after learning that the role of Peter Pan in her class play can only be played by a boy. Girls must take on “girl” parts; boys must do “boy” parts. How ironic, considering that in all the major productions of this story, Peter Pan has actually been played by a series of actresses, including Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby. Where is the challenge and fun in acting, if gender roles are not allowed to be explored? What kind of message does this send to children?

2. A girl is told that she can’t write a report on Albert Einstein, but must instead study a female scientist such as Marie Curie. The teacher has divided the assignment by gender. Although the teacher most likely had good intentions in wanting to expose the girls to female heroes and role models, the implications of dividing by gender are not simple. For one thing, most of the girls and boys were probably more familiar with the famous male scientists – simply because American history tends to ignore women’s contributions. It would be natural for the children to want to learn more about someone whom they already recognize.

When a girl in this situation is told she can’t study a certain famous person because she happens to be a girl, she is also being told, very subtly, that just being a girl is enough to prevent her from getting something she wants. Her enthusiasm for learning may be dampened. Redesigning the assignment so that girls and boys study both male and female scientists might be more effective. In this way, both girls and boys will be exposed to appropriate role models. When all is equal, there is less likelihood of complaints and objections. If it so happens that a boy objects to studying Marie Curie because she is a g-i-r-l, then this could be a perfect opportunity to teach the children about sexism.

3. A boy is told that he can’t choose to spend his money to get his nails polished during a lunchtime fundraising event at school, even though any girl can. He can pick from any of the other booth offerings, but not this one, because it is for girls only. Once again, a child is being told that gender is a basis for deciding what girls and boys can and cannot do.

Removing the Isms for Deaf Children: When incidents like the Peter Pan play, the Albert Einstein report, and the nail polish taboo, happen again and again over the years, they have a tremendous impact on how children think about themselves and the opposite sex. Not just girls, but boys, as well, end up paying an emotional price for sexism. Little by little, children learn that they are supposed to think and behave in certain ways, according to their gender. As noted by a teacher in this excellent article on teaching middle school students about sexism, girls often set lower professional goals for themselves, and both boys and girls easily fall into stereotypical thinking about male and female roles.

Deaf children already deal with audism, and will encounter more of it in their future. Our goal as Deaf adults should be to try to remove as many of the other “-isms”, including sexism and racism, from their lives. Parents and teachers can learn more about how to identify subtle sexism (in addition to racism and other -isms) by checking out these guidelines on screening books. Our goal, and we hope, yours, too, is for all Deaf children, girls and boys, to dream big, unoppressed by any “-isms’.

Would They Ask This About an All-Male Anchor Team?: ABC’s Good Morning America announced yesterday that Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts will co-anchor the morning news, making them either the first or one of the very first all-female anchor teams. This announcement was followed by a news story questioning whether television viewers would be willing to watch two women give them the morning news. It makes us wonder, if ABC picked two men to be co-anchors, would people be asking the same question and debating if two men could succeed as a team? Probably not.

And What Does This Imply About Racism?: Measuring women’s accomplishments in terms of men’s accomplishments is nothing new. Neither is comparing racial/ethnic minorities to racial/ethnic majorities, which is what some psychological research journals insist on doing. A study on extraordinarily successful African American youths was submitted to a journal for publication, only to be rejected. Why? Because one of the reviewers said the study needed a white control group. Yes, you read that right – a white control group! First of all, the study was specifically about African American youths. Second, you don’t see reviewers demanding African American or Chinese American control groups for studies that involve mostly white participants. If it isn’t racist to turn down a study that attempts to gain understanding of a particular racial or ethnic group, then what is this attitude all about?

Or Audism?: Not that we want every other posting to be about audism, but it’s hard to ignore that a lot of the above applies to Deaf people, too. How often have you heard “Can a Deaf person do the job?” or “What about hearing schools, how do their students do on this kind of test or how do they behave in similar situations?”. Yes, there are times when it is perfectly fine to check what the majority is doing, but there are definitely other times when it may not be so necessary. We have caught ourselves saying, “Well, let’s check with so-and-so to see what they think about this issue”, then realizing that we were placing too much importance on hearing people’s opinions, instead of checking with our Deaf peers. Isms are everywhere and we really have to work hard to be conscientious of them.