About why I call some hearing people stupid..
I grew up mainstreamed and around hearing people. All my life I had to battle to prove myself to so many people that I am a smart and capable individual who has the same rights and priveledges as they do.
I worked for an insurance company with hearing people. People basically treated me I was not worthy of their time nor effort. I would try to make conversations with my co-workers but usually they would have this frozen smiles on their faces and just keep on nodding their heads or answer my questions. As soon as I would leave, they would start conversations wtih other people and chat away. None of them ever came up to me just to say hi and start a conversation. It was always me who had to initiate it and usually they were short-lived.
In school, I was picked on daily about my deafness, had teachers tell me that I am so special or I am so smart cuz I can speak so good for a deaf child, and then in high school, I was rarely invited to any social events nor asked to dances because of my inablility to keep up with large group conversations.
I had to deal with hearing people who treated me like a 2nd class citizen or were not interested in making the effort to communicate with me even though I was a skilled lipreader. It was "too much work" for them.
Yes, there were a few hearies that gave me the time of the day and I appreciate them but it was 90% of the time that I had to deal with hearing people who treated me like I had the plague or asking me dumb questions like "How do u raise kids if u cant hear or how did you get a driver's license or can you read and write?" Other times, I was ignored like for example, at my old job, I would sit at a table during lunch and my hearing co workers would all go to sit at another table or if I join them, they would give each other the look as if to say "oh shit..." so I usually ate my lunch alone while reading a book cuz I knew I would do better than them in my future but inside, it still hurted.
Sorry, if I offended any hearing people by calling hearing people dumb but it is hard not to refrain myself.
I dont hate hearing people in general...I am even married to one but it is the hearing people who looks down on deaf people simply because we cant hear are the ones I dont have respect for.
I am very happy to be in a signing environment and around deaf people most of the time. I cant imagine going back to the hearing world or a nonsigning environment ever again. I did my duties so now it is my turn to have the opportunity to participate fully in a conversation without having people roll their eyes or say "I will tell u later" when I ask them what everyone is saying and to feel like my opinion matters.
That's my perception of the hearing world.
