manic pixie edward snowden

I’m halfway suspecting that you are a troll (forgive me if I am wrong), but you’ve given me an opportunity to comment both on this case and more generally on cases in which white people are the victim and black people/other POC are the aggressor. 

What those people did to that man was wrong on a plethora of levels. It was cruel, it was terrible, it was awful, they deserve to be prosecuted for it, and that man deserves the ability, space, and time to recover to the best of his ability. I have no qualms about saying that this situation is sad, that that man is a victim, and that those responsible deserve punishment.

That being said, at this point in time and from my understanding, the perpetrators have been arrested and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I would even go so far as to say that they will be convicted to the fullest extent of the law, both because there is obvious video evidence (though I know that even that isn’t always enough) and because black people are the most criminalized racial group in the US. This isn’t to say that these specific black people should get off scot-free, it’s just to comment on how they are likely to be treated given societal treatment of black people. 

But, at the end of the day, it appears that the victim is going to get justice. I can grieve for him, I can empathize with him, but this is not an America in which black people can commit a heinous crime against a white person, and do so with video evidence, and get away with it. I don’t need to concern myself with that aspect of this situation.

In a more general sense, white individuals can be victimized by people of color. But when that happens, I am highly confident that those responsible will be held accountable and the victim will have justice. So beyond outrage at another person’s victimization, there’s nothing really to comment on. The fact that I do not have that same confidence when the roles are reversed is an indictment on the state of the American Criminal Justice System today.

recognize that audism (the oppression of & discrimination against deaf people) is still a very real issue. it can include things like believing that deaf people are “stupid” or “broken” and that deaf people need to be “fixed” (aka made hearing), as well a general lack of awareness about deaf issues, how deaf people communicate, or even that deaf people exist

recognize the consequences of audism, like deaf children being forced to speak and not being allowed to learn ASL, deaf people being denied jobs (yep, its illegal. still happens), and even deadly police brutality 

reblog/signal boost posts about d/Deaf issues as well as positive posts about d/Deaf accomplishments, information about d/Deaf people, etc

if you can: learn a little bit of your local sign language! even just fingerspelling and knowing a few basic signs. i especially encourage anyone who works in customer service/retail to learn a little ASL if at all possible! (this is a big thing so i def don’t fault anyone for not doing it, but if you have the time/ability it’s a pretty cool thing to do)

stop using phrases like “falls on deaf ears”, “deaf to their pleas”, anything that frames deafness in a negative way

recognize that there are different levels of hearing loss!! hearing people generally categorize hearing as: “not being able to hear perfectly but still hearing” = hard of hearing; “not hearing anything” = deaf; but for deaf people, anyone with any degree of hearing loss is considered deaf! if someone tells you they’re deaf but you know they can talk/sing/play instruments/listen to music, believe them

“Deaf”/“big D” refers to (deaf) people who are actively involved in Deaf culture. I can’t link because I’m on mobile, but if you just google “deaf culture” you get a bunch of results! I recommend the Lifeprint and Gallaudet pages on it.

So, not all deaf people are Deaf but all Deaf people are deaf (i.e: everyone who’s part of Deaf Culture is deaf, but not all deaf people consider themselves part of Deaf Culture).

The d/D is used when discussing topics that pertain to all d/Deaf people so that those who are part of Deaf culture are recognized as such but those who aren’t are still recognized as being affected.

Roy Lichtenstein

Moonscape, 1965