Ag Bell: Public Enemy #1

[Deaf Images]

AG BELL: PUBLIC ENEMY #1

Through the pages of history, it is becoming more evident that AG Bell is a public enemy #1. He had caused many problems for Deaf community in 19th century and his clutches are still reaching into the 21st century.

He even went to U.S. Congress to ban the existence of deaf race. He wanted to wipe it out. He was responsible for oralism and how he got deaf schools to change its ways. He got many Deaf teachers fired and replaced with hearing audists.

It is proven a fraud that AG Bell did not invent the telephone. It was somene else and the history had shown how he "stole" the invention from someone.

A lot of Deaf in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century feared him.

So he is the public enemy #1 in the Deaf community for generations to come!

 

[webexplorer]

I bet that you are right about that.

It was obvious that AG Bell stole deaf people's life and destroyed their deaf community. He convinced the parents to send their kids to American School for the Deaf and Clarke School for the Deaf. Actually, he let hearing people to "invade" their home in Nantucket Island. I believe that the deaf parents made a big mistake to send their kids to school so far away.

I didn't know that he was a fraud. I read somewhere that a Ford "T" was invented by a deaf man, and someone stole his invention. Maybe, a deaf man invented a telephone instead of a hearing aid.

I bet that AG was very grabby man. Maybe, he sold some deaf peoples' property in Nantucket for his profit because the parents were forced to pay school tuition fees for their kids, and gave up their property. Like, now many deaf people are on welfare.

 

[Taylor]

Do you have any sources to back up these claims? I never knew that stuff about A G Bell, and it seems like it would make some interesting reading (I love history stuff...especially when you learn that its wrong LOL).

The one thing I do question is about oralism. How do we not know that is what was thought to be correct at the time...and not just by Bell. Remember, a lot of the metality back then is not everyone is equal...if you are different, we will make you 'normal'...if we can't then you go somewhere else. This did not just apply to deaf people, but people of all walks of life.

Native Americans went through the same thing where there was an attempt to make them 'white'. Religions, cultures, and languages were destroyed. I have had older relatives that spoke of being taken away from their families and placed into 'white' schools. They were punished for wearing anything identifying them as NA's, as well as forbidden from speaking their language. I only point this out because that was the mentality back then....I'm not saying it was right, but it also does not mean that A G Bell was a fraud.

 

[Cheri]

How did he destroyed the deaf community? He invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf, he invented TTY too. What's wrong with him teaching the deaf to talk? He also married a deaf woman who knew how to read lips, So if he was really destorying the deaf community, Why would he married someone who is deaf, why would he invented things for the deaf?

If you are upset at the fact that Alexander Graham bell developed a method of speech for deaf people, would you rather to be deaf and mute all your life? Remember how centuries ago, people labeled deaf people (Deaf and Dumb, Deaf and Mute) For centuries nations failed to educate deaf children, If it wasn't for Alexander Graham Bell inventing speech to the deaf, we would always be labeled Deaf and dumb, Deaf and mute.

Think about this, When Deaf parents produce children, those children will be hearing, How are we be able to communicate with our hearing children? Same thing when you apply for a job, A boss would asked " Can you read my lips?" during the job interview.

This is not 1900 nor 1942 anymore, I'm tired of seeing Deaf people want to be in their little world, refused to have knowledge that just because you're Deaf, that doesn't mean everyone trying to destory the Deaf community, They provide ways for Deaf to do better, I'm sick of some Deaf people out there who always say "I can't do it, I can't" You and I know it's not true.

Be greatful that there are sign language that can be use for the Deaf, be greatful that there are hearing aids, CI, Deaf techniques that Deaf people can use everyday in life.

I believe that Alexander Graham bell deserves great credit.

 

[loml]

AG BELL: PUBLIC ENEMY #1

Through the pages of history, it is becoming more evident that AG Bell is a public enemy #1. He had caused many problems for Deaf community in 19th century and his clutches are still reaching into the 21st century.

He even went to U.S. Congress to ban the existence of deaf race. He wanted to wipe it out. He was responsible for oralism and how he got deaf schools to change its ways. He got many Deaf teachers fired and replaced with hearing audists.

It is proven a fraud that AG Bell did not invent the telephone. It was somene else and the history had shown how he "stole" the invention from someone.

