But I do want to post more of problematic stories to talk about why I find them problematic. So I have decided to create an occasionally entry called "Stigmatizing quote of the week." (Acknowledgement: Thanks to afterellen.com for the idea of hightlighting quotes from the news.)
My first entry comes from the Grand Rapids, Mich., Press in a story about local kids competing in the National Braille Challenge. The story is not just about local kids competing, which is a perfectly legitimate story for a local paper, but also about a filmmaker doing a TV documentary about it. Here's the quote from Keith Famie, a former contestant on the "Survivor" who now makes television documentaries:
"The edge of this whole documentary is about the inspirational things we can learn about blinded people. It's a whole other world."The problems:
- "blinded people" -- I think it has negative connotations. It sounds "old world" as terminology and is something I don't think blindness organizations would consider an appropriate reference.
- "inspirational things we can learn" -- It's great that the kids know Braille (few blind people do anymore) but basically they are reading with a tactile method, rather than a visual one. Not really extraordinary. Calling people inspirational when they are engaging in the ordinary activities of living is stigmatizing.
- "a whole other world" -- blind people are part of society. They just navigate the world with a visual impairment. People with visual impairments adapt to living in a visually oriented world quite well and enjoy all of the same activities that sighted people do. Blindness is one of the most feared disabilities and statements that put blind people in "another world" just add to those fears.
If you have nominations, please send them to me. Thanks!
