Don't mind me for a minute -- but -- this is sort of a vent related to this d/D issue. It is based on how I've seen it through the d/Deaf community as per my experience.
Some of it are positive and some of it are negative.
Often time, I'd meet other Deaf people who are from deaf family, or have strong ties to the deaf community - They have been more than welcoming other people to get in but that is not always the case.
Understandably, They cherish and value their culture which is fine (and I do cherish it too) but I often see that they use it as a reason to put down other deaf people who comes from a hearing family, oral background, or has a Cochlear Implant or a person who is not an avid ASL user. It's this kind of attitude which makes my stomach churn. These kind of people acts like when they come from a deaf family - it automatically gives them the way to pave to say they are better than the rest when it isn't the case.
I've encountered with some Deaf people who says they won't even go out with someone or much less marry someone who comes from a hearing family or has the norms/values of a hearing people.
I also can speak and read lips pretty well enough to carry a conversation with a hearing person and when that happens, they're saying "Why do you have to speak? What's wrong with using a paper and a pen?" - I sometime have to get in line to explain that I do use the paper and the pen as a form to communicate with hearing people only if a barrier occurs but it does not mean that I will always do it. I sometime find it easier to speak/read lips with a hearing person and at times, I'm not in the mood to write something if I were to want to get message across quicker. I even was once asked "You just to speak because you're saying you're better than the rest of us". WTF? :roll:
As strange as it sounds - sometime it has it's own advantage of establishing a network. Even though, My parents are hearing and I'm actively involved in the deaf community - they still in some way don't see that I'm "deaf enough". What gives?
I think in overall - it does not matter if you are deaf or Deaf. Sure, We may have came from different culture/backgrounds or been raised differently. That is in no way to put down one and nother just because of that. Regardless of the diversity of our experience/background - We are still DEAF, period. It doesn't matter if we come from a deaf family or from a hearing family.
It is fine to be proud to be d/Deaf and you should be proud of who you are because that is it is your identity and it should not be a reason to shrew others out. We already have been encountered with oppression for the last few hundred years, and why should we get the oppression from our own people given of how the norms/value/cultures are presented like that?
Ok, I think I have said enough for now but yeah, here it is for stating my.
