Comments on: "YouTube gives them an easy, expressive, unmediated channel for many-to-many communication."

"YouTube gives them an easy, expressive, unmediated channel for many-to-many communication."

amberglow — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:50:37 -0800

DEAF...i'm deaf, by kunosher, and just one of a growing group of videos on youtube created by the signing deaf. Many more here--from the personal to the political to videoblogs to deaf poetry jams to the news .

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:00:22 -0800

and also from the comments at Making Light: Signwriting --a written version of ASL.

By: zerokey

zerokey — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:03:19 -0800

Thank you..so much. This is wonderful.

By: spaceman_spiff

spaceman_spiff — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:07:22 -0800

I saw a poster publicizing ... I think it was a class on SignWriting for ASL poetry ... when I visited Gally, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. Is it actually being used anywhere?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:40:58 -0800

In the comments at Making Light, they said it was popular for student newsletters (i guess at deaf colleges?). It must be hard to get people to adopt it, when they might not see a need.

By: Liosliath

Liosliath — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:48:29 -0800

This is so cool - I'm forwarding this post to my Dad. (whole family on his side were deaf-mutes)

By: mediareport

mediareport — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:14:06 -0800

This is why I read Mefi; thanks. The comments to Teresa's post at Making Light are full of great links. This post from an angry deaf blogger about the soon-to-be-ex-president of Gallaudet University handing out wooden rulers as markers of his years of service is great: He distributed a custom-made 19-inch wooden ruler to the faculty and staff members of Gallaudet. The 19-inch ruler was in reference to his 19 years of service at Gallaudet. How can he be so blatant...? Does not he know the history behind the wooden rulers associated with Deaf Community?! For some readers who does not know the history of wooden rulers with our community — right after the Milan Conference of 1880 where sign language was banned in Deaf Education, many deaf schools across the world adopted this and instituted the wooden rulers to smack on Deaf children's hands when they attempted to gesture or sign in classrooms. I met many Deaf elders who described the horror stories about their hearing teachers who terrorized them with wooden rulers. Some said that they smacked the wooden rulers on their tongue. Most happened on their hands. One staff member chortled: "A wooden ruler? Excuse me? I'd like to know whose moronic ideas that was. How audist can you get? Many of us deafies remember when oralist teachers would use rulers to smack the hands of deaf kids who dared use a sign or even a simple gesture in class. So what's the symbolism of handing out wooden rulers at a holiday party hosted by the Gallaudet president?"

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:16:22 -0800

When I saw this at Making Light I didn't even think about posting it to MetaFilter. Dopey me, but savvy amberglow! Thanks. This stuff is amazing. As Teresa said, quoting Gibson's tagline: The street finds its own uses for things.

By: maryh

maryh — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:11:32 -0800

I'm still working my way through the links, but I just wanted to thank you. This is a really fantastic post.

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:51:03 -0800

mediareport God, why do deaf people have to be such angry, elitist bitches and sons thereof? Does ridor9th think that the use of Corporal Punishment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was confined to the deaf community? Has he forgotten that I. King Jordan's installation as president was orchestrated by people such as him? Has he forgotten who bears much of the financial burden of the deaf population through federal, state, and local benefits, as well as the bulk of the income on which Gallaudet University relies? People who can hear, through appropriation from Congress. *Confessor shakes his head* It was this foreseeable idiocy which created modern deaf culture, that seething, venomous mass of resentment for the other. If you clad a baby in silk diapers for long enough, he's going to start feeling entitled to them. And when he grows up, you know he'll be demanding silk clothing as well. These elitist aspects of deaf culture will persist only as long as it is succored by the wider community.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 07:21:06 -0800

Ridor's a turd and the least of his sins is apparently a complete lack of comprehension of the word "interfere" that he includes in his masthead "Observe, but do not interfere." I guess "Rant and rave with little analysis but contribute nothing" didn't fit on smaller monitors.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 07:47:02 -0800

modern deaf culture, that seething, venomous mass of resentment for the other. ! Clearly, I have much to learn about modern deaf culture.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 10:05:56 -0800

This stuff is amazing. It really is, and while most of us see youtube just as a place for fun/weird/clip stuff, others are expanding their reach enormously--signing was mostly just real-life and personal, but now people can use it and the whole world can see (pretty much). There was an interesting comment at Making Light about podcasts and the blind--i wonder if they're using it too?

By: etoile

etoile — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:26:25 -0800

Yikes, thank goodness none of my ASL blogging made it up there, I am so lame. (I also have it hosted on YouTube, but Archive.org gave me my own category so I keep it there for now.)

By: maxreax

maxreax — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:35:39 -0800

Has he forgotten who bears much of the financial burden of the deaf population through federal, state, and local benefits, as well as the bulk of the income on which Gallaudet University relies? People who can hear, through appropriation from Congress. YEAH! And speaking of this, why do poor people complain about not having health insurance and rising real estate prices?? Don't they know that the financial burden of BEING POOR is borne by the rich?

