Who is this "Martin Luther King" and why does he have his day off today?

[MichaeltheGreat]

ITT Ben is rejected by all but can't grasp the concept that it might not have anything to do with his disability or political leanings. I'm 99% sure the teacher who wouldn't bring him on a trip to Europe just didn't like him and only used his disability as an excuse to get rid of him.

Which still wouldn't excuse it.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Maybe in California, but certainly not in hicksville Canada by then. Back when I first went to school, it was unheard of. I was actually assigned to special education until my mother managed to convince the school in the neighbourhood to give it a shot. If it didn't work I was back. I stuck it for 12 years, so that should tell you how it went.

So that's primarily a local issue with some misguided and ignorant people. Not the same. Not saying it's right either, but the underlying basis was ignorance and inability or lack of interest in how to properly teach and treat people with various disabilities. It wasn't intended to make millions of people systematically, politically, socially and economically powerless.

The other problem, at least for me - is that I'm 100 percent verbal. Even my own 'community' rejected that approach arguing I should learn sign because 'that was what was made for me'. The result? Well, I did ok - but I can't say I got much support from either side. I was a freak to both - with the folks who hear not really knowing what to do with me (since they had no one else to work with), and the community of deaf people that did operate pretty much shunning me and my family the whole way.

So you were the "red headed stepchild" in the deaf community? Disadvantaged or oppressed groups form internal hierarchies. With blacks, it stated in the slave days between house ******s and field ******s. Then you had all the rapes and "mistresses" (a little less blatant, but not like they had the power to say "NO!"). So you have high yellas, redbones, etc. Then different states had their own racial criteria. In Louisiana, if you had any bit colored in you at all, you were colored. Some states it was 1/8, some 1/32. Those rules were all nicely laid out for you, so you could figure if you were white or colored. There's a difference between venal or misguided individual behavior, and an entire state mechanism which legally codifies your permanent inferior status and assures impunity those who would help keep you in your place.

I'm sorry, I don't think that excuses Buck vs Bell. Arguing "it was overturned", so was Jim Crow, eventually.

Never said it did, or that it was overturned. I'm just talking about the scale.

At the time it was 8 justices to 1. Settled opinion on sociobiology argued that this was doing society a favor by removing disabled people altogether. Change disabled people to black people, and you'd see the policy was far more wideranging. .Also recall back then it was understood that someone who was hard of hearing was considered mentally unfit. (because we can't communicate well).

So was being gay.

That's ok. I'm a big boy. You won't offend my delicate sensibilities.

You're not the only poster here. If people want to see worse images, they can go hunt for them. I don't feel the need to put them on display.

Have been denied employment and rentals before, yes. I've been arrested once too. I've been illegally evicted, at least five times (depending on how you count it). I've been charged with destruction of property by one homeowner after a break in - and after I filed the police report documenting the breakin. Was dismissed for lack of evidence (seriously, why would I call 9-11 on myself?)

Again, you're talking individual actions, not an entire state mechanism.

[Ben Kenobi]

Bingo. If you were a ****** and fought back, they'd escalate. The only question would be how many of 'em, what they'd use (pick handles, tire irons, chains, guns), and how long it would last and whether it was fatal or not. And the law wouldn't do anything for you, before, during or after.

True, I didn't get mobbed. But, like I said, I had folks who looked out for me when I was younger because they were concerned. I was 10 percentile in height and about 5th for weight, so I was pretty much a bully magnet. They knew if they ever escalated it, that it wasn't going to end there. I did get sent to detention several times for 'fighting', mostly slugging some doorknob and breaking his nose, ending the 'fight'. So long as the friends were looking out for me, I wasn't going to get mobbed, and taking me one on one wasn't a gimme. So for the most part I was left alone.

And you're talking about some ignorant wretch individuals, not that plus a whole legal and political system that not only supported but encouraged that. If you were a colored boy down home, "friends" wouldn't help you, because if you fought back, chances are they could call down a world of hurt on you, or another of your kind. You were just schooled to run, or take it if you got caught.