A lot of Deaf in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century feared him.

So he is the public enemy #1 in the Deaf community for generations to come!

To suggest to people of this century to continue a "vendetta" against A.G. Bell, is simply absurd.

Instead of "beefing" about an approach, which in all likelyhood had an impact on your literacy skills, channel this energy into improving the education and literacy skills of todays' deaf children.

*sheesh*

 

[Deaf Images]

Bell's stance on deaf race

Although he married a deaf woman, a former speech pupil, Mabel Hubbard, Bell strongly opposed intermarriage among deaf people.

Bell feared "contamination" of the human race by the propagation of deaf people even though most deaf people statistically are born to hearing parents.

"quoted from about deafness"

 

[Deaf Images]

more on Bell

"Much of his thoughts about people he considered defective centered on the deaf because of his long contact with them in relation to his work in deaf education. In addition to advocating sterilization of the deaf, Bell wished to prohibit deaf teachers from being allowed to teach in schools for the deaf, he worked to outlaw the marriage of deaf individuals to one another, and he was an ardent supporter of oralism over manualism. His avowed goal was to eradicate the language and culture of the deaf so as to force them to integrate into the hearing culture for their own long-term benefit and for the benefit of society at large. Although this attitude is widely seen as paternalistic and arrogant today, it was mainstream in that era."

 

[Cheri]

Bell strongly opposed intermarriage among deaf people.

True, but that is his opinion, that doesn't mean you have to follow it, You're your own person, Do what your heart desires.

 

[Deaf Images]

True, but that is his opinion, that doesn't mean you have to follow it, You're your own person, Do what your heart desires.

That is right, however his influence had harmed deaf community for years since 1880.

He does not deserve any respect or acknowledgement on his so-called work. He was a traitor.

 

[ismi]

he invented TTY too

I agree with what you say - AG Bell, while he may have been an extremist, wasn't wholly bad for the deaf community. However, he didn't invent the TTY. In fact, what happened was that a deaf physicist realized that the TTYs that were used to dial in remotely to computers (that were being phased out) could be used to communicate directly with each other, so he got a bunch of them to his deaf friends. So, in a way, TTY *is* IMing on computers.

I may be wrong on the details, but the general story is correct. Anyway, this would've been in the 1960s, I think.

 

[webexplorer]

How did he destroyed the deaf community? He invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf, he invented TTY too. What's wrong with him teaching the deaf to talk? He also married a deaf woman who knew how to read lips, So if he was really destorying the deaf community, Why would he married someone who is deaf, why would he invented things for the deaf?

If you are upset at the fact that Alexander Graham bell developed a method of speech for deaf people, would you rather to be deaf and mute all your life? Remember how centuries ago, people labeled deaf people (Deaf and Dumb, Deaf and Mute) For centuries nations failed to educate deaf children, If it wasn't for Alexander Graham Bell inventing speech to the deaf, we would always be labeled Deaf and dumb, Deaf and mute.

Think about this, When Deaf parents produce children, those children will be hearing, How are we be able to communicate with our hearing children? Same thing when you apply for a job, A boss would asked " Can you read my lips?" during the job interview.

This is not 1900 nor 1942 anymore, I'm tired of seeing Deaf people want to be in their little world, refused to have knowledge that just because you're Deaf, that doesn't mean everyone trying to destory the Deaf community, They provide ways for Deaf to do better, I'm sick of some Deaf people out there who always say "I can't do it, I can't" You and I know it's not true.

Be greatful that there are sign language that can be use for the Deaf, be greatful that there are hearing aids, CI, Deaf techniques that Deaf people can use everyday in life.

I believe that Alexander Graham bell deserves great credit.

Hold your horse. The deaf community was destroyed in Nantucket. It used to be a largest native deaf people on the island during the era. They had no problem finding a job there. I read it, and met a few people who know about it when I visited on the island. I am not saying that AG is bad person.

It was a well known label for deaf and mute in these days. The technolgies have been changed and improved for over the years. Now, we use TTY, wireless, interpreters, etc. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltty.htm

Now, I am not quite sure if AG really Bell invented the TTY - see the link.

Partly, it was a great that he helped deaf people to use the hearing aids. It was a positive that they would not feel isolate themselves. I am not aware that a man who invented an electric hearing aid named Miller Reese Hutchinson in 1898. - see the link.

