Hijacking a top level comment to tell it in a way that helped me understand better, though not necessarily agree more. (I've seen this discussion in every thread about cochlear implants)
Deaf people have a culture, a history, and pride in their communities. This is a carry over from not that long ago when technology that can "fix" some types of hearing loss had not been developed. They also feel shut off from the world and are sometimes treated poorly by "hearing" people. It is very difficult to understand if you are hearing just how much you pick up from people and the world around you from even shortly after birth. Take all that away, add in the fact that many parents suck and treat their own kids like a burden, don't take the time to learn how to properly communicate with their kids, and don't protect them from the onslaught of other children and adults always looking at them like they're stupid because they "can't understand simple English" and so on, and you may be able to understand why "deaf, dumb, and mute" was more akin to being racist against a people, than being mean to a "handicapped"
Now to a deaf person, getting a cochlear implant is something like being black and bleaching your skin white and trying to fit in with the same people who oppressed you for ages. They see being deaf as a cultural birthright, not as a handicap. This is why it is so difficult to change the mindset. It's like telling them, "but if you just act white, you'll get more job offers...I just don't want MY kids to be black." and so on. While I think they're looking at it in the wrong way, who am I (a person who can hear) to tell them what is the right way to think?
Seeing it through their eyes helped me understand, but I would still have a very difficult time not wanting my kid to have all the advantages that I did if I had the ability to give them to him or her.
TL;DR - Deaf don't see hearing loss as a handicap so much as a cultural identifier. Being deaf is who they are, not something that happened TO them. Cochlear implants are viewed more like changing race and less like fixing a problem or handicap.
floggeriffic216 karma
Hijacking a top level comment to tell it in a way that helped me understand better, though not necessarily agree more. (I've seen this discussion in every thread about cochlear implants)
Deaf people have a culture, a history, and pride in their communities. This is a carry over from not that long ago when technology that can "fix" some types of hearing loss had not been developed. They also feel shut off from the world and are sometimes treated poorly by "hearing" people. It is very difficult to understand if you are hearing just how much you pick up from people and the world around you from even shortly after birth. Take all that away, add in the fact that many parents suck and treat their own kids like a burden, don't take the time to learn how to properly communicate with their kids, and don't protect them from the onslaught of other children and adults always looking at them like they're stupid because they "can't understand simple English" and so on, and you may be able to understand why "deaf, dumb, and mute" was more akin to being racist against a people, than being mean to a "handicapped"
Now to a deaf person, getting a cochlear implant is something like being black and bleaching your skin white and trying to fit in with the same people who oppressed you for ages. They see being deaf as a cultural birthright, not as a handicap. This is why it is so difficult to change the mindset. It's like telling them, "but if you just act white, you'll get more job offers...I just don't want MY kids to be black." and so on. While I think they're looking at it in the wrong way, who am I (a person who can hear) to tell them what is the right way to think?
Seeing it through their eyes helped me understand, but I would still have a very difficult time not wanting my kid to have all the advantages that I did if I had the ability to give them to him or her.
TL;DR - Deaf don't see hearing loss as a handicap so much as a cultural identifier. Being deaf is who they are, not something that happened TO them. Cochlear implants are viewed more like changing race and less like fixing a problem or handicap.
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