July 15, 2010

Ridiculous Analogy

I read somewhere, and I cannot remember where:

"The analogy I heard once is that making a deaf person "hearing" is like making a black person white."

Ok, I suppose from a cultural standpoint-yes, I can see how someone would use this analogy. So, I guess for some people being white is supposed to be more appealing than being black, just as being hearing is more appealing than being deaf.

However, being deaf and being black are two different things. I do not think it is appropriate to use this analogy. Black people experienced and still experience oppression, at least in America, in completely different ways than how certain deaf people are oppressed. In the past, black people dealt with Jim Crow laws, bombings, lynchings, slavery, blatant discrimination, etc.

It seems to some people that deaf people are largely oppressed because the general population and the medical profession view deafness as a medical problem that needs to be fixed. They usually mean well by trying to help make deaf people more like hearing people (in helping them hear or gain more auditory and speaking skills).

Unfortunately, many parents and professionals are misinformed about deaf people and the importance of language acquisition. Some professionals are completely biased and will tell parents ridiculous things such as how sign language will hinder spoken language. Unfortunately, many deaf people were not taught right or were denied appropriate communication and/or language skills. Some deaf people went to crappy schools, had crappy parents, or were provided crappy sign language models. But, this should not justify using the analogy above. Trying to make a deaf person hearing is not like making a black person white.

It is a ridiculous analogy, in my opinion. 

Any thoughts on this?

(e

17 comments:

  1. I was just thinking about this myself and I agree... I don't think it's fair to minorities to compare being Deaf to being oppressed, beaten, enslaved, etc. Good points, esp. the last paragraph!

    I'm working on a blog post on a similar issue. May I quote from this post?

    Thanks!
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  2. This does not surprise me. Analogy while is very useful for helping understanding difficult topics or concepts is often misused or abused by both sides of controversial issues. That is why there is a logical fallacy called "Extended Analogy".

    I did a quick and dirty googling on the key words in your quotation and arrived at this web address: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq28689.pdf Scroll down to page 19 in the PDF document.

    Joseph Pietro Riolo
    josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

    Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
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  3. No parents ever had a baby that was born white, got sick and then woke up black. When that happens, we can compare that to hearing loss.
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  4. Yes, Lucy, you can quote from this post. I would appreciate a link back. Thank you so much for asking! :)

    (e
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  5. Miss Kat's parents, Ahh, that is a classic!

    (e...

    The comparison to blacks or African Americans with deaf is patronizing.
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  6. Candy,

    It is totally patronizing, I agree!

    Oh, and for the record, I normally would write African American instead of black, but I wanted to remain consistent with the analogy, which used the term 'black'.

    (e
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  7. One shouldn't be so hasty in discarding that analogy. Like all analogies, it has its holes, but still contains a lesson to be learned.

    Deaf people have been devalued, discredited, and discounted in the same way Black people were in the past. They have been deprived of their rights to an education, to a job, to even vote. Many were forcibly sterilized and prevented from associating with others like themselves. They were forced to be what they were not: fake hearing people.

    Just like black people, Deaf people have been prevented from marrying who they chose and their children taken away for very little reason.

    They have been chronically left out of enhancements and perks afforded to hearing people, denied the right to drive and to own property. Just look up the history.

    Similar to black people, Deaf people have won rights by demonstrating and demanding them. They have slowly made gains, through legislation and through higher education and advocacy on their behalf. There is still a way to go before they can truly be equal in salary, in opportunities and in education.

    No, they have not been enslaved or lynched, but Deaf people have been forced into unpaid labor for family members and their friends, and have been beaten or killed for not responding by various people from thugs to even policemen.

    One might argue a big difference of relative numbers. Granted, as is the point about deafness being adventitious or a health problem unlike being black; but in throwing out the comparision, one is throwing out the very important baby with the bathwater.
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  8. I wonder how a deaf African-American would regard this analogy of making a deaf person like a hearing person is akin to making a black person white?

    One analogy is about race, the other about abled-ness over disability. Comparing one analogy against another is double-dipping, IMHO. Like superlatives that get overdone, such as "more better" or "more worser".

