Download Audism and the Deaf Community: Deaf Community Cultural Wealth

Audism and the Deaf Community:
Deaf people’s experiences and
Deaf Community Cultural Wealth
Flavia S. Fleischer, Ph.D.
Bridging the Gap:
Creating a Community of
Support for Deaf Survivors
November 5, 2013
Nancy Rourke,
“Deaf Culture”
Oppressions
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Racism
Sexism
Heterosexism
Classism
Ableism
Ageism/Adultism
Audism
Nancy Rourke
“Audism”
Audism
Audism is the ideological stance that humanizes
based on the ability to hear and speak while
simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to hear
and speak through the dominance of the social,
cultural, political, linguistic, educational, and
economic institutions that manifest itself in a
complex weave of micro, meso, and macroaggressions that leads to a system of over-privilege
for those that can hear and speak and underprivilege for those who are Deaf
Garrow. (2011) Personal communication.
Macroaggressions
•
Macroaggression is the colonization
of the social, cultural, political,
linguistic, educational, and
economic systems to establish,
reflect, and reinforce the
dominance of the hearing
majority.
• •Examples
of macroaggression:
The Deaf Education system in America
• Medicalization of Deaf people
Mesoaggressions
•
•
Mesoaggression is the reinforcement
through various institutions the
dominance of hearing majority of our
social, cultural, political, linguistic,
educational, and economic systems.
Examples of mesoaggression:
•
•
Phonocentric curriculum, pedagogy
Hearing-centric approaches for providing
support to Deaf clients
Microaggressions
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Microaggressions are brief and
commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or
environmental indignities, whether
intentional or unintentional, that
communicate hostile, derogatory, or
negative audist slights and insults toward
Deaf people that establish, reflect and
reinforce the dominance of the hearing
majority.
Examples of microaggression:
•
•
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“I am so lucky I am not Deaf”
“Your English is so good for a Deaf person”
“A Deaf person cannot lead a university”
Definition adapted from Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, et al., 2007
Power
• There are no neutral positions with regards to
power
• Hearing people do have power as members of
dominant culture and use it all the time for better
or for worse
• Hearing people are in positions of power; they are
the only ones having access to both languages and
cultures
• Hearing people need to recognize their power and
use it responsibly
…and thus we know
• Deaf people are systematically deprived of
power by hearing people
• Historically, they have not had power to:
– Communicate freely
– Receive quality education in a fully accessible
language
– Gain respect for their language and culture
– Possess voice in shaping policies and practices of
institutions serving them
Possession of power is
a required ingredient
for people and
institutions to be
perpetuators of
audism.
Internalized Audism
Examples of the Impact of
Internalized Audism
• “My good ear”
• Not believing that they are capable
• Not recognizing ASL as beneficial for
everyone in the U.S.
• Not having pride in self
• Cochlear implantation is ok as long as
signed language is encouraged
Critical features of Internalized Audism
• Disempowers deaf people from becoming
liberated
• Disables deaf people from expressing pride
• Intimidates deaf people and limits their
promotion of Deaf perspective
• Denies deaf people full acceptance of ASL
• Weakens deaf people in the development of their
Deaf identity
Gertz, 2008
Challenging Audism:
Community Cultural Wealth
Social Capital
Familial
Capital
Linguistic Capital
Critical Race Theory
Exposing
Audist
Framing
Challenging
DeafCrit
Resistant Capital
Community
Cultural
Wealth
Navigational Capital
Aspirational Capital
Adapted from Garrow, 2011 & 2012
Based on Yosso, 2005
Linguistic Capital
• The intellectual and
social skills
attained through
communication
experiences in
more than one
language and/or
style
Nancy Rourke
“ASL Thrives”
Yosso, 2005
Social Capital
• The networks of
people and
community
resources that
provide instrumental
and emotional
support to navigate
through society’s
institutions
Nancy Rourke
“The Last Table Waiting”
Yosso, 2005
Familial Capital
• The cultural knowledges
nurtured among familia (kin)
that carry a sense of
community history, memory,
and cultural intuition that
engages a commitment to
community well being and
expands the concept of
family to include a more
broad understanding of
kinship
Nancy Rourke
“Deaf Global Connect”
Yosso, 2005
Navigational Capital
• The skills of
maneuvering through
social institutions,
namely the ability to
maneuver through
spaces not designed
for Deaf people
Nancy Rourke
“Deaf Sidewalk”
Yosso, 2005
Aspirational Capital
• The ability to
maintain hopes
and dreams for
the future, even
in the face of
real and
perceived
barriers
Nancy Rourke
Veditz Hope
Yosso, 2005
Resistant Capital
• The knowledges and skills fostered through
oppositional behavior that challenges
inequality
Nancy Rourke
“We came, we saw, we conquered”
Yosso, 2005
[email protected]
References
Bauman, H-D. (2004). Audism: Exploring the Metaphysics of Oppression. Journal of
Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 9(2), 239-246.
Bauman, H-D. and Murray, J. (2009). Reframing: From Hearing Loss to Deaf Gain.
Deaf Studies Digital Journal, 1. 1-10.
Garrow. (2012). Personal Communication.
Garrow. (2012). Audism and CCW. CSUN Academic lecture.
Gertz, G. (2008). Dysconscious Audism: A Theoretical Proposition. In H. Dirksen
Bauman (Ed.) Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press. 219-234.
Humphries, T. (1975). Audism: The making of a word. Unpublished essay.
Lane, H. (1992). The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishing.
Skutnabb-Kangas. (1994). Linguistic Human Rights: A prerequisite for bilingualism.
In Ahigran, I. & Hytenstam, K. (Eds.) Bilingualism in deaf education: International
studies on sign language and communication of the deaf, 27. Hamburg,
Germany: Signum. 139-159
Watson-Gegeo, K. (2004). Mind, Language and Epistemology: Toward a Language
Socialization Paradigm for SLA. The Modern Language Journal, 88, 331-350
Yosso, T. (2005). Whose Culture has capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of
Community Cultural Wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91.