gothhabiba: thenewinquiry:“Deaf inmates are punished for missing count or mealtimes, th
gothhabiba: thenewinquiry: “Deaf inmates are punished for missing count or mealtimes, though the announcements are made over loudspeakers they cannot hear. They are beaten by guards for misunderstanding orders, and, when they successfully lip-read one interaction and fail the next, they are beaten for ‘feigning’ their hearing loss. In addition, because prisons rarely provide certified ASL interpreters, the inmates struggle to defend themselves at disciplinary proceedings and have limited or no access to medical, mental health, or justice center professionals. They also lack access to any tailored social, educational, or rehabilitative programming. This, by design, is the nature of prisons—undesirables are hidden, with limited attempts at reintegration or socialization between the incarcerated and society (translating, on its face at least, to less manpower and money spent by the corrections system).” Ableism, the English to Prison Pipeline, and the Plight of Deaf Inmates interesting how this article says that “there are risk factors for the early deafened that arise in childhood and mirror the “pipeline” systems we understand to affect racial and socioeconomic minority populations in striking numbers”–but then fails to mention, when it discusses the 2016 police murder of unarmed Deaf man Terence Crutcher (whose name, by the way, the article misspells), that he was Black. of course issues of audism & ableism against d/Deaf people are vitally, desperately important, but I really sincerely wish that white Deaf people would stop comparing their oppression to that of racialised people, or comparing the Deaf community to any racialised group, while simultaneously ignoring how issues of race work within and without the Deaf community to impact Black Deaf people and other Deaf people of colour. the article concludes: “Even as more Americans begin to understand the politics of gender and sexuality and the racialized systems of systematic oppression and how these affect everyone, deaf and disabled people are often left behind by their families. Even as the left mobilizes against a repressive presidential administration, ableism is continually left out of even the most inclusive agendas. Intersectionality, it seems, still cannot cross the sound barrier.” I agree that ableism & audism need to be addressed, and I share this frustration, but it’s really wild to talk about intersectionality–a framework created by a Black woman (Kimberlé Crenshaw 4 those of you who don’t kno)–without bringing up race at all except as a convenient jumping-off point to discuss the issues that impact you. -- source link