Read on Twitter
Next up: very excited for the plenary panel on Race, Racism, & Racialization in Sign Language Research and Deaf Studies, moderated by @linasigns (who i’m fortunate to call my collaborator!) & @jaceyhill! panelists: Anna Lim, Dominic Harrison, & David Player #HDLS14
In this conf so far, we’ve been doing a lot of making explicit, examining, and jettisoning problematic assumptions in our linguistic theories/analyses, and i am looking forward to continuing that in this session as well #HDLS14
@linasigns opens with an acknowledgment of the effects of white supremacy, settler colonialism, COVID, and police brutality against Black people, and presents along with the names and affiliations of the panelists, also the Native custodians of the lands they’re on #HDLS14
@linasigns asks us to transform our thinking and actions through scholarly work and activism in the academy #HDLS14
David Player begins “Examining Racism in Deaf Communities” with a discussion of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1989), Critical Race Theory, & 6 dif frameworks which have combined these with disability studies #HDLS14
Player’s discusses how the original conception of Critical Race Theory has been expanded to include perspectives beyond those of the original authors (Derrick Bell and Alan Freeman), including AsianCrit, LatCrit, Deaf Crit, and DisCrit #HDLS14
Player discusses how the “Deaf First” framing in many deaf spaces has resulted in erasure of Black identity, and shares several Black Deaf stories which felt empowering to him #HDLS14
Player: Between Stokoe and Hill, what was happening??? So much research is missing! #HDLS14
Player discusses the vast variation in Black Dead experiences. There is so much to study, and yet the preponderance of work is white researchers studying white asl — basically Prof Hill is out here on his own in working on Black ASL #HDLS14
You can read more of David's work here: https://medium.com/@dplayer84/dear-white-deaf-people-490961afa3d4 and https://blog.usejournal.com/the-power-of-white-gaze-erasure-of-black-signers-77de766e71d8
Player calls for more resources and mentorship, and he asks us to look beyond sources which are labeled "academic", and he gives us a TON of resources -- check out his slides here: https://osf.io/8ckxv/ ! #HDLS14
Next up is Anna Lim, with a gorgeous title (she called it a "mouthful, or handful" haha!) "The Labyrinthine, Escheresque, and Matryoshkan Nature of the Immigrant Deaf BIIPOC Experience in the US Education" #HDLS14
Lim discusses how Immigrant Deaf BIPOC students are often left out of academic, political, etc. conversations. In addition, White hearing women are about 90% of those in education... (SN: hmmm...) #HDLS14
Lim: there are increasing numbers of Immigrant Deaf BIPOC students in the US education system, but the systems/individuals they encounter when they get to the US aren't necessarily culturally responsive to this #HDLS14
Lim: I am an Immigrant Deaf BIPOC (IDBIPOC) student, and I frame this issue with a critical onto-epistemological lens.
She is studying the language learning context of IDBIPOC students, how coming to the US and learning English and ASL is politicized in this context #HDLS14
She is studying the language learning context of IDBIPOC students, how coming to the US and learning English and ASL is politicized in this context #HDLS14
Lim shows us a quote which states that IDBIPOC students come to the US with "atypical use of ASL" -- Lim problematizes this. "What IS typical use of ASL?". She shows how teachers' ideologies of "typical use" of ASL are basically standards set by the white deaf elite #HDLS14
Connecting this to raciolinguistic ideologies, Lim shares how no matter how proficient IDBIPOC students become in ASL, they are still seen as less-than due to how they and their language is racialized #HDLS14
(my side-note: this is certainly a space where linguists have much to work on, repair, and push against, in our *theorizing* and practice. deficit models abound. #HDLS14)
I meant to post these earlier -- here are Lim's slides: https://osf.io/qbrsv/
Lim discussed how addressing multilingualism is not sufficient to address the unique challenges faced by Immigrant Deaf BIPOC students -- home discourses vary, age and context of immigration matter. #HDLS14
Lim: The variations in cultural views of deafness are crucial to understanding the experiences of IDBIPOC students. #HDLS14
Lim: IDBIPOC students are often coming in with 2 modalities and at least 4 languages, and there are not sufficient interpretation resources.
IDBIPOC students' language use is pathologized (ahem, sound familiar?) and treated as ELL #HDLS14
IDBIPOC students' language use is pathologized (ahem, sound familiar?) and treated as ELL #HDLS14
Dominic Harrison rounds up the panel with a talk entitled "Raciolinguistic Lens: Race and Racialization in Deaf Studies" -- he's focusing on the *racialization* part! #HDLS14
Harrison starts w/how positionality and privilege intersect with culture in Deaf studies. He shares (some of) his own positionalities & walks us thru how this is crucial when relating to "individual[s] who [are] in need of a relational infrastructure and guidance" #HDLS14
Harrison makes such clear connections between theory and practice, how showing how we bring these ideas into mentoring practices/other spaces #HDLS14
Harrison: Languaging is whiteness-based. White ASL is hegemonic as compared to all the other varieties which are less standardized. Programs are designed with whiteness in mind #HDLS14
Harrison contrasts Cultural Assimilation with Cultural Pluralism, and encourages us to focus on Pluralism. Assimilationism is insidious. #HDLS14
Harrison brings it home with raciolinguistic ideologies ( @DrJonathanRosa @nelsonlflores) -- what do we mean by "languaging is whiteness?" Race shapes what is and is not accepted as ASL. #HDLS14
Harrison: Hill and McCaskill have shown there is prestige in Black ASL. What about other ASLs? We don't know. There's a lack of representation. #HDLS14
Harrison: When we DO have POC in institutions, they are light-skinned POCs. #HDLS14
Harrison: ASL is still being measured based on white ideals. What do to? Read beyond our fields, and bring these ideas into our scholarship. #HDLS14
Here are Harrison's slides: https://osf.io/u5etm/ #HDLS14
Finally, @jaceyhill, #CHAMP, closes us out. He highlights main lessons for (sign language) linguistics/linguists, such as intersectionality, and he connects to the *material* consequences (wages, employment) #HDLS14
Hill asks us to consider: What *IS* ASL??? Who uses ASL? Who are Deaf signers? Do we separate lgs based on race/ethnicity? What biases are we overlooking? What are the positionalities of the researchers in the studies? #HDLS14
Hill discusses the low number of Deaf POC recipients of PhDs and EdDs, and highlights various barriers (incl the overwhelmingly high percentage of white interpreters). #HDLS14
Hill: Finding an interpreter who has familiarity with my work as well as who shares some of my identities is a huge challenge #HDLS14
Hill discusses how he was motivated not just by curiosity, but also by a deep sense of responsibility to my community. #HDLS14
Hill: many white people are not aware of micro/macro aggressions and the deep structural barriers. We need to change the way that things are. #HDLS14
Here are all of the slides from these talks -- such important resources: https://osf.io/png2y/ #HDLS
Q: How to recruit Deaf POC students? A from Lim: gotta be proactive. A from Harrison: classes and resources should be inclusive so students see a place for themselves #HDLS14
