adreanaline

For more on mystification, see this link:

http://www.marlier.pro/documents/FamilyTherapy.html

Important quotes from the article:

“Mystification is a way of masking or disguising what is taking place between family members. Mystification refers to a process that occurs when one or more members of an organization fail to understand the meaning and or purpose of a communication from another member, usually a leader. Similarly to the other concepts explained here, this can take place in any organization, not only in families. The communication is often deliberately vague and made vague in order often places the mystified person in a ‘one-down’ position, which disempowers them and fails to produce a clear message.”

“An expert in mystification can use it on every occasion, make you wonder if you are sane, and imbalance you.”

This is also one of the insidious machinations of audism.

Transcript:

Hello. I’m Adrean Clark, and this vlog is “The Angry Deaf.” I’ve been thinking this week about emotions, especially anger. I’ve noticed that some Deaf people who speak out on issues are labelled as “angry.” Are they always angry? No, but where does that emotional burst come from?

The word “mystification” comes to mind. It is often used in family therapy. For example, late at night, a parent may tell their child, “You’re tired. Go to bed!” The child doesn’t actually feel tired and protests. In this situation the parent has put their thoughts and feelings onto the child, disregarding the child’s reality.

This also applies to deaf people. Often with mainstreamed deaf children, parents (and educators, doctors, etc.) tell the children that speaking and reading English has primary importance. They tell the children not to be like the other “lesser” deaf people who sign. The child gets cochlear implants and oral training in the name of being educated and a “success.”

That twists reality. It is a terrible thing.

I understand why deaf people, as they become older, realize what their parents and others said don’t match with reality and become very angry. Some people never come to that point, their emotional development stunted. Some may recover. Still others repeat the cycle they learned from parents, educators, and the like.

Now that we’ve recognized mystification, we can catch its subtle machinations. We can catch it in action and change for the better.

Translation:

Hello. I’m Adrean Clark, and this is a vlog in response to the Holism’s article/vlog “Closed Society.” I know that many people have had discussions with him in the past, covering different things. I normally would not respond, but my friend contacted me and asked what I thought of the “Closed Society” post.

I read his post and realized that a misunderstanding took place. There are two things to consider here. One is the idea and concept of Deafhood, Bi-bi, and providing access to ASL for deaf babies. The other is the individual/group of people. This category starts with individual people, then the larger community, and last, society as a whole. Those two things are separate.

With Deafhood, Bi-bi, etc., the goal is to provide access to information on ASL and Deaf Culture, to empower deaf people. Those concepts are tools, philosophies, intended to help people. For example, people go into bookstores to find self-help books. They look around, find a book. If they like it, they buy it. They can do what they like with that book, to help themselves. Likewise, people have the opportunity to look at Deafhood, to find out if it can help their perspective on life.

As for people, community — it’s impossible to completely block the exchange of information. The government can try, but the deaf community is not a government. The deaf community consists of people who have a shared experience. Each individual is different, their ideas and behaviors different.

These are the two separate concepts.

Now some people have said that the Deafhood Foundation, DBC, etc., push too much with their agenda. Well, we have to consider that doctors push their own agenda onto parents with deaf children. We do not see those doctors because they are not within our community. Deafhood and DBC, etc — provide a counterweight to their propaganda. They provide a needed balance.

The links I cover are:

Jamie Berke’s article

NAD’s CEO Profile and Position Description

Translation:

Hello, I’m Adrean Clark. This vlog is about the possibility of having a hearing CEO for NAD. About a week ago, Jamie Berke wrote a blog post at About.com Deafness. She said, since Gallaudet has a deaf president, why not turn things around and have a hearing CEO for NAD? My reaction was a strong NO!

I’ve had a week to think about why I reacted. NAD is an advocacy organization. The organization wants to see Deaf people succeed, to show that Deaf people can do many things. If NAD hires a hearing CEO, it shows Deaf people can’t.

Some people might say but but but a hearing person can sign, has experience, etc. Still, that person is hearing. NAD’s credibility will be shot.

The deadline for applications is coming up on March 1st. I didn’t want to sit and say nothing, only to see the candidates be all hearing, or a decision made because someone didn’t say anything.

So I’m warning NAD, it’s important that an organization serving deaf people also hire deaf people. We want to show the best — to put our “best face forward,” so to sign. It’s important. We never know who’s watching, who’s getting a message. Especially kids, they’re very receptive to subliminal messages.

Please make sure the next CEO of NAD is Deaf, that s/he signs fluently above and beyond. The guidelines on the NAD website are good, legally credible, but as for the committee who decides the final hire — please choose the person who best represents NAD and the deaf/signing community.

Thanks for watching!

Translation: This is Part 2 of “Free NAD Memberships!”. What happens after NAD opens up their membership? Here are a few ideas. One, the NADmag can rise in importance as an organ for our community. We’d be able to bring in big-ticket sponsors — we’d be able to ask Toyota, Revlon, or other companies to put advertisements in the magazine. The proceeds from this could support advocacy services.

Also NAD could consider microfinancing their projects. Visitors can go in to the website and see a list of projects that need donations. Low amounts such as five dollars, or even one dollar can grab visitors’ willingness. With sheer numbers the amounts earned would be higher. Projects can be simple, like a billboard, or hiring an assistant to call and lobby legislators regarding internet captioning. People would be able to review each project and decide which one they felt they could relate to the best and support.

NAD doesn’t have to be the only one controlling each project. In fact it could be an incubator for those projects. Having a high number of people means access to a larger pool of talent. NAD would be able to spin off each project as needed.

The important idea to retain here is critical mass. Being able to reach a higher number of people to bring attention to important issues gives NAD more power.

*****
See Part 1 here.

Translation: This is a proposal for NAD to consider, but other organizations can look at it as well. In today’s digital age, information is offered for free on the internet. This creates high volumes of traffic, and high distribution of information. If a website decides to close off their content behind a pay wall, their traffic decreases to the few who are willing to pay for the membership.

Likewise for NAD — the paid membership decreases the number of their consumers. If NAD opened up their membership to everyone, they’d be able to grab hold on a larger audience.

Some people might be concerned that this means hearing people would take control. Actually there are two reasons why I doubt this would happen. First, the NAD Bylaws do not state that members must have a hearing loss. That would have given opportunity for hearing people to take over, but it didn’t happen – which brings us to reason two. The NAD conferences are expensive affairs that deaf people travel to and socialize at. The conference is where the power happens — where the votes take place. What benefit would there be for a hearing non-signer? Hence it remains in deaf hands.

This is in response to Sean Gerlis’ vlog, “Bashing NAD, Good Idea?”

Translation:  While I appreciate Sean’s comments, I want to remind Sean (and NAD) of the old adage, “The customer is always right.”  It is typically used in reference to business, but the principle also applies to non-profit organizations.  When a company produces a product, it is up to the customer to decide whether or not they want it.  Suppose demand is low for this particular product.  Should the company decide that the customer was entirely at fault for not buying their wonderful product?  No.  It is the responsibility of the company to find out why people are not buying their product.

NAD offers a product — advocacy for deaf people.  If people are complaining, it means that their needs are not being met.  NAD needs to ask why those people feel their needs are not being met, why people are not understanding NAD’s core mission.  The organization needs to find out how to communicate better, to help change NAD’s reputation.