Read: Dear White Deaf People by David Player

In the last few weeks, as the Black Lives Matter movement has spread across the world following the murder of George Floyd, a conversation has started in the Deaf community about racism and prejudice.

Over the coming weeks, this site will be posting vlogs and blogs about racism and the Black Lives Matter movement as well as sharing other resources which add to the conversation.

One article that caught our attention, and is shared here with permission, is David Player’s article ‘Dear White Deaf People.’

David is a Black Deaf American and his article focuses on the American experience of white privilege and racism, however many of his points apply to countries such as the UK as well.

The blog can be read here and there is also an ASL translation.

Here is an extract:

Furthermore, Deaf/Hearing dichotomization without involving race isn’t logical.

One of the tenets of Deaf Culture is that having a cultural Deaf identity supposedly transcends race in Deaf communities.

The huge issue with this culturally Deaf identity is based on the colorblindness ideology that excludes an account of how racist history in America has affected all of us to this day.

Deaf History is made up of two centuries and I wouldn’t be able to cover all of this about how racism and white deaf privileges play a role in the trajectory of white Deaf communities during the Jim Crow era.

White Deaf people are more likely to achieve social mobility whereas so-called “color-blind” society deliberately deprives Black Deaf people’s economic opportunities to achieve upward social mobility like white counterparts during the Jim Crow era.

One of two examples based on Deaf history shows us that Deaf students who went on having successful professional careers and became leaders for Deaf communities happened to be predominantly white.

The second example is each state government appropriated more funds for white Deaf schools than Black Deaf schools that impact their education developments that intertwined with economic opportunities in the long term.

Upward social mobility is a clear indicator of how white Deaf privilege has worked for white Deaf people in the past and the present.

Read the full blog here.

David Player was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from RIT with BS in sociology with Black studies last year. He will be attending University of New Mexico for MA in sociolinguistics this fall.

ASL translation: