Dear Hearing People

As I procrastinated writing another blog post and looked through facebook I actually found the inspiration for it. I came across this video called “ Dear Hearing People” and it really made my day and made me think about how we treat people and are taught to treat people by society and how that is perpetuated by the media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY4uof7vvZk

This video is a montage of different hearing impaired people who are young, old, white, black, female, male, etc. in which they try to explain how “normal” people often make them feel. What truly set this video apart from the billions of other ones out there that raise awareness about issues was that this gave a solution, and a simple one at theat. The people featured in the video simply ask that people who do not understand them: just say hello.

They ask that “you simply ask us questions and be open”

“Don’t be scared. Don’t run away.”

Because “running away only means that you will continue to not understand us”

“That lack of understanding will only hurt us more”

I think this is a beautiful sentiment.

Every time we talk about race issues or gender issues or whatever issues in class, I feel like my answer is always that we all just need to be more open. We need to understand that life is a learning process and nothing will change over night. I am a white woman so I feel like when I say things like this people get mad and say “well so what, we’re just supposed to have to wait for people to be ok with what makes us different? That’s not fair.” No it isn’t fair. Nothing about discrimination is fair. But people don’t work any other way. People need time to readjust to new ways of thinking. Some are better at it than others, but it just takes one person to “start the trend.”

It also takes the group who is asking for change to be open with the group they are asking this of. That is what this video does. The deaf people (is it still ok to say deaf?) in this video are not raising hell or yelling or blaming others for this injustice. They are simply presenting things as they see and feel them and encouraging others to be open to them.

Most importantly they are inviting people to ask questions. We cannot expect anyone to change without a learning process. That’s what most change is. People learning something new and doing something with that knowledge.

I love to learn. I love to understand new things, new cultures, and new people but honestly I am often scared to ask the important questions that will truly lead to understanding. I don’t feel like I discriminate against anyone but how can I truly know if I don’t understand what other groups are thinking? How can I feel comfortable if no one is opening that door?  

I am grateful to the people in this video for opening that door.