I venture to say that all of my problems came from Audism/Oralism (discrimination against deaf). It was so successful, that I denied my own Deafhood. I was told wear hearing aids and lipread and you are ‘fixed’. So I would pretend to hear when I didn’t (and I didnt ev
en realize I wasn’t hearing/ understanding). When I misunderstood, I was told it was my fault for not listening or paying attention. I was accused of insubordination, criminality, bad attitude, and attention deficit disorder. I had trouble in school, have been fired from jobs, and locked up in jails for misunderstanding.
I am Deaf. Just because I can hear a little, and talk, and have been called hard-of-hearing (which is not quite ‘deaf’), doesn’t mean I can really hear. That’s like calling every black person hard-of-white, not letting them identify with their blackness, and punishing them for not acting white. Or any other minority. Y’know, like women (hard-of-man) are disabled because they don’t have a penis, or someone with a penis likes someone else who happens to maybe have a penis, or transgender (hard-of-strait).
This categorical dualism is a tool of colonialism (which, incorporates religion in the form of missionaries) to demonize the other. Once the other has been successfully labelled, they have been colonized and can then be controlled. In my case, denied of sign-language, and implanted with machines (hearing aids). Capitalism profits. Currently, the cochlear implant industry threatens the survivability of the culture of ethnic Deaf peoples. Alexander Graham Bell started this. Eugenics is another arsenal in the hearing majority to eradicate the scourge of deafness. How offended they are when we don’t ‘listen’.
It is really all grey, however. Everybody is a blend of categories. This is why Relativism, Multiculturalism, and Holographic Universe is the new way. We are all ONE. Each part has equal contribution to the whole. There is no evil, and if there is, it has a function in our evolution. Who knows. But me being deaf is something I accept now, because compared to dogs, we are all deaf. Get in touch with your Deafness, your Deafhood. There is value that only the Deaf can contribute to society that most hearing people will never understand. They want you to think you are broken and need to be fixed, but only so they don’t have to learn our language (sign language). This is known as linguistic colonialism. They say, “Why aren’t you wearing your hearing aids?!” As if it were all MY responsibility for you to be understood by me.
Deaf people help hearing people evolve by teaching them that the human connection transcends sonic vibrations. Communication is visual and you can feel auric energy, too. Too much reliance on audio can diminish capacity for perceptions on other levels. Also, when it is noisy, it is difficult to meditate. Sometimes less is more.