You're right about that - there were always good teachers, and good people. But, I don't think it's as cut and dried for that. There was significant and sustained opposition to my participation in public school, all the way up to my final year. My intention to head to university was controversial at the time, on both ends. Funny story - there was a scholarship that was set up by a deaf person to help other deaf people go to university. I knew that the award was managed by the 'deaf community folks', who, like I said, were not my friends. I had a (well-meaning teacher), encourage me to try the award, and while I tried to explain to her that "they didn't know what a hornet's nest they were stirring up", she was pretty determined. The award ended up going to a girl, who supposedly wrote on her application that she was 'interested in working with deaf people'. No word on whether or not she followed up on that.

The only awards I did win, were the automatic ones. I won one for being the top student in my graduating class, an award that was supposed to be awarded at graduation, that was actually delayed until I went away from school. I wasn't told until I was far away and eventually received the award in the mail. The nicest one was the one I really wanted - the one from my elementary school - which still stands. The lady who gave the award was a good friend of mine from quite a ways back.

You would have learned not to do that. Any deaf kids in your area beaten or castrated for looking at a "normal" girl the wrong way? Hanged if he'd even touched her, consensual or not? Scottsboro boys ring a bell?

I wasn't a 'touching' kind of person, and I wouldn't have done that in any circumstances. But, yes, I wasn't exactly 'popular' when I was in school. I did have folks come by and say that to me that I 'should know my place'. *sigh*. Old wounds, MtG. Old wounds. I mostly just kept to myself, kept to my school, and didn't lose focus because that was my ticket out.

So you had a venal individual breaking the rules or misusing them.

In terms of altering grades, yes. Not just her own either. She tried to alter all of them, and, while it was caught - it took a long time to get them restored. I got a notice in the summer of my senior year informing me that I failed to graduate. So we had to go down and fight to get my actual graduation certificate.

The way it got fixed for coloreds was to move north

Gosh. I don't have any experience with that.

Again, you have a lot of ignorant individuals and bureaucratic cluelessness. Not institutions of government and society set to steamroll you if you so much looked around, let alone rocked, the boat. How many deaf or otherwise disabled people lynched in Canada? Do you have Alberta wind chimes?

MtG. I was the one who got out. What about all the ones who have been left behind? The system is set to dump the deaf kids into their little box in kindergarten. After that - they are done. The system has done their job of robbing them of an education and a chance to have any semblence of a 'normal' life. There doesn't need to be lynchings, because the war has already been won - and guess what - we are on the team that lost.

[Ben Kenobi]

Too bad you're the worst representative of deaf people they could possibly have. I'm sure they regret that you speak in a public forum for their case.

HC - you think I care about 'being a representative for deaf people'? You're not the first and certainly won't be the last to say this.

Actually, I do care. I'd be concerned if you thought I was an excellent representative.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben no matter how hard you try, you're never going to convinve the world that being deaf makes you as badly treated as black Americans pre-civil rights. Chiefly because it's completely ridiculous and not a little offensive.

When deaf people read on average at a third grade level, yes, yes, I can compare. If black people were like that - there would be such a stink about it, nobody could ignore it. Like I said, I was the lucky one. I got out. Most were not so lucky.

[kentonio]

When deaf people read on average at a third grade level, yes, yes, I can compare. If black people were like that - there would be such a stink about it, nobody could ignore it. Like I said, I was the lucky one. I got out. Most were not so lucky.

For goodness sake, you're comparing your problems with a group of people who could (and regularly were) tortured, raped and murdered on a whim with basically no legal recourse. Get the **** over yourself.

[Ben Kenobi]

you're comparing your problems with a group of people who could (and regularly were) tortured, raped and murdered on a whim with basically no legal recourse. Get the **** over yourself.