By: edgeways

edgeways — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:17:43 -0800

God, why do ~~deaf~~ people have to be such angry, elitist bitches and sons thereof? Your whole comment is rather inflammatory The Confessor, you manage to not only rail against someone who may, or may not have a point, but against a whole self identified culture. Corporal punishment was indeed widespread through this time, but if you where struck for trying to communicate the only way you where able I can see why some may hold some resentment about it. It's terribly easy to pull one example and hold it up as representative of a group, and a bad trap to fall in. Issues surrounding deaf culture are not easy, but demeaning it and being snotty doesnt advance any cause except more shouting. And.. what does funding sources for Gallaudet have to do with the issue of corporal punishment?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:14:27 -0800

Yikes, thank goodness none of my ASL blogging made it up there, I am so lame. I don't think many of us would be able to tell--i wouldn't : >

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:17:38 -0800

oh, etoile, i saw you went to a thing on sexuality and hearing--there's a giant and active and very visible deaf gay community--was it good?

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:28:46 -0800

edgeways My opening statement was somewhat unclear; t'would have been better had I capitalized that first letter. My beef isn't with deaf people, or with deafness as a disability, it's with Deafness as a culture. Specifically, it's with the elitist, self-entitled segments of that culture, as highlighted on Metafilter again and again. My beef is that my tax dollars support a self-identified culture which seems to hold the non-hearing impaired in utter contempt; a minority which demands that the majority cater especially to them instead of vice-versa. Oh, did I say impaired in that last paragraph? Well, I meant it. They can call me an audist if they want, but it won't make them any less deafist; any less insistent that their tragic disability is frickin' empowering. *Confessor shakes his head* The elitism and self-entitlement would not so upset me if Deaf Culture was self-sufficient; if they would stop accepting state funds I would think them entitled to idiosyncratic prohibitions against rulers in their own enclaves.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:38:35 -0800

a minority which demands that the majority cater especially to them instead of vice-versa. instead of vice-versa? wtf? that's not what we do in America, and our laws and systems are in very large part set up to protect minorities from the majority. Are you against the ADA as well? how dare those paralyzed people make us change our laws? ???

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:50:06 -0800

amberglow There are proscribed limits to the ADA; neither the majority nor minority party is entitled to complete satisfaction.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:54:37 -0800

there are limits to everything--why beat on Deaf culture? It sounds to me like what people say about us gays. Giving to one doesn't mean others lose out on anything--it's not zero-sum.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:10:46 -0800

Deaf-with-a-capital-D Deaf people are generally total assholes, several standard deviations of assholishness above the general population. The Deaf Culture people at Gallaudet are the jerkiest of the jerks. Amberglow: people beat on Deaf culture because the Deaf often act like douchebags - not just to us audists but to each other over petty bullshit. AlexReynolds-style flameouts nonwithstanding, you generally don't run into that kind of bullshit with gays or other minorities. A more apt comparison might be people beating on Zionism.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 09:14:18 -0800

i don't see it--how can you paint a whole group that way? Who gives a shit if they call you an audist? Why insult them if they fight for accessbility and their rights? The Gallaudet people are at a Deaf College and having non-deaf people foisted on them to be in charge of them--who wouldn't be upset about that? The quality of those non-deaf people in charge is clearly not acceptable either, and they're offending them.

By: Liosliath

Liosliath — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:13:18 -0800

"Deaf-with-a-capital-D Deaf people are generally total assholes, several standard deviations of assholishness above the general population." Thanks for insulting half of my family. Where the fuck did you come up with this?

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 21:19:42 -0800

If you are so wrapped up in your deafness that you want your children to be Deaf so that you can pass on your culture unmodified, I think you are an asshole. If that's insulting to you, I think you're probably a jerk. Hate me if you want.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:20:36 -0800

Of course, there are no complex issues of identity, self-determination and discrimination involved at all, right, blasdelf? It's all very black-and-white, asshole-or-not, right? Right? Jesus, the way you and The Confessor frame this issue tells me you have serious issues you need to work out. Just as many issues as the people you consider assholes on the "deaf with a capital D" side.

By: Liosliath

Liosliath — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 08:42:25 -0800

Blasdelf, don't bother trying to claim that you were only referring to deaf people who want to pass their deafness on to their kids. Nice backpedalling. It's clear from your prior comment that you painted all deaf people with the same broad brush, and yes, that makes you an asshole and a jerk. Not me.

By: spaceman_spiff

spaceman_spiff — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:42:46 -0800

There are annoying extremists within the Deaf community. There are also a lot of normal, balanced, well-rounded people within the Deaf community.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:26:56 -0800

blasdelf, would you feel the same if there was prenatal gene therapy to cure congenital deafness (or homosexuality, etc) and some didn't want to have it done to their kids?