The Deaf Community

Theologically it is not acceptable to choose to "hear no evil" or "see no evil" when evil manifests itself. Christians are called to confront the evil. But what if "hearing" is part of the issue? Hearing people have much to learn from, and much repentance to make to, the Deaf community.

Acting Deaf

Five years after the victories of the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University (see "The Power of the Word," April 1993), deaf organizing efforts are again gaining momentum. The focus of attention now is a product not of academic institutions but of popular culture--a movie named Calendar Girl.

In this film, Jason Priestly sheds his role as social conscience in Beverly Hills 90210 to play a hard-living boxer and mob hitman who in 1962 hauls two buddies on a cross-country trek to find Marilyn Monroe. The plot and setting don't grab you, you say? Fine...but there may be even another reason not to see this flick.

The National Association for the Deaf (NAD) has raised objections to the casting of a hearing person in the role of a deaf character in this film. Is this because no deaf actors exist? Can't be; I know some. The producers simply were not sensitive to, or do not care about, a responsibility to minority communities.

NAD has "high" expectations: They believe that the film industry could use its influence to inform audiences about the realities of deafness and the abilities of deaf actors and actresses. As NAD stated recently in its publication, The Broadcaster, "The powerful medium of education through feature film is sending the 'wrong' message to the general public....We must stand ready to correct those wrongful messages and its ripple effect on accessibility and equal employment opportunity for all deaf Americans."

In at least 20 of the largest markets in this country, protests by deaf people will greet Columbia Pictures' opening of Calendar Girl. After much discussion internally, deaf organizations are asking people to consider staying away from this film.

At press time, Columbia Pictures has announced a delay in the May 7 release date; it may be August before the film is out. Optimistic sources hope Columbia is going back to reshoot scenes with a deaf actor. I think the media giant simply wants to break the organized opposition this film will receive.

Here's to hoping it does not.

Acting Good

Harlan Lane, author of the well-respected When the Mind Hears, recently released his latest offering, The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community (Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1992, $23, cloth). Interacting at many levels, this book offers a little (actually, a lot) for everyone.

For the uninitiated, Lane offers an introduction into bilingualism and biculturalism, explaining how the Deaf community has developed its own language and historical culture. He describes briefly the grammar and linguistic importance of American Sign Language, painting for the reader a picture of how the Deaf community can work.

Contrary to popular opinion, deaf people are usually not isolated, needy, unintelligent, or childlike. Those who are not deaf assume these characteristics because they imagine that their world would be nearly meaningless if silent. Lane writes, "What motivates the extrapolative error in disinterested laymen is existential dread. There but for the grace of God go I....Each meeting with a person we perceive as handicapped is an invitation to make this extrapolation--and to experience dread. They are deserving of our dread because we are deserving of our dread" (emphasis mine). Our own dis-ease is turned into someone else's disease.

Lane also offers one of the most coherent presentations of the problems of technological "solutions" for deaf people. It is primarily the medical professionals and manufacturers of prosthetic devices who benefit from the "advances" in technology; the culturally deaf have built their lives on other aspects, and don't need this medicalization of deafness.

Lane is at his best when documenting the grave harm done by scientific, medical, and educational experts who purport to work in the best interests of the deaf community. Readers can extrapolate the experiences of patronization to other minority communities, whether ones of ethnicity or language, and achieve even greater insight into how to be with people who are unlike ourselves.

Practical questions are addressed here as well. In a chapter on education within the deaf community, Lane talks of deaf children "drowning in the mainstream." For many, achieving the goal of integrating classrooms means a lesser education for the community brought in. This is too high a cost to pay, Lane argues. Deaf-centered education (in the language of the community) is essential.

We are all involved in building the world of the future, and education is an important component. Books like The Mask of Benevolence challenge us to see the world in new ways...and to respect the abilities, not just the victimization, of those who have been locked out.

Bob Hulteen was Under Review editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.