[instagram link. if click on, there captions in video. text of video transcript at end of post]
recently, CBS news did interview with bill villafranco, executive director of myFace, an organization for people w facial differences. interview also include Andy, person with facial difference, but never asked single question, which make them into token while also ignoring them. at same time, some of villafranco’s responses (someone without facial difference too) reduces experiences of people with facial differences.
the FaceOut project, led by members of facial difference community calling for apology & change from myFace and villafranco.
please sign this petition to support them! they also go into their responses n demands in more detail here: https://www.change.org/p/tell-myface-to-adopt-community-led-representation-policies
video reposted w permission.
transcript of video:
Recently, an interview was aired on CBS News featuring one Bill Villafranco.
[CBS anchor: For seventy-five years, one New York-based organization has been quietly changing lives and doing incredible work.
Joining us to mark this milestone is myFace Executive Director Bill Villafranco.]
Bill is the Executive Director of myFace,
an organization whose mission is to empower people with facial differences–people like me.
People like me.
People like me.
And people like myFace's social media director, who was also in the interview.
[CBS News: Bill, welcome. Andy, welcome.
Thank you.]
But there was a problem-
a HUGE problem!-
the only person with facial difference, was never asked a single question.
Not one.
Not one.
Not a single one!
We in the Facial Difference and Disability community
know that we deserve better.
We deserve better.
We deserve better than to be tokenized and used as a prop.
We deserve to be included in the conversation,
and have our lives be represented as they truly are.
[CBS anchor: So when you look back on that time, what makes you most proud, or what stands out to you the most?
Bill: The commitment that we have, to ensuring that every person with a craniofacial difference, who lives in loneliness, can find us.]
Excuse me?
Huh?
[Bill: Just a quick story, you know- we go to the supermarket, we feel so overwhelmed,we love it there, we love what we're doing; an individual with a facial difference, when they walk into that supermarket, there's stares and stares and stares and stares.]
Many in the community are afraid, they don’t wanna be out and be bullied, they don’t wanna be out and seen.]
Seriously?
Ugh. This may be news to Bill,
but people with facial difference do not necessarily "live in loneliness."
Nor are our lives defined by how we’re perceived.
These are the stereotypes and narratives that can take hold
when members of our community are not part of the conversation.
Part of the conversation.
Part of the conversation.
Not just part of the conversation-we are the conversation.
This is why we're standing up to Bill Villafranco and the myFace organization,
and urging them to not only apologize to the community,
but also take a cue from the Disability Rights Movement, which says loud and clear:
Nothing about us without us.
Nothing about us without us.
Nothing about us, without us.
Sign our petition today and tell myFace:
Nothing about us, without us.
[Screen text: Sign our petition!
created by: The FaceOut Project
editor/composer: Kei Otake
special thanks: Adam Pearson]
end transcript.
