I Am Not Born or Raised of Deaf Culture.

“Culture is where the healing and hurt meet.”

Overshare but…

I’m pretty proud that even though it genuinely messed up my dumb neck SO much to work on this, I still pumped out some delicious curriculum for my ASL students at the moment.

I’m considering starting to share some of the conversations and thoughts we’re having, incase anyone else out there wants to geek out too?

QUESTION FOR YOU, WORD NERD FRIEND: “Do I share some of ASL classes each week, to encourage open ended, curious chat together here?”

On that topic, I actually had my first student throw something at my head to get my attention last week.

Purely to encourage empathetic conversations (and never to cast judgment), I’m pondering if it’s worth sharing this story here on Sub only, since so few people realize the vulnerabilities and learning curves of Deaf-humans in majority-hearing environments?

Many don’t realize the difficulties that Deaf professionals face

For now, here is a video positing a question already posed on @catchingbreaths, but some uncut words and these married, muddy thoughts, as well.

xo

The only way to learn about culture is to communicate.

I am not born or raised of Deaf culture.

I AM profoundly Deaf, and I’m Deaf with a very personal mix of capital D. But I’ll help kiddos where help is needed and having an imperfect Deaf touchstone is better than having absolutely zero touchstone at all [that’s when hearing culture accidentally just compounds upon itself, and calls itself sign].

Today I had the kids write the following sign to hang on our wall, decorated with a little personal doodlecharm of each kitten=

“Culture is where the healing and hurt meet.”

This was something that a Gullah Geechee scholar said in passing on the Taste the Nation episode focusing on Gullah culture and its oppression in America over time, and we discussed how much that connects to Deaf culture.

“Both cultures have had people try to erase it,” one of the teens replied, when I asked what parallels they can find between Geechee and Black American Sign Language (both derived from the south).

Their curriculum was teaching a paragraph about BASL, but I wanted to take the time to really sit with culture in a way that might resonate more with them - hopefully! - in time, even if non traditional.

“If we ask what languages are native to the US,” I asked one of the levels, “What would most people say?”

“English.”

“Would anyone you know say ASL? Or BASL?”

“Probably not. Maybe.”

“Would anyone say Geechee?”

“No one.”

I don’t know if sharing these class questions with YOU is a powerful way to create a bit of an open ended, compassionate, curious conversational circle such as this in our digital world….

And, a way to gently spread more awareness of Deaf culture and how much we DON’T want it to be forgotten or erased…

And, a free Socratic geek out together…

But: I’d be willing to start.

▪️CLASS QUESTION: “Is Deaf Culture a complete culture if there is no national food tradition widely attached to it?”

▪️I asked the kids to propose a cuisine tradition that would make sense, based off ASL history. Would it have French food roots? What about DC local favorites? So fun to daydream and wonder.

▪️This is about diving deeper into community, culture and curiosity, while listening and learning (not attacking anyone for trying any of the above please!), so… Subjective thoughts? Is food a critical part of a culture for you, or is language the guiding light?