After the deaf community on the island disappeared, it is not a possible for a deaf to buy a house in one day because it is extremely expensive. If a few deaf native live there, then they are very fortunate.

Actually, a few doctors and dentists still write down on the paper that their patients are deaf and mute. But, it is getting better now.

 

[Brian]

This should give you all the answer on TTYs!

 

[Heath]

I think AG Bell gave alots of mixed signals on those issues plus he may have been overwhelmed with so many different people which is something that can happen to people, even today sending alots of mixed signals then everybody gets so angry and all worked up.

If AG Bell was given some time and some space then listen to him, I am sure he would hold a different view and say the real ones that he wanted to say without getting his words ripped to pieces by angry people.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Cheri]

Oh then he invented phones then? I thought it was TTY. Opps!

 

[deafdyke]

Excellent post Cheri!!!!! I don't think he was totally a deaf Hitler.....I do however think that he promoted speech for the wrong reasons. He was VERY audist in his thinking. "Oh dhh kids can be NORMAL and totally and completely part of the hearing world!!" rather then "Oh a dhh kid can have some access to the hearing world, and yet another tool in their communication box"
I am glad I can speak.....I just wish AG Bell hadn't been so goddamn audist!

 

[Interpretrator]

"In this century, there have been movements in the United States and in Germany, for example, to sterilize Deaf people by law and to encourage Deaf people in voluntary sterilization. The legal initiative in the United States had limited success, but its well-publicized pursuit led untold numbers of Deaf people to abandon plans for marriage and reproduction or to submit to voluntary sterilization, and untold numbers of hearing parents to have their Deaf children sterilized. Alexander Graham Bell, head of the Eugenics Section of the American Breeders Association (later the American Genetics Association), laid the groundwork for such efforts in his numerous statistical studies and censuses of the Deaf population in the United States and, especially, in his 1883 "Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race," which he printed privately and distributed widely. Moreover, he presented this broadside against Deaf culture and Deaf intermarriage to the National Academy of Sciences....[Bell] warned that 'the congential deaf-mutes of the country are increasing at a greater rate than the population at large; and the deaf-mute children of deaf-mutes at a greater rate than the congenital deaf-mute population.' Bell attributed the problem to signed language, which 'causes the intermarriage of deaf-mutes and the propagation of their physical defect.' The Eugenics Section prepared a model sterilization law and promoted it in the nation's state legislatures; it called for sterilization of feebleminded, insane, criminalistic, deaf, and other 'socially unfit' classes."

(Reprinted without permission from "A Journey into the Deaf-World" by Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan. If anyone's interested in the references from this paragraph, let me know.)

Yeah, Bell was a real winner when it came to his attitudes towards deaf people. He wasn't just "audist"; he wanted deaf people EXTERMINATED. I know someone who has a name sign for him: A (knocks on forehead), G (twists on forehead), B (hits forehead palm out).

 

[Deaf Images]

Excellent post Cheri!!!!! I don't think he was totally a deaf Hitler.....I do however think that he promoted speech for the wrong reasons. He was VERY audist in his thinking. "Oh dhh kids can be NORMAL and totally and completely part of the hearing world!!" rather then "Oh a dhh kid can have some access to the hearing world, and yet another tool in their communication box"
I am glad I can speak.....I just wish AG Bell hadn't been so goddamn audist!

you got that right! you are brilliant!

 

[Deaf Images]

Mask of Benevolence, too

"Yeah, Bell was a real winner when it came to his attitudes towards deaf people. He wasn't just "audist"; he wanted deaf people EXTERMINATED. I know someone who has a name sign for him: A (knocks on forehead), G (twists on forehead), B (hits forehead palm out).

You did homework and you are up to the par! Most do not read those books and still are in the dark.

 

[Deaf Images]

interpreting the signs...

" I know someone who has a name sign for him: A (knocks on forehead), G (twists on forehead), B (hits forehead palm out).

Let me get Deaf interpreter to tell us what you said...

A (knocks on forehead) means "dumb"

G (twists on forehead) means "weirdo - stupid - wacko"

B (hits forehead palm out) means "bastard"

 

[MaxUFC]

Wel, maybe he will not do that if he live in present day with learning much about deaf stuffs?.