ayala920 said:
I'm hoping me_punctured will come on the boards soon. She has a very good theory on why Fernandes mentioned that she was white.
You rang, ayala920?
Before I share my theory about Fernandes’ mentioning her whiteness, I’d like to review an important aspect of the Deaf community. As we all know, deafness lacks geographic barriers. Everyone, whether they identify themselves as Deaf, deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind, or etcetera, comes from all walks of life. Nobody is just deaf. You identify yourself with an endless stream of labels floating around: male, female, transgendered, transsexual, straight, gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, intersex, poor, rich, working-class, middle-class, white, black, Chicano/a, Latino/a, Asian, Native-American/Indian, trailer trash, refugee, migrant, immigrant, et cetera.
Fernandes is well aware of how her white privilege may have facilitated her elevation to becoming part of the elite university administration. She is acknowledging how white privilege (but not male and hearing privileges) configures her social reality, whereas it is not the same case for many people. Her affirmation as a white deaf woman, while recognizing the cultural diversity of the deaf community not limited to linguistic backgrounds and communication modes, illustrates a deep understanding of the complexity of larger social forces at work here. Put it simply, she grew up white as a white person. She grew up in an environment where her white background coincided with the dominant white culture, so she never experienced an inherent and external conflict of values and beliefs as many non-white people do in the same environment. This can be said the same of her oral background, which is referred to her upbringing and family. She knows this and she wants the Board of Trustees to know this, too.
(F.Y.I.: I’m only following her choice of not capitalizing the “D”eaf word so nobody will misinterpret the language suggested in my post.)
Why? What’s the point of bringing up her whiteness? She wanted to illustrate what Gallaudet’s mission means to her. She wanted to show how her background and experiences as a “white deaf woman,” who was raised on the oral method and how her discovery of ASL and presumably, the Deaf culture at the age of 23, shaped her perspective of the diversity within the deaf community. There is a reason why she put down “white” first. She identifies herself as white first, because that is the dominant identity she had from the beginning. She was born in a white and hearing family. Not all deaf persons share her life story.
Furthermore, upon her embracing ASL, which I presume she learned about Deaf culture at the same time, she found out how deaf people communicate with the world in different languages—English, ASL, Spanish, Chinese, BSL, LSQ, LSF, to name a few examples. AND how sign language is “the keystone of deaf education and now the uniting feature of Gallaudet’s diverse, deaf community.” She saw how ASL is essential to the field of today’s deaf education and how ASL operates as the primary and dominant language of deaf people at Gallaudet University. This is no ordinary university as it is considered the mecca, the hub, the pinnacle of the (primarily American) Deaf culture along with the field of Deaf studies and Deaf education. ASL, as Fernandes implied in her letter, unites the deaf community, in spite of glaring differences. It is the key instrument that defines us, a unique linguistic and cultural minority group.
And so, because of her personal experiences, which have led her to realize the larger differences amongst deaf people and the power and importance of ASL, she perceives Gallaudet as “a place for them to receive a high quality undergraduate and graduate education, if they so desire.” This is my interpretation of her perspective of Gallaudet’s mission and how her personal experiences and consciousness factors in it. I apologize if it was long-winded and button-holing, but it’s a habit of mine to dissect words and analyze them to death. Complit student here.
On a marginal note, I’d like to expand what Dennis said about the study of comparative literature. Indeed, it does involve studying, interpreting and analyzing the relationship between literatures of different languages and cultures. It is also quite interdisciplinary, as graduate students and professors do scholarly research in the fields of music, history, philosophy, rhetoric, and social sciences. That is a rough generalization of the discipline, though. Complit also involves the study of literary theory and practice. A significant part of it plays identity politics in the picture, as race grew to be an important factor in literary studies when more and more minority writers (African-American and French-speaking writers of African and Caribbean origin) started defining themselves and their cultures in their own terms. This cultural self-definition developed in parallel and in conjunction to the U.S. civil rights movement and former U.S., French, or even Spanish colonies clamoring for political independence and nationhood.
Having shed a little light on the general study of complit, it does not surprise me to see Fernandes’ awareness of her own cultural identity, as evidenced by her doctorate in the said subject. I do, however, can see why people would question the relevance of bringing her “whiteness” in her letter, but it is basically the same idea to bringing up her oral deaf background. I believe that she is also aware of a certain inherent bias that comes with being formerly oral and English-speaking.
Off like a wrinkled prom dress. I’m violently ill with the flu, but I’ll be back soon.
Sincerely,
sick me_punctured
Still, I wish Jane didn't put that in, as it lends itself the potential to be misinterpreted so easily by the lay community. To each of her own, I guess.
:Ohno: :Ohno:
