Javietz

Regarding Jack Slutzky's definition of culture in Gallaudet Isolating Deaf (11/3/06), the problem with dictonaries is that a single word often has multiple meanings. It is easy to chose a definition one likes in favor of another right above or below it. Mr. Slutzky has said the meaning of culture is "the development of intellectual and moral abilities; enlightenment acquired by the study of the fine arts, humanities, and the sciences; and the integrated pattern of human knowledge...." But a glance at my own Webster's shows his selectivity. Culture is also "the ideas, customs, skills, and arts of a given people...." This is the definition that applies to our discussion here online. Culture is not some rarefied concept attained through study of fine arts. If this were true, then the only culture would be that born of Mozart in Austria. Culture is of the people. To say that Deaf culture is a misnomer is rather misinformed.

I must, however, say that I agree with Mr. Slutzky that members of the Deaf community are amazingly heterogeneous. Within the Deaf community in the United States, there are Afro-Americans, Anglo-European Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and many other ethnic groups. The many jobs and professions typical of the hearing world are well represented, as are different social circles and different walks of life. What unites Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people all into a tight-knit community is the strong Deaf identity rooted in a distinct language (i.e., ASL), culture, and life experience. As an article in the New York Times Magazine back in early '90 has put it, "Deaf people have formed inviolable bonds of love that are rare in hearing culture." For this same reason, Deaf people tend to transcend their differences of ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation that would be more prominent in the larger hearing society. Hence Deaf people are more exposed to emotionally meaningful diversity than hearing people who often tend to be isolated within their own narrow reference group.

Mr. Slutsky can take comfort knowing that those who support the protest are in favor of having students with all forms of deafness and backgrounds attending Gallaudet University. And while it may be hard for Mr. Slutsky to believe this, those who go to Gallaudet have chosen to do so because of its language and culture. And --more often than not-- they come to embrace them, regardless of the mode of communication they used when they arrived.

I think it is easy for Mr. Slutzky to talk about accepting, respecting, and utilizing all modes of communication, because he is a hearing person; he was readily exposed to spoken English from birth. There was only, and still is, one language for him--English. He never had to deal with all artifical, deeply flawed, modes of communication thrown at him in an educational institution. It must be nice to be a hearing person.

Juan A. Vietorisz, Gally '90 & '91