Breaking News: Racism Alleged at Gallaudet
Colorado Springs – I almost missed Mike McConnell’s blog yesterday about a possible racism attack last night against a Black Deaf student at a School for the Deaf on the Gallaudet University campus. According to reports, 7 Deaf students assaulted the victim and allegedly used markers to write, “KKK,” onto his body while being held against his will.
This incident comes after a long succession of problems arising from Gallaudet over the past few years, in particular, the recent Gallaudet student protests and the school’s accreditation woes (which has been an ongoing problem). Given that the university is the Deaf nation’s cultural and social leader for a large number of Deaf people, the recent allegations are painting a sad picture of a university spiraling out of control.
“Lack of institutional control” are words that major NCAA athletic programs dread hearing – which, if found to be true, can generally mean the “death” of a specific sports program, such as football for example. Gallaudet may soon, if not already, fall under the description of a school demonstrating a “lack of institutional control.”
Stay tuned. And check out McConnell’s article, The Gally 6 or 7? for more information.
Paotie
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This will be a very interesting story to follow and how the media, and others will handle it. Isn’t it ironic that these events have unfolded so close to the date as last years protest?
Yup! Actually, I’m glad to see some people subscribing to McConnell’s calls for the whole incident to not balloon into a huge civil rights (racial) issue. The JENA 6 episode will only be relevant to the Gally 7 if Sharpton and Jackson get involved.
Still, as I noted on McConnell’s blog, the worst thing we could do is simply brand and shame the kids for being immature. You’d be hard-pressed to find ANYONE who never made a stupid mistake as a teenager.
Then again, we routinely put teenagers into prison after charging them as adults.
Life is stranger than fiction at times.
I feel bad for ALL the kids involved in this latest episode from Gally.
I’m very excited that this news is breaking out.
I see MSSD as a breeding ground of hate like a boot camp. Thats where future soldiers of American Sign Language (ASL) learn their tricks. Once they pass the ‘crucible’, through the Kappa Gamma fraternity, they learn how to export scourge and oppression upon deaf groups and people who do not use or embrace ASL.
Getting the spotlight on the recent MSSD incident is a very positive step toward eliminating this particular breeding ground that has farmed, sponsored, and encouraged hate toward people and groups who don’t use or support ASL.
Richard ..
Glad you came to my web site!
I don’t know much about MSSD, although your comments seem to mesh in quite well with what I’ve learned over the years about Gallaudet and its self-repressive practices of teaching continued intolerance of others unlike Deaf people.
Gally needs to change in a big way, and in a hurry. I can’t conceive of supporting an institution that routinely seems to promote social graduation than intellectual, critical thinking exercises in academia. Oprah does social graduation like no other being on the planet.
Paotie
Teaching tolerance is not taught in schools, it begins from the moment that child is born, by PARENTS.
YUP!
Still, in the case of JENA 6, I have to say that the principal there screwed up royally. As for Gally, the situation is further compounded by Gally’s sad, sordid history over the past 30 years or so.
Still, if it was my kid that marked “KKK” or Nazi swatiskas over a Black kid, you can bet your bottom dollar that my kid and I would have a VERY candid talk, along with A LOT of community service, and LOTS of consequences (cleaning the garage floor with a toothbrush works wonders).
What would you do if it were your children, if you have any (if I may ask, that is)?
Goodness, when will this racism crap end!?
People need to learn tolerance. You don’t fight intolerance with more intolerance.
I once lived in the dorms while in college with an older gentleman. He was from Boston and did not like Black people and made no bones about it, too.
Over one summer, most days of the week, a group of Black friends and I would play dominoes over beers. The older man would walk past us each time he left/entered his dorm room. He turned down repeated requests to hang out with us (he was quite the older man – frail with white hair, tea-stained teeth, and large reading glasses), insisting to me later that he didn’t social with “those kinds” of people.
My Black friends at first laughed at the old man. But, in the course of a summer, they eventually accepted him and his quirks and actually made it a point to see if they could get the old man to laugh.
So, one night, we’re playing dominoes, and the old man passes us on his way to his room. We asked him to play with us, giving him the usual hardship about missing out on all the good fun. Surprisingly, he played with us. And we all had a good time.
From that day on, the old man would speak to my Black friends like they were old buddies of his. And we all enjoyed a few more games of dominoes before the summer sessions were over and life interrupted a lovely summer’s dream.
If that old man, who would be otherwise called “racist” and trampled to death by hording mobs of idiots (and the press), had tried what he did then today, he would be crucified, along with the university itself.
But, that didn’t happen. Instead, I learned a valuable lesson: you teach tolerance by tolerating other people – even if they disagree about what you say, think, feel, or even WHO you might be (or not.)
As for the old man, he left after the fall semester and we never saw him again.
Paotie
Sometimes it just takes a little encouragement to change peoples views. Sometimes people had a bad experience with someone that is “different.” When that happens, some people lump the person that is “different” into a group… Wish ofc is not the right thing to do. The bad experience was with the individual, not the entire community!
As far as your question,”What would you do if it were your children?” Hopefully my lessons of tolerance, appropriate behavior, expectations, etc would be enough intervention for them NOT to ever do something like that!
