One hallmark of multiculturalism is the rejection of any sort of assimilation, often times even when said assimilation would be for one’s own benefit. Take, for instance, the family of four who recently got cochlear implants to help with their deafness. Some people — normal people — would approve, be happy for them, and move on with their lives. Others, however, would say stupid ass things like this:
Some in the deaf community believe implants dilute their culture and prevent deaf people from embracing their deafness.
Embrace your deafness, people. You idiots out there? Embrace your stupidity… learning really dilutes the culture of the idiot community. Racists in the crowd? Avoid breaking your stereotypes… how will the white supremacist culture continue on if you do!
Those three things all sound absurd, don’t they? But what’s the difference? They’re all disabilities — stupidity, racism, deafness… they’re different types, but in the end they’re all more harmful to their carriers than any alleged “community” is helpful.
I’m so sick of this multiculturalist nonsnese. People want to talk about how America’s culture is one of multiculturalism, and that’s pure nonsense. The American culture is composed of many parts of many cultures, and is diverse by definition, but there IS a culture and if you don’t want to be a part of it, move.
The rest of you, go read the article linked above… it’s a good read.
June 1st, 2004 at 8:33 am
Okay, I guess for the sake of argument, and at the risk of being railed, I guess the “deaf advocates” are saying the implants aren’t helping the deaf community psychologically. Perhaps it is giving some the false hope of hearing where there is no hope. I don’t know. Ultimately, hte individual sounded incredibly dumb, especially when you place the statement in the context in which Pete has done (racism, etc.).
June 1st, 2004 at 11:30 am
Maybe, but it sounds a lot more like jealousy… people who have no hope of hearing don’t want ANYONE to have hope. I fail to see how it’s appropriate, reasonable, or intelligent for anyone to be criticized for trying to improve their life or standard of living.
June 1st, 2004 at 12:20 pm
I have really, really crappy vision . If someone told me that I shouldn’t wear glasses because it dilutes the ‘damn near blind’ culture and detracts from my ability to embrace getting hit by cars when I cross the street, I would probably kick them in their nuts.
As for multiculturalism, this is the way I say it: If a family has say, Italian roots, and wants their kids to speak Italian and know their family history and traditions and stuff, that’s cool. But they need to speak English first and Italien second. They need to know American history and traditions first, and Italian second. Simply put all Americans should be American first, and whatever the hell they want(Italian, African, Hispanic, Deaf, Catholic, whatever) second. So while there’s nothing wrong with America embracing its diveristy, I think it is imperative we embrace(and create) our unity first.
June 1st, 2004 at 12:30 pm
That’s not very sensitive to members of the nutless community, Matt.
June 1st, 2004 at 12:48 pm
You almost make it sound like diversity is bad. It isn’t necessarily the differences that keep us from being unified, but those who bring judgment on others for being different. Most people probably stereotype the average human as being judgmental on some level.
For example, most non-Christians feel that Christians are going to judge them for not having faith in Christ and say, “You’re just going to hell!!!” While some people who call themselves Christians do make this sort of judgment, they by far do not speak for Christians in general. In fact, Jesus made it very clear that people who act this way are totally against him. The same goes for racism, sexism, and all sorts of stereotypes.
If our culture would focus less on the childish controversial opinions that make the news, which are almost never in the majority, and focus more on real truth and real people, then we would be in a much better society today.
June 1st, 2004 at 12:49 pm
By the way, the above was in response to m jones.
June 1st, 2004 at 2:35 pm
It’s important though, brandon, for society to bring childish/stupid opinions out into the open, if we don’t then we’re wasting one of society’s biggest strengths: the power to influence it’s members by peer pressure.
Diversity isn’t bad, it’s possible to have diversity and still have a common culture — the US has done it for YEARS… but there’s also a big difference between a diverse common culture and no common culture at all, which is, I think, where matt was headed.
June 1st, 2004 at 4:10 pm
BB: Diversity isn’t bad, it’s great - but so is America and its culture. I think maybe sometimes people get too caught up in their sub-culture to realize they are part of something great and they actually miss out because of it. I think this is especially true of people who live in America but act as if their children should treat English as a second language. I think this does a great diservice to the children, and hinders their ability to take advantage of the oppurtunities that they have here. Whatever else we may be, we are all Americans, and we should be proud of that common bond, I just don’t see any reason not to embrace it.
As far as sexism, racism, and other types of stereo-types go, I think embracing our unity first and thinking about our differences second is a big step towards elimating those diseases. If someone is gay, who cares? They’re an American, just like us. If they’re hispanic, so what? They’re an American, just like us, etc. So I don’t see how embracing and creating unity promotes any type of prejudice. If you interpreted my point of view as meaning everyone should conform to a status quo, that’s not what I meant. I simply meant if we live in America, then we are Americans. We should all be proud of who we are and embrace being American just as we embrace being of German descent, being gay, being Hindu, or whatever else.
So, as Pete said, it’s possible to have diversity and a common culture.
June 1st, 2004 at 10:14 pm
I’ve been out of town for a few days, so I’m just now getting to this, I’m sure you knew it would interest me, Petey.
Speaking as someone who works closely with people who are deaf, I’ve been exposed to a lot of deaf culture beliefs. I can tell you that this topic is one that has divided the deaf community since the 1980’s when cochlear implants first came about. And I’ve heard more people that are actually FOR the implants than against it. From what I gather, the ones that are against it feel that way because of fear. These people’s lives revolve around a community that is very tight-knit and comfortable to them. They have a language and more importantly, a culture that is very interesting. I think that these people are afraid of losing what they have. I can tell you though, they have nothing to fear, not everyone is even a candidate for CIs, and there will always be those who just flat out don’t want it. One important thing to remember though, is if you do get one, you have to realize you’ll never actually be “hearing” (that’s a whole other book..)
On topic however, I’ve got a couple of links that I think are really interesting, you can go and see what a cochlear implant sounds like, I showed these in a presentation once and everyone loved them.
Keep in mind when you listen that just b/c you get a CI, doesn’t mean you will ever hear like “normal” people. Sounds are all kinds of distorted, especially if you do not get the cadillac models.
http://www.hei.org/research/de.....odemos.htm
http://www.utdallas.edu/~loizou/cimplants/
Another great debatable topic for you Petey, is child implantation, that’s the hottest topic in the deaf community these days.