Hey Jackie...read this letter from AGBell and why the discrimination against the signing Deaf community continues...u feel that we discriminate against oralists.. They are the ones who are making false statements like these.....
January 31, 2008
Ms. Julie Hamp Senior Vice President
PepsiCo Communications
700 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY 10577
Dear. Ms. Hamp,
On behalf of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell), we are writing in regards to the airing of your upcoming Super Bowl commercial highlighting deaf characters. Established in 1890, AG Bell is the only national organization dedicated to supporting children and adults who are deaf or hard of hearing who use spoken language and hearing technology to communicate in mainstream society.
Although we appreciate Pepsi’s efforts to encourage new promotional ideas from your rank-and-file employees and your willingness to celebrate diversity, we would be remiss if we did not call your attention to the fact that your advertisement offers a limited view of the deaf community. Since you have chosen the Super Bowl as the forum to launch this campaign, and because of Pepsi’s size and stature, we feel a responsibility to offer our perspective on this somewhat misleading stereotype presented in your advertisement.
We trust you understand that deaf and hard of hearing individuals are a diverse group and therefore do not fit into a single, distinct culture. Your advertisement perpetuates a common myth that all people who are deaf can only communicate using sign language and are, therefore, isolated from the rest of society. In fact, today’s hearing technology, coupled with early screening identification and intervention, has led to incredible advances in listening and spoken language skill development. Of the more than 30 million Americans who live with hearing loss, the majority use spoken language as their primary mode of communication.
We would also like to remind you that with the amount of money Pepsi will spend on just one 60 second spot to air during the Super Bowl, you could help an untold number of families obtain hearing aids and other professional services that are costly and in many cases not covered by medical insurance. We would be very willing to work with Pepsi to develop some creative ideas to promote other facets of the deaf community and to highlight positive role models who have met the challenges of this condition and thrived using spoken language. In addition, we invite and encourage your participation at our 2008 convention to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 27-30; the largest gathering of families with deaf and hard of hearing children in the world.
Your continued involvement in this issue would go a long way to educate the public about this oftentimes invisible condition and promote appreciation for those individuals that go above and beyond to overcome the absence of something many of us take for granted – the miracle of sound.
Sincerely,
Signing deaf people are not isolated. If they are, I havent met them and I literally have met thousands of deaf people in the 10 years I have been involved in the Deaf community.
Their statement about deafness as "this condition" is a strong medical viewpoint of deafness and the way it is stated, it is a bad thing. They make deafness into a negative thing therefore making the parents see it as a terrible thing when it doesnt have to be. So the parents transfer that negative view to their deaf children making them feel negative about themselves. U can deny it all u want..I have seen it professionally, personally, and here on AD when new members come in this forum sharing their experiences of dealing with their parents' denial about their deafness.
Many deaf people who grew up using spoken language didnt "thrive" from it. I was one of them. Instead, my self-esteem was practically zip so I engaged in self-destructive behaviors so I could fill in the empty feeling I had due to having no full connection with anyone because everyone used spoken language. Despite developing good spoken language skills, I felt isolated.
This is why many of us dont respect an organization like that or the people who support it.
BTW..AGBell, himself, encouraged the sterilization of deaf people so an organization with his name doesn't deserve respect. They just keep continuing with the lies and false statements about the Deaf community.
That is how many of us felt when u said stuff about ASL in your old posts especially in the CART thread when u first joined here. Many of us reacted strongly to your posts. What do u expect?
To many of us, ASL literally saved our lives from despair and depression, language deprivation, and from feeling completely isolated (as much as AGBell denies that) from being in all-hearing environment 24/7.
Anyone who comes in here and makes all these false statements about ASL or Deaf signers will not be respected immediately. Many of us continue to face discrimination and oppression out there in the hearing world so AD is a place for us to connect with each other. For people to come in here spouting the oralist philosophy along with lies or disrespect towards ASL (or any other sign languages) is not going to be warmly welcomed by many of us.
Some people will respect you, Jackie, and some people will not. I know that there are some people who do not respect me cuz of my stand on the oral-only philosophy. So what? That's life, but to make false statements about us just because we dont agree with your philosophy is going too far. I dont see any of us going around making false statements about u but u and Rick continue to do so. Come on, this is silly.
AgBell went too far with its protest to the Pepsi Commercial. It is a hot topic within the deaf community and of course many people are angry. We grew up being told that we cant do this or that and now AGBell is saying we cant have a signing Pepsi commercial? Society has made stereotypes about us and we have dealt with it and AGBell is whinnning about the commercial creating a stereotype about all deaf people signing. So FUCKING what. We deserve this recognization as tooo often in the past, deaf people who have beautiful speech were used as model in the media as "successful" ones and signing deaf people were seen or shown by the media in a negative light. Finally, we are being portrayed in a postive and humorous light. AgBell needs to take a chill pill.
U brought up about Mexicans being stereotyped and I agree with u...now can u try to see how the Deaf community feels about organizations like AGBell or oralists who are so extreme?
