Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I'm an American citizen, I have a Ph.D.,
a full-time job,
own my own house and two cars.
I have a wife and two children -- one boy and one girl.
I pay my taxes and I've never been in major trouble with the law,
except for speeding tickets.
Pretty normal, right?
Recently on YouTube, under one of my former vlogs,
a mother of a Deaf child with a cochlear implant
commented in the vlog to me:
Her comment, at its most basic says:
All of my achievements, my life as a NORMAL citizen of the U.S.,
are dismissed and I am deemed to be a "loser"
based on ONE standard only:
that I cannot -- and do not want to --
be able to hear and speak.
That is the ESSENCE of:
AUDISM.
Why? Basically she's saying
that a Deaf person is NOTHING if they do not or cannot
use their voice or desire to use their hearing
through any means possible.
Some people feel the word "discrimination" is good enough.
But "funkmasterjoe1" did not discriminate against me.
She did no action that was "discriminatory".
But, she did express an ATTITUDE.
What is that attitude?
It's important to have a word to be able to properly identify or recognize that attitude,
and distinguish it from other discriminatory attitudes oppressing other minority groups,
like racism, sexism, anti-semitism, homophobia, and so on.
And what is that word (for us)?