I've thought long and hard about still going by the name Deaf Child into my adulthood.
Most deaf people are born to hearing families, like me. In my case Deafness is genetic. But my immediate family was all born hearing. I do have a late deaf dad, multiple deaf cousins, deaf grandparents.
The thing is when you're a Deaf child born to hearing family, you don't get to have a say because you are a child.
When you are a Deaf adult, you don't get to have say on Deaf children, because it is not your child.
So at what point do most Deaf people get to have autonomy on Deaf quality of upbringing and its impact on living?
I was always the Deaf Child. My whole family called me Deaf Child because everywhere we went, every institution we had to make sure they know I can't always hear.
And that was the extent of any access or advocacy I had from my family.
They would say oh she's Deaf as an excuse for me not knowing. But when I asked to move to hear, when I asked for them to repeat, when I asked others what was said, then I am the problem. I am the disruptor. Me being deaf doesn't matter.
No one gave a shit about actually communicating with me, ever.
How many years do you put up with this before you explode?
Hearing people post about deaf issues from the hearing perspective all the time and when deaf people point out how fucked up that is not to let deaf people have the platform, hearing people push back.
Then when deaf people finally do get their own platform, hearing people want to accuse them of not being deaf. WTF?!?!?!?
Y'all don't give a fuck about Deaf identity when it comes to our access, human rights, autonomy. But the moment a Deaf person has a way to control a message it's a fucking problem?
You're the fucking problem.
Hearing people thinking they can decide what is or isn't a Deaf issue or Deaf culture is absolute bull shit. How do you know what it is like to be something you are not? You don't.
For proof of my Deafness please read When Hearing Claim Deaf Lie.
The amount of ableism here. "She's not deaf just had one good ear and one bad ear" means I'm deaf. Deafness is a spectrum.
Thinking someone who is hard of hearing isn't deaf is outright ableism. Telling a deaf person because you can hear a little I have decided you are not deaf is ableism. This is how hard of hearing struggle for access to information and in life. Hateful people use what hearing we have to deny the existence of our deafness.
I have no usable hearing in my left ear, and I have some deafness in my right too at the same frequencies of a lot of human speech. I can read lips. There is no such thing as a good ear or bad ear. Deaf people don’t have bad ears. We just don’t hear. There is nothing bad about us, just as there is nothing good about you.
You are not me. You are not deaf. Deaf had no rights until 2008 and we are still feeling it.
I didn't have the right to learn ASL, have an interpreter. I was born to an ableist family that didn't sign with me. I learned starting 2017 but that doesn't mean i didn't need it.
That doesn't mean I could hear.
I got my hearing aids in 2018 because the tech at that time was new for my deafness. It didn't exist before. Not all deaf people can wear hearing aids or want hearing aids. Just because I can speak doesn't mean I'm not deaf.
I was at the top of my class but I still struggled in class. I did well cause I studied.
I never had access in class, struggled to know what was happening.
I haven't had a normal life that shows how well you know me but Deaf people are normal people. Just because we live normally as adults doesn't mean we aren't Deaf.
Hard of hearing is Deaf. You are so ableist and audist. For you to say I'm here to defend the police and decide you're not deaf shows you are using ableism to hide behind your racism.
And if you think me speaking out on human rights is trying to promote my business you got another thing coming. I don't want people involved in my business that aren't aligned in values. I don't want racist ableist trash.
I didn't delete all my comments on others’ pages or anything. If they were removed, it was on the OP. I deleted all the comments you guys left defending police on my pages and saying I'm not really Deaf because I do not tolerate racism and audism.
Matt Stuart and I have gotten into multiple arguments on human rights. I fully believe he is misogynistic, racist, ableist, trash. Him commenting on me, a Deaf woman's post, to degrade me and defend the police is proof.
Multiple hearing people deciding a deaf person isn’t deaf doesn’t mean a deaf person isn’t deaf. Hard of hearing people are deaf too! Just because I can speak or others deny my existence, doesn’t mean it is confirmed. Audiologists across 3 states have confirmed I am Deaf.
I never sent threatening emails to anyone. I got into an argument with a police officer and real estate agent named Christian Grice via email about mass incarceration.
Christian Grice commented on 100 of my posts (not exaggerating, I took a video), claiming I am a con artist that wants police dead. I never said the police should die. I said it was good they get shot. Funny how I am a con artist for speaking out against the police.
Part of me wants to use that content for the example and evidence, but the other part thinks that using this example on how I the white person, am fighting white people on BLM is too white saviorship for me.
Only mentioning as relevant to the response of this post.
Saying I am glad police might get shot isn't a threat. It's wishful thinking. Society has been at war, and you've made it clear what side you're on.
The only thing I have ever "threatened" to do to people is to share what they said, or what happened, on my blog. If that is a threat to you, then maybe you should stay the fuck away from me.
After Khiry Mishawn Armstead was saying how The Eternals moved too slow, didn't have enough character development, didn't like the dialogue, etc. I let Khiry know The Eternals was not only the 1st Marvel Movie with a Deaf superhero played by a Deaf actress, it was the first time a Black Deaf woman played a superhero, and it was the first superhero movie directed by a Deaf person with a Deaf cast member.
Not only that, it is the first movie starring a Deaf person ever whose character was not based on Deaf struggle.
Every aspect of the film is curated for Deaf people, with Deaf culture in mind.
Plus Deaf representation is so white dominated, that for a Black Deaf woman to make it mainstream is HUGE.
Are we begging for a seat at tables that aren't made for us? We are not. We are celebrating dancing on a table that we were told we weren't good enough to sit at.
When Khiry started criticizing the film as being boring, I told him at first how important this stuff was to the Deaf community, how hearing people really don't get to criticize deaf content, and how every aspect of this film was for Deaf access and deaf representation with communication barriers involved.
Then Khiry and Miles Daniel Hendler started going off on me about how deaf representation didn't matter in this, it was just a boring movie, I'm over reacting, etc. I thought about going to look for the screenshots on this, but it was a huge conversation. And I don't care what you think of my response on this. I am here looking to post my deaf perspective in a hearing dominated world.
Then after that Miles Daniel Hendler left me a Google Review which he deleted stating that I was lying about being the 1st deaf owned marketing team and that I lied to everyone.
After this, Miles proceeded to comment on my Facebook post about me being the 1st Deaf Owned Marketing Team.
After I beg these hearing people to understand how Deaf are dismissed, and how big it was for us to get a platform, Miles Daniel Hendler then proceeded to comment on my post about how I am not the 1st Deaf owned marketing team because other marketers exist, then attempting to share misinformation about deaf history.
You can read my about page to read about other Deaf Owned Marketing teams that I know of.
Do you understand how much disrespect you are giving to the Deaf community when you treat a deaf person this way? Do you understand how ableist it is to deny the existence of deaf cultural issues, then to attempt to tell someone you know more about their history than they do, while being very wrong about it?
Deaf people have had our language and culture eradicated by hearing people like Robbie, Matt, Christian, Khiry, and Miles. Each of these individuals denies deaf oppression while gaslighting me on being oppressed as a deaf person.
If you are a hearing person that is not signing for the Deaf people in your life, this is the shit you are setting them up for dealing with. If you care about empowering deaf people, and don't want other deaf people to struggle like me, please learn sign and listen to deaf people and listen to the person who needs access.
Stop harming Deaf people's chance at success in society.
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