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Reflection paper on what is deaf culture
Reflection paper on what is deaf culture
Reflection on deaf culture
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“As a profoundly deaf woman, my experiences have shown me that the impossible is indeed possible.”- Heather Whitestone. It was this attitude that led Heather Whitestone to be crowned Miss America, despite her deafness. Whitestone has inspired and gained the respect of not only the deaf community, but also the hearing community. Her loss of hearing has not stopped her from achieving her goals and dreams. Heather Whitestone lost her hearing at a very young age. At the age of eighteen months, she became ill with a nasty strain of influenza. Her fever got dangerously high and burned the tiny receptors in the cochlea away. This is how Whitestone became deaf. She went through years of speech therapy so she could communicate with the hearing society. Her mother also enrolled her into dance hoping that Heather would pick up on the concept of rhythm. She did not take an ASL course until her …show more content…
senior year in high school. Whitestone attended a hearing school until fourth grade. She was inspired by the story of Helen Keller and wanted to meet other deaf kids. Her parents then enrolled her into Central Institute of the Deaf where she attended until she caught up with her peers. She graduated from Hoover high school in 1991. Heather Whitestone attended college at Jacksonville State University.
During college she started competing in local pageants as a way to pay for her schooling. Whitestone won first runner-up in two pageants before competing in the Miss Alabama contest. She finally won the title of Miss Alabama 1994 on her third attempt. Then she moved on to compete in the Miss America pageant. As her platform she introduced her five point S.T.A.R.S. program. S.T.A.R.S. stands for Success Through Action and Realization of your dreamS. This platform was meant to help with self empowerment. For her talent she danced ballet en pointe to “Via Dolorosa” by Sandy Patti. Enrolled in dance as just a way to learn the concept of rhythm, Whitestone quickly fell in love. Dancing was a way to express herself without words. When the announcer declared the winner, Whitestone couldn’t hear him, but by looking at the other contestants, she knew that she was being crowned Miss America 1995. Over the next year she traveled all over the country and promoted her S.T.A.R.S. program and deaf
awareness. Heather Whitestone is an inspiration to the Deaf community and hearing community alike. She is living proof that any body with a positive attitude can be whatever they want to be. Whitestone was not only the first Miss America to be deaf, but also the first to be crowned despite a disability. To her the most threatening handicap is a negative outlook on life. Her mom encouraged her as a young girl by pointing out that the last four letters in American spell I can. This never ceasing positive outlook is what lead her to the becoming Miss America. The Deaf community is full of positive people making huge differences in the world. Very few people look at their deafness as a limitation. Throughout this ASL course I have learned that Deaf individuals do not feel any less worth than hearing people just because they cannot hear. Heather Whitestone’s story and legacy confirms what I have learned in ASL. Everyone with positivity and ambition can accomplish their dreams, no matter who they are.
The athlete I chose is Natasha Watley. She is a professional softball player and the first African-American female to play on the USA softball team in the Olympics. She’s a former collegiate 4-time First Team All-American who played for the UCLA Bruins, the USA Softball Women’s National Team, and for the USSSA Pride. She helped the Bruins will multiple championships and also holds numerous records and one of the few players to bat at least .400 with 300 hits, 200 runs, and 100 stolen bases. She’s also the career hits leader in the National Pro Fast pitch. She won the gold medal in the 2004 summer Olympics and a silver in the Beijing Olympics. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Alice Neel’s painting Suzanne Moss was created in 1962 using oil paint on canvas. As the title suggests, the painting depicts a woman’s portrait. Now resigning in the Chazen Museum in Madison, WI, this portrait of a woman lunging is notable for the emotional intensity it provokes as well as her expressionistic use of brush strokes and color. The scene is set by a woman, presumably Suzanne Moss, dressed in dull back and blues lounging across a seat, staring off to the side, avoiding eye contact with the viewer. The unique style and technique of portraiture captures the woman’s piercing gaze and alludes to the interior emotions of the subject. In Suzanne Moss, Alice Neel uses desultory brush strokes combined with contrast of warm and cool shadows
Alice Cogswell Changed the World for Deaf People - New England Historical Society. (2013). Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/alice-cogswell-changed-world-deaf-people/
Betty Marion White was born on January 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. She is the only child of Horace and Tess White, an electrical engineer and a house wife. At the age of two her and her family moved to Los Angeles. Betty White graduated from Beverly Hills High School California, in 1939 at 17. Betty started modeling they same year she graduated. She first did various radio shows in the 40s. But her first TV show was on Hollywood in Television in 1949. Whites first produced television show was Life with Elizabeth. "I was one of the first women producers in Hollywood."