However, if they did ever succumb to such actions, I would pretty much do the same thing as you, we would have a very serious discussion, their consequences would huge, kicked out of school, community comments, media vomit, parental anquish, etc. and ofc your grounded! The overall question would be, ” Did you lose your mind, what were you thinking?”
Sounds good to me.
I see a BIG difference between teenagers acting stupid and a group of 7 adult White males attacking an adult Black male with racist remarks or actions.
Sometimes, I wonder if we’re heading towards a society where people’s mistakes are magnified for sheer entertainment – as if people needed somebody else’s mistakes to make themselves feel better about their lives. A couple kiddos act stupid, so what?
But I’m curious to see how it impacts Gally overall, too.
By the way, weed pulling-works real well, so if you get a kid that gets outta line, make ‘em pull weeds. Don’t have a yard or two? No problem – have ‘em pull weeds/pick-trash along a median – it’s a community service. Of course, only an idiot would put his kids to work on the medians of a busy interstate junction.
Interesting times we live in, yes?
Paotie
Adults can discuss this issue to death! Can you remember what you did (way back when) you were the ages of 15 -19? Yes times were different… Hmmm.. reflect on that thought for a minute…… I know I sure was not a brilliant scholar! Plenty of inexcusable mistakes, mistakes, mistakes!
Margie ..
I agree. Teenagers have the highest insurance coverage rates because why? They tend to make the wrong decisions, and not only that, but more so than the average adult. That’s why minors can’t enter into contracts legally.
The polarization that’s happening over Gally is interesting. Some complain that racism (and other forms of oppression) has been an ongoing issue at Gally; others charge that this is an isolated event and not a racial incident that does not reflect Gally or the MSSD at all.
My experience and research tends to lead me to think that BOTH groups may actually be right.
Paotie
Galluadet wants to be, purports to be, and – in reality is – the center of Deaf Culture in America. MSSD is part of Gallaudet.
We now have one more BIG black eye shining out for everyone in the hearing world to look at.
All of those legislators in the U.S. Congress who provide funding for Gallaudet are Hearing.
All of those legislators in the State Capitols who provide funding for the state Deaf schools are Hearing.
Hearing people did not understand the protests that ousted Jane Fernandes. They will not understand “youthful horseplay” when white students write KKK on a Black student on the campus of Gallaudet.
If Gallaudet is the center and leader of Deaf Culture, then the University and every person who works there and every student who attends MSSD or Gallaudet will be held to a higher standard.
We must do better. Galluadet must do better.
jk-II ..
Well said.
I don’t know of any other comment, article or blog that put it so perfectly.
Thanks!
Paotie
jk-II…
That BIG black eye shining out for everyone in the hearing world to look at will heal. During last years protest, any hearing parent who understands Deaf Culture, who communicated with their child attending Gallaudet at that time and did not pay attention to the media vomit, understood the protest that ousted Jane Fernandes. Hearing parents with an open mind, understands horseplay, and should NOT judge an Academic institution based on these unfortunate social events. I agree with you that Gallaudet must do better, we must do better. There must be a solution aimed at how to accomplish these goals so that Gallaudet and MSSD can be held to the highest standard as the center and leader of Deaf Culture. Why should we accept anything less?
Here’s another piece to this puzzle. Younger generations just cannot relate to the relevance of the KKK and swastikas. My middle boy, 17; smart, smart kid; wanted to get a t-shirt that had the hammer and sickle on it. Now, he’s a history buff; very interested in Russia’s history and current events; understands communism, very politically oriented (cuz his mamma has raised him right), but just doesn’t get the symbolism of the hammer and sickle. I have tried to relate to my children just how scared we were of the Soviet Union as kids. They don’t see it. They see a weak, borderline third world country. If he can’t understand the significance of the H & S, the other symbols, which are far older; just do not represent anything to them.
*sips water from a water bottle*
Yup. When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the Vietnam War and Ho Chi Minh and have been since. For a time, I remember my father being slightly angry about the war, and whenever we discussed it, he always spoke of his best friend who had been a helicopter pilot. My father, who is deaf, I always wondered, had to see his friends drafted off into a war that left him behind and without his buddies. I can’t imagine watching my best friends or brothers going off to war while I remained behind, unable to join the fight because of the fact I’m deaf.
So, now, I tend to view Ho Chi Minh was a sense of awe and respect. Early on, I hated the dreaded Vietcong, but as I got older and began to read more in depth into the war, I realized I was fascinated about so many things relating to Vietnam, the soldiers (especially snipers) who fought, and the political scene, and even the Vietcong themselves.
*eats a banana*
Seems the torch has been passed from you to your son.
Oh man .. 1983 was a helluva scary year!
Paotie
Stacy, don’t forget the Che t-shirts that even moronic college kids wear. It gets even worse (more of them) when there is a rally in support of dictator, Hugo Chavez.
Yea, that same son comes home all the time complaining about the kids at his HS who wear them, and when he questions them about who Guevara was; they have no clue.
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*flexes and kisses his biceps*
Paotie
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