Gosh, now why would I do that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233232/Kerry-Trotter-Man-charged-raping-mentally-disabled-woman-bus-scouring-potential-victims.html

http://www.speroforum.com/a/CHQHWMQPIB10/73452-Evangelical-pastor-charged-with-raping-mentally-handicapped-girl

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130111/NEWS03/130111003/Former-police-officer-pastor-charged-raping-mentally-disabled-woman?nclick_check=1

[kentonio]

Gosh, now why would I do that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233232/Kerry-Trotter-Man-charged-raping-mentally-disabled-woman-bus-scouring-potential-victims.html

http://www.speroforum.com/a/CHQHWMQPIB10/73452-Evangelical-pastor-charged-with-raping-mentally-handicapped-girl

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...nclick_check=1

I don't know, why would you? Those are horrible crimes, but ones where the police charged those guilty and the legal system swung into action. That's the pretty simple difference that you seem incapable of grasping. You did say you graduated high school, right?

[Ben Kenobi]

I don't know, why would you? Those are horrible crimes, but ones where the police charged those guilty and the legal system swung into action. That's the pretty simple difference that you seem incapable of grasping. You did say you graduated high school, right?

And earned my degree. Want to see the percentages of deaf kids who do? People here say there's no systematic discrimination. I say the numbers demonstrate the truth. There is, and we just don't talk about it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Kentonio, don't bother. Ben always has a victim mentality and will set himself up as the equal of any martyr... well unless it's a Catholic one, of course, worthy of veneration and all that. King failed because he was Baptist, obviously.

[MichaeltheGreat]

When deaf people read on average at a third grade level, yes, yes, I can compare. If black people were like that - there would be such a stink about it, nobody could ignore it.

Nowadays, we make a different set of excuses about subpar performance of black students as a whole.

BTW, in many states back in the day, it was a capital offense to teach slaves to read. In other states, it was a long prison sentence. Stonewall Jackson, that well-known social liberal, got around it by teaching coloreds to read the Bible at Sunday school. Folks couldn't argue with giving the coloreds a chance to Redeem themselves by being able to read the Good Book.

[Ben Kenobi]

Nowadays, we make a different set of excuses about subpar performance of black students as a whole.

Oddly enough ideas of cultural 'blackness' and cultural 'deafness' are not all that different from each other.

Stonewall Jackson, that well-known social liberal, got around it by teaching coloreds to read the Bible at Sunday school. Folks couldn't argue with giving the coloreds a chance to Redeem themselves by being able to read the Good Book.

You mean to tell me that Confederate generals treated black people like people? You don't say. Wouldn't that defeat the whole 'it was all to free the slaves narrarative?

[Ben Kenobi]

well unless it's a Catholic one, of course, worthy of veneration and all that. King failed because he was Baptist, obviously.

Imran's obviously forgotten what I used to be.

[MichaeltheGreat]

And earned my degree. Want to see the percentages of deaf kids who do? People here say there's no systematic discrimination. I say the numbers demonstrate the truth. There is, and we just don't talk about it.

Numbers always say what you want them to say. If they don't do it easily, you find a new set and build a justification around those.

So what do you propose to actually do about it? The big difference is you can actually talk about it, what to do about it, and engage in activisim. Let's change the time and place, and instead of "education for deaf people" or "disability discrimination", say, you run your mouth about "******'s votin' rights" or "eating at the front counter?" Why then, you'd be well on your way to a date with some of the community's finest, about to drop by at 3 am for a couple of impromptu (Molotov) cocktails, and maybe they'd fire off the double ought buck at the windows before cocktail time, not when you were running out the door. Oh, and once you were burned out, don't complain about it, because people would tell you that's what you get for being uppity.

[kentonio]

Kentonio, don't bother. Ben always has a victim mentality and will set himself up as the equal of any martyr... well unless it's a Catholic one, of course, worthy of veneration and all that. King failed because he was Baptist, obviously.

Good point. Let me however just say..

mean to tell me that Confederate generals treated black people like people? You don't say. Wouldn't that defeat the whole 'it was all to free the slaves narrarative?

STFU you slavery sympathizing little *****. I should have guessed that your 'I have it as bad as the blacks' shtick was just another step in a long line of you being a closet racist. Oh wait stop, here's the part where you tell us how hot you think latino women are.