My Identity: Misunderstood

Originally posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006

To this day, I find myself astonished that the deaf community continues to be one of the most misunderstood minorities. I believe it’s one of the most misunderstood minorities in North America and around the world. It’s due to the lack of awareness among the society.

Yes, the Internet has brought so many deaf and hard-of-hearing people together. It has done us a lot of good. Yesterday, I witnessed something amazing on the Internet. It wouldn’t have been possible to achieve ten years ago. Some of the deaf bloggers communicated with each other using their computers, laptops, and mobile devices and doing a live report on the Gallaudet arrests. The live report was being published in Los Angeles while the reports were being submitted by several bloggers via their mobile phones or laptops from the Gallaudet campus in Washington, D.C. That’s on two entirely different coasts with a range of 2,700 miles between them, yet all of them were communicating with each other and publishing new information from every few seconds to a couple minutes.

Unfortunately, the news media outlets often get their stories all mixed up. I see it in nearly every deafness-related article they publish in newspapers. They often lump all of us into one category, which send the readers the wrong impression. Journalists often try to put themselves into our shoes and walk in them, then come to a conclusion. Usually it’s the wrong one. I don’t often believe the news stories I read to be completely accurate. There’s always more to a story that they print. They often leave out the details that I would consider important. They just keep on using clichés in their articles. Just like I said, it’s the lack of awareness. There are 30 million Americans and 3 million Canadians with a degree of hearing loss. For most, it’s not a big issue as they are often minimal and weren’t born with it. The severe deafness occurs at a far lower rate in comparison. These who were born with hearing loss or became deaf during their first 5 years are more likely to hold deafness as an identity.

I do believe that we are often misunderstood as a minority. People unfamiliar with people who have a cultural identity associated with their deafness tend to assume that they represent the whole “hearing impaired” community. It’s one of the worst misconceptions around. We do not represent every single living deaf and hard-of-hearing individual living on the soil of North America. Nor do we share all the same interests, beliefs, faiths, opinions and more. It’s an identity that we hold close to our hearts because of our language, ASL (American Sign Language) and that we understand each other, especially when it come to the frustrating experiences of being in families that doesn’t sign. I must say that I’m grateful that my family believes that communication is the key to keeping a family together and that includes signing. Not many families are willing to adapt to a child’s disability. As you may remember, I had written a blog entry a few months ago, it was titled “The Importance of Communication”. It’s one of my personal favourites.

I have to admit that I’ve had some resistance to the concept of Deaf Culture, which would had been shortly after I graduated from the school for the deaf. I had my reasons for having issues with the concept as I had a very difficult year as a senior due to a big change in the administration and how they were handling all of the educational programs and the problems surrounding it. That year nearly made me lose all of my faith, and it wasn’t helping that I was going to college. Mind you, I did love college on so many different levels in comparison to high school due to the advantages of acquiring a better education. However, I did miss having deaf friends in my classes because we all understood each other and we would always have a good laugh. It was a big change for me to adapt to, and I would talk with some hearing students, but it wasn’t the same.

Having a deaf friend is incredibly different from having a hearing friend. I’m not saying that they are better at being friends; I’m just saying it’s different. I have hearing friends, but I don’t often discuss deaf-related topics with them. For instance, it’s like a graphic designer discussing the difference between process and spot colours with a tax accountant. You cannot expect a tax accountant to understand the concept because they don’t deal with it on a daily basis. Having deaf friends add more to your character and your life experience.

I don’t expect everybody to understand why some of us choose to remain deaf. We are given choices, and we made them. I’ve already adapted to being a deaf person, and I don’t plan on changing that. If there’s a pill that cures deafness, I would be hesitant to take it because I’ve already been deaf my whole life. To think of not being deaf is just hard for me to imagine. It is a life-changing experience and it may radically change my personality and my identity. There is a movie that makes a good example of what I’m saying here, it’s called ‘At First Sight’ starring Val Klimer. He portrays a blind man who is operated on to have his eyesight restored. Later into the movie, he begins to resent his ability to see and went back to being blind as a comfort. Mainly, because blindness is what he identifies with. Just like I identify myself with deafness.

It’s a concept that I don’t expect most people to understand. That is why I believe we are one of the most misunderstood minorities. Remember, we don’t represent every single deaf and hard-of-hearing individual. We are all individuals and we have our identities, not all of us share the same identity. In my experience, it has been a wonderful experience despite a few years of hard times in between. I don’t believe in criticizing people for their choices, that’s the best part about living in a free country, you get to be who you want to be.

I consider my deafness to be part of who I am. I don’t know what I would become of if I were to lose that part. For you, it may be different. Not everybody are the same, everybody’s different in their own ways. We are often forced to adapt to the world instead of the other way around. I believe it builds character. I was at a crossroad a couple years ago, and I chosen to stay true to myself and I believe it was the right path to go on. I just can’t go the other direction pretending it’s not there. It’s a part of me.

I just can’t live my life with a lie.

Source: Banjo's World