The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Heather,
Fishers, IN
If you have never heard about deaf culture, please go and read about it. Growing up the oldest child of a deaf mom, I never remembered learning sign. I didn’t know we were different. I didn’t know I was loud! I still don’t know when I am being loud. I love my mom. I am so glad that I had the ability to have the experience of another culture growing up.
La Toya Plummer,
Greenbelt, MD.
Although I have lived with three strikes for more than twenty years, the color of my skin always has been and always will be fundamental to who I am. When you are colorblind, you do not see me. Overlooking a portion of me that is susceptible to the brutal ignorance on a daily basis takes away the strength I draw from it to carry on. Recognizing that aspect completes me as a human being.
Warren Miller,
Indianapolis, IN.
I have been profoundly deaf since early childhood but raised in a hearing family and attended an oral school. I was not exposed to Deaf culture and American Sign Language until college. Hearing people do not see me as deaf because I “talk good” (even though I heavily rely on a hearing aid and lip reading and sometimes an ASL interpreter). Deaf people, on the other hand, consider me “think-hearing” because I speak well and rely on my hearing aid and lip reading skills more than ASL. Like my painting illustrates, I am between two worlds.
Danielle Branciforte
Tallahassee, FL
I am now 61 and have had a severe hearing loss since the age of 12, requiring me to wear two hearing aids. Throughout the years it has been a constant struggle to fit in. I am not deaf, so have been regretted by that community; and because I look and sound “normal” the hearing community often forget that I am hearing impaired and rarely remember to adjust their speaking to accommodate me. As a teacher and presenter, I always begin with alerting my audience that I cannot hear and I regularly have people confide in me afterwards how shameful they feel because they also cannot fit in due to their hearing loss. The ‘baby boomers’ are getting older and starting to need hearing aids, my hope is that more awareness about about the hearing impaired culture will create a shift in our consciousness.
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