    Ann_C
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  9. Deaf culture seems unable to promote itself without trying to link it to entirely different issues and cultural backgrounds. If anyone logged in to the BBC'c 'The Silence' which was about an Girl with a CI they would empathise with the continued drive to link deaf issues and culture with race, homosexuality, religion and every other issue. It's a piggy back modus of promoting a culture, unique almost, but allows the deaf to gain ground via funds and profile. It is leech syndrome, but very effective. We know deaf are at all levels of things, but how does it make deaf CULTURE a stand alone thing ? Analogy Islamics can be deaf too, so we are all Islamics... MS sufferers can be deaf... we all have MS.... etc etc
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  10. I remember reading something where I. King Jordan (then president of Gallaudet) was giving an interview. The female interviewer asked him, "if I could give you a pill that would make you hearing, would you take it?" he responded, "if I could give you a pill to make you a man, would you take it?"
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  11. Talked a lot of rubbish didn't he ! (Is that why they got rid of him) ?
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  12. Laura,

    That is interesting! Where can I find this interview? I'll try to do a search for it.

    Still, I think that wanting to be hearing (if you are deaf) is not the same as trying to be white if you are an African American, black, or of African descent. Or trying to be a man if you are a woman.

    (e
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  13. What's so ridiculous about this analogy? Deaf people have a culture, and we have characteristics that mesh with characteristics of ethnic groups (and yes, Deaf people's culture, language and very existence have been devalued, and oppressed in a multitude of ways). To attempt to force members of an ethnic group to change (whether it be linguistic, cultural, or racialn if it were possible, is ethnic genocide, whether you are talking about Blacks, Indians, gypsies, or any other group deemed "inferior".

    As for the contention that Deaf children are born to Hearing parents, and therefore were "supposed" to be Hearing, let me leave you with this: Gay people are born to hetero parents most of the time. Were they "supposed" to be straight? Is it ok to force Gay people to change to heterosexuality through medical or other means?
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  14. Don G.,

    I agree that it would not be fair to expect a culturally Deaf person to change or become hearing, because others see this persons' deafness as a 'problem' or makes the person 'inferior'.

    However, this is not so for hearing parents who only want what is best for their deaf children by choosing to focus on oral/aural methods or by choosing to implant them. They are not doing it with seeing deafness as a cultural attribute.

    If someone views deafness as a cultural attribute, such as someone who is a lesbian or someone who is African American, and want to change them because they view deafness as a problem (not a medical problem, but solely because they view being deaf as something 'inferior' or disgusting), then it could be seen as being similar as making someone who is gay into a straight person.

    (e
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  15. e --

    The point is, Deaf people are an ethnicity because we have a biological trait (being Deaf or HH), a language, culture, values, norms, and a community.

    Deaf children born to Hearing parents may not be culturally Deaf because their parents are not affording them the exposure to Deaf culture. But that does not eliminate their ethnic characteristic of being Deaf. It would be somewhat analogous (and I know you LOVE analogies!) to White parents adopting a Black kid and raising that kid in the White community without exposing the kid to Black culture and community. But this does not make the kid White.

    Or returning to the Gay comparison, being Gay is part of who that child is. It doesn't matter what reasons one might have for wanting to change their child, it still comes down to repressing a core element of that child's very being.

    Same goes for Hearing parents of Deaf (I use Deaf for all, regardless of cultural affiliation or degree of hearing loss) children -- it doesn't matter whether they see being Deaf as a problem or culture -- when they attempt to remake the child in their Hearing image, they are repressing a core element of that child's very being (being Deaf).
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  16. Deaf 'culture' is barely rooted in genetics traits as many cultures are, so it just appears to be a re-invented wheel every generation and redefined every generation, so whatever the basis was is long lost, in living memory hearing people would NOT be a member of a DEAF community, they are now.

    I think allying Gay issues with deaf ones is a red herring, an excuse to offset in depth analysis, in case it is found culture is absolutely relevant and in the mind. Deaf children born to hearing parents are like most deaf at the end of it, a result of their ENVIRONMENT and upbringing. There is no deaf 'trait' if e.g. they are solely brought up oral and speaking, or never sign or never attend to the lifestyle, it is 'affiliation' on the loosest of pretext, they can't hear. Anything 'missing' is usually effective communication, NOT culture.
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  17. There is news about a Nigerian couple living in London who just had a white - repeat, white - newborn. Google on key words "Nigerian" and "Nmachi". (I have to assume that the news is true and is not hoax. There are some people out there who doubt it.)

    This is somewhat opposite of what Miss Kat's Parents wrote above.

    Because the newborn is born white, does it mean that she belongs to a White culture (any of the northern European cultures)? Some or few members of Deaf culture claim that any deaf baby that is born to hearing parents belongs to Deaf culture automatically in spite of the decision of the parents to raise the deaf baby in a Hearing culture. Following the same logic, they could state that the white newborn born to the Nigerian couple belongs to a White culture automatically in spite of the couple's desire to raise the newborn in their own culture. Oops, I have committed a grave sin of logical fallacy of Extended Analogy.

    Joseph Pietro Riolo
    josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

    Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
    ReplyDelete

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