Why do hearing people think they can insert their hearing opinion over Deaf people on Deaf issues?
Jocelyn Peterson, recent graduate of the Hearing ran ASL program at Kent, doesn’t understand the concept of Deaf autonomy.
No surprise that a Hearing led program didn’t teach a single bit of Deaf Cultural issues, Deaf trauma, Deaf history….
And if they did, Jocelyn ignored it. Guess what I think of her?
After I told her that I wasn’t sure if she would fit in a deaf first culture, she agreed! But she wants to make money as a hearing person off deaf people selling shit to them in ASL for clout. I'm just pissed. Because when we say Deaf representation we mean supporting deaf businesses and deaf people doing ASL and interpreting for us. Not barely learn our language with a goal to profit off us!
Update on her response of I will send this to my hearing colleagues, that’s placating herself. Not helping Deaf people. Getting hearing support and looking for hearing validation instead of paying attention to a Deaf perspective or reaching out to Deaf people is soo fucked up. It’s like men talking to men instead of women about women’s rights.
Her response is discrimination spun as civility. The problem with the white patriarchy.
I've been going off. I'm just going off off off like ahhhhhhhh.
So why is it such a big deal for a recent college grad who learned from hearing people to say they want to use ASL for a marketing career, but Deaf culture isn’t a fit for them?
For Deaf people, Deaf Culture is not just a common language, traditions, and customs. Deaf Culture is the everyday nuances that allow us to be included in society.
The focus of Deaf Culture is our language, ASL.
For you to say you want to use ASL for your career, but you’re not comfortable working with Deaf people in a Deaf environment, shows you do not care about Deaf accessibility.
Furthermore, in Deaf Culture we are BLUNT. Being straightforward isn’t rude. Audism and ableism need to be called out. No one in the history of being oppressed got out of oppression by being nice to their oppressors.
Deaf people are twice as unemployed as hearing. We need interpreters for healthcare, education, and employment. There are plenty of us who can sign for ourselves, do our own businesses, and do marketing.
We do not need a hearing person that doesn’t support deaf people who barely learned sign from hearing people to come make money off us. You don’t know us. You don’t know what we need. You don’t know our experience. You have no right to put yourself in any marketing capacity over a Deaf person.
Marketing is the message of our society, it is how we represent our communities with brands.
If you are not Deaf you cannot market to Deaf people knowing what it is like to be Deaf.
Jocelyn Peterson is to Deaf People what Neil Gorsuch is to women.
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