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

• 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 macro-aggressions that leads to a system of over-privilege for those that can hear and speak and under-privilege 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 • 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: • “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

Adapted from Garrow, 2011 & 2012 Based on Yosso, 2005

Audist

Framing

Community Cultural Wealth

Linguistic Capital

Social Capital

Resistant Capital

Aspirational Capital

Navigational Capital

Familial Capital

Critical Race Theory

DeafCrit

Exposing Challenging

Linguistic Capital

• The intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke “ASL Thrives”

Social Capital

• The networks of people and community resources that provide instrumental and emotional support to navigate through society’s institutions

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke “The Last Table Waiting”

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

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke “Deaf Global Connect”

Navigational Capital

• The skills of maneuvering through social institutions, namely the ability to maneuver through spaces not designed for Deaf people

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke “Deaf Sidewalk”

Aspirational Capital

• The ability to maintain hopes and dreams for the future, even in the face of real and perceived barriers

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke Veditz Hope

Resistant Capital

• The knowledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality

Yosso, 2005

Nancy Rourke “We came, we saw, we conquered”

flavia.fleischer@csun.edu

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.

References