Decompiling Oppression #34
Sam McVeety
This week, we'll be looking at some of the history of the Deaf community, aided heavily by Joseph Shapiro's book on disability rights, No Pity. I came to it by way of Dean Spade's Poverty Law curriculum, alongside a number of other excellent materials. This is a topic that I've been eager to learn more about, both to create more accessible spaces and to honor the emotional labor that goes into educating others.
Starting with one of the most visible aspects of the Deaf community: ASL itself has a much richer history than is typically known (if my own experience is any indication). In contrast to signed English (using signs that match English grammar and spelling), ASL has its own syntax and grammar (owing much of it to French Sign Language) and as such, constitutes a language of its own, which contributes to the growth and sustenance of larger Deaf cultures and subcultures. ASL even has offshoots of its own, including Black American Sign Language, which developed in Black Deaf schools (which were no exception to "separate but equal" segregation).
ASL hasn't always been celebrated, though. One of the things that surprised me the most was the decades during which sign language was actively discouraged in favor of "oralism", a combination of lip reading and learning to audibly speak. This prohibition on sign language was (perhaps unsurprisingly) racialized. The use of gestures for communication was portrayed as an evolutionary throwback -- something that animals did, that humans were too dignified for. It was also a site of Anglo-centric cultural supremacy, as even other European identities were impugned for their overreliance on gestures during communication.
Advocates of pure oralism ridiculed signers for their "monkey-like grimaces". Facial expression and gestures both were called the "rudimentary and lower parts of language", as opposed to speech, the higher and finer part. (Source)
Beyond the denigration of signing, the troubles with oralism are legion. To begin, lip reading isn't just "difficult" -- it is demonstrably impossible for some people to learn, in a way that bears little to no correlation to other measures of intelligence. For generations, Deaf students were told that oralism was the only way they were permitted to communicate, and then they were written off as intellectually inferior if they couldn't communicate in this way. Notably, this campaign was boosted considerably by Alexander Graham Bell, alongside his promotion of eugenic policies.
The cultural battleground of sign language was nowhere more apparent than the protests for the selection of the president of Gallaudet University. After selecting the only hearing candidate from a set of three finalists, the chair of the board found herself in the unfortunate (and arguably indefensible) position of having never learned to sign herself.
This idea of oralism as a dangerous "one true standard" should resonate with a number of topics that we've previously covered here. For one, we've talked about the non-neutrality of many gendered standards in the past. This also parallels the English only movement, and the oppressive idea that assimilation into a given standard (whether that is gendered, racialized, linguistic, or otherwise) is equally desirable and accessible for all members of the public.
This also brings us back to the theme of integration vs. community control. If integration for the Deaf community comes at the price of being measured against the standard of oralism, it isn't an equal exchange at all, but instead is a way of preserving existing power structures and oppression under a new guise. Principles of community control would instead argue for self-determination, both at the individual and community level. Here, that means creating space for people to flourish using ASL, signed English, or any other communication they choose.
Here are this week's invitations:
Personal: Reflect on some of the common situations you experience where spoken English is the dominant language, and how your experience might change if you didn't hear (or speak) English.
Communal: Learn more about the basics of ASL, and share some common phrases with your community.
Solidarity: Support Rooted in Rights and their mission to tell authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health, and chronic illness.
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