From being a competitor on Dancing with the Stars, to an actress on Switched at Birth, Marlee Matlin is known for her overflowing amount of talents. She seems to do it, and quite effortlessly while she’s at it. But, the one thing she cannot do, is hear. To quite a few people, this may seem as a disadvantage, but to Marlee this is quite the opposite. She embraces her uniqueness and strives to show her disbelievers that she is capable of anything that she sets her mind to. Despite the many challenges she has faced, Marlee Matlin remains determined, unique, and an advocate for the Deaf culture.
Mark Drolsbaugh, the author of Deaf Again, was born to deaf parents at a time when the deaf population didn’t have and weren’t given the same availability to communication assistance as they have today. He was born hearing and seemed to have perfect hearing up until the first grade when he started having trouble understanding what was being said but was too young to understand what was happening. (Drolsbaugh 8).
Marie Jean Philip was born on April 20, 1953, in Worchester, Massachusetts. She was the first-born child. Although she was born to deaf parents, Marie’s deafness came as a surprise for her parents. She had two sisters whom were also deaf. Deafness was hereditary in her family, however not everyone in her family was deaf. Marie’s father had one sister who was deaf and her mother had two siblings who were also deaf. When Marie was 11 months her parents noticed that she wasn’t responding to all noises. Her parents decided to test her hearing one day by creating noises behind Marie to see if she would respond. When Marie responded only to the loudest of noises, such as pots banging together, they found that at times she could hear with her right ear, but she could not hear anything out of her left.
Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909, Jackson, Mississippi. Her father's name is Christian Welty, and her mother's name was Chestina Welty. She has two brothers named Edward Welty and Walter Welty. Welty grew up in a house full of books. Her mother gave her the passion of reading and writing. Eudora went to Davis Elementary School. She attended and graduated from Jackson's Central High School. Eudora had graduated from the University of Wisconsin and studied business for a year at Columbia University. Eudora earned her Bachelors degree. She also attended Mississippi University for Women. Eudora was a short story writer, novelist, and photographer. Her major themes of her books extend beyond the south-loneliness, the pain of growing up, and the for people to understand themselves. Eudora Welty grew up during the Great Depression. She was able to travel around Mississippi taking pictures of people during the Great Deppression. " Endured series of misfortunes with stoicism and forbearance." (The New York Times, Prose, 2005). Eudora Welty faced several struggles in her life such as the lose of family and having a hard time finding a job.
Mark started losing his hearing when he was about six or seven years old. This was manifested in confusion in music class, misunderstanding the words that the choir was singing, and discombobulation in noisy rooms. Eventually, it was noted that Mark’s hearing was deteriorating.
Shirley Chisholm was a crucial figure in Black politics, and the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She defeated civil rights leader James Farmer on November 5, 1968, and served 7 terms in the House of Representatives till 1982. Also, she was the first woman and person of color to run for President. Chisholm is a model of independence and honesty and has championed several issues including civil rights, aid for the poor, and women 's rights.
One of the most complicated concepts in life is the matter of relativity. It is nearly impossible to truly ‘step into another's shoes’ simply because that other person possesses a lifetime of information and experiences that someone else cannot hypothetically replicate. Most of the time that other individual can’t even remember half of their own life simply because it was made up of seemingly insignificant details. However, in an effort to be as objective as is humanly possible, I would say that Jeannette Walls and her siblings were in some ways luckier than her peers.
The most important deaf people in television right now are Katie Leclerc and Sean Berdy. These two actors play roles in the television drama “Switched at Birth”. The show is about “two teenage girls who discover they were accidentally switched as newborns in the hospital. Bay Kennish grew up in a wealthy family with two parents and a brother. Meanwhile, Daphne Vasquez, who contracted meningitis and became deaf at an early age, grew up with a single mother in a working-class neighborhood.
In the United States today, approximately 4500 children are born deaf each year, and numerous other individuals suffer injuries or illnesses that can cause partial or total loss of hearing, making them the largest “disability” segment in the country. Although, those in the medical field focus solely on the medical aspects of hearing loss and deafness, members of the deaf community find this unwarranted focus limiting and restrictive; because of its failure to adequately delineate the sociological aspects and implications of the deaf and their culture. Present day members of deaf culture reject classifications such as “deaf mute” or “deaf and dumb”, as marginalizing them because of their allusions to a presumed disability. (Edwards, 2012, p. 26-30)
Hearing people can have a place in the Deaf community. Each minority group tends to welcome genuine allies and the Deaf community is no exception. But it is important for people who hear to remember our role as allies. We join the community to show our support, not to lead. We can help educate other hearing people, but we are not missionaries to bring Deaf people into the mainstream. Deaf people are the appropriate leaders of their own civil rights movement and teachers of their children. Our role is not to give Deaf people a voice; it is to make sure that the voice already present is heard. And we can do that. We can teach other hearing people to listen.
So today, I have shared with you my journey in deafness. Being deaf can be hard, but it is not the end of the world. I can do what anyone else can do such as talk, play sports and hang out with friends. Every person’s journey is different. For me the key to success is perseverance.