Jarrod Hood     Now Hear This WARNING: What you are about to read may or may not be considered social commentary, but do not expect a well planned discussion of the topic at hand, nor a theory for changing the circumstances mentioned, although they most certainly need it. What you are about to read is 50 percent observation, 25 percent critique, and 25 percent bitch session. The University of Virginia takes no responsibility (or action) concerning the following issue, and this publication just felt sorry for me ... proceed at your own risk. This is just too appropriate; just as I sit down at a computer in a first-year dorm (which shall remain nameless) to write an article, a student swaggers into the lab mouth-first, wearing his U.Va. uniform (white hat, designer sweatshirt, khaki pants), reeking of eighteen-year-old-i'm-a-big-boy-now- 'cause-i'm-off-at-college-with-daddy's-credit-card bravado and proceeds to make a rather offensive remark about another student's ability to hear. The other is obviously not deaf, insofar as he replies with a remark that is sure to impress everyone in the lab (not to mention the surrounding counties) with his rapier wit, and the two proceed to do their accounting homework. Considering the fact that I am here for the explicit purpose of writing something concerning the deaf community and its situation in a nation moving toward the precarious position of "multiculturalism," "Chip" (or Kurt, or Matt, or Joe, or whatever his name might be) in the computer lab is really not more than a very loud and obnoxious manifestation of the general manner in which the deaf community is perceived. Since I, like the large majority of you readers, am among the hearing, the question you ask might be what prompted me to write about this, when I have no vested interest in such issues. A friend -- let's call him ... Ben F. -- and I are currently enrolled in an American Sign Language course offered through the university. We both noted at the beginning of the semester that the course was not offered through a language department but was affiliated with the Anthropology department. I never gave this a second thought, content to pass it off as another attempt by a large bureaucracy to make the world unintelligible to me. However, while recently visiting his parents, Ben F. had a conversation with them concerning his ASL class. The F.'s were not surprised that ASL was offered through the Anthro department, and Mrs. F., let's call her ... Ruth F., made a statement to the effect that ASL "is not a real language, it's just a bunch of waving your hands around." Ben fought the good fight, bringing to her attention that ASL is in fact considered an autonomous language by linguists, that it has distinct grammatical structures, syntax, and vocabulary, that it is as complex and expressive as spoken languages, and that it is not merely a code, nor a gestural representation of English. But, alas, the F.'s were not to be convinced. So, the question: Is Ruth F. A) an uneducated, mouth-breathing, drooling moron, B) a part of a CIA conspiracy to convince Ben F. that his life is a lie, that he is not really human, and should cast himself off of the Red Roof Inn, C) a bad person, or D) an intelligent, educated, respectable high school Spanish teacher suffering from the same passive, relatively benign ignorance that afflicts the majority of the population, and is the breeding ground and life's blood of social injustice? My guess is D, and it would seem that more than a few of those who make this fine, fine institution tick are not much different. The problem here is not necessarily malicious discrimination against a certain segment of the population, but a problem of perception. Deafness is seen by most as a disability, and those "afflicted" by it are not only outside the bounds of normalcy, but (so that everyone can be all new-age sensitive to those "less fortunate" and in touch with the needs of their fellow man) in need of care from society at large. Pity is the prejudice here. To assume that a person is any less capable of leading an average, fulfilling life or needs assistance to do so solely because he or she cannot hear, is as insulting to a deaf person as the most ridiculously biting racial slur you can imagine might be to a member of a racial minority. The deaf community are not people with a common problem, but a subculture of people sharing a common trait and common interests. But these same people are equal members of the larger community of this nation. So, what to do? At the risk of sounding "pro-active," maybe you should get off your ass and find out what the deaf community is all about. There are available outlets for your curiosity, such as the silent lunches and suppers that happen frequently around campus (that's right, I said it), and periodicals and books in the libraries concerned with deaf culture. You might even sign up for a Sign Language course, but no matter what you do, don't make like my computer buddy here, and go through the rest of your pathetic existence assuming that everyone is just like you and if they're not, they have a problem.

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