8 Power and Oppression

By Janice Humphrey and Bob Alcorn

Deaf people, like other minority groups, have been oppressed throughout history. There have been efforts on the part of various individuals to change the majority view of Deaf people and to gain greater power and equality, but the results have been limited.

Liberation Movement

No one could have predicted, however, the impact of the linguistic community accepting ASL as a legitimate language in the late 20th century. Sociolinguists and anthropologists knew that a new language meant a culture never before studied or recognized. Likewise, for the first time Deaf scholars and researchers were involved in both the linguistic and cultural research that was launched.

Deaf pride emerged and a movement for Deaf liberation began to gather steam as a growing number of Deaf advocates began to speak up, becoming more vocal in their demand for equal rights.^[1]

One of the most powerful manifestations of this movement took place at Gallaudet University in 1988. At that time, a number of university staff and faculty, along with individuals throughout the Deaf community in the United States, had asked that priority be given to appointing a Deaf person as the next president of the university. They warned that hiring another hearing president would be like hiring a man as the head of a women’s college or a white person as head of an African American institution. In spite of this public pressure, the university chose to appoint a non-signing, hearing woman as president. When the news was announced, the students began a demonstration that captured  international attention, The students called their campaign “Deaf President Now” (DPN). They closed down the campus and staged marches on the US capitol. The university finally relented and the first Deaf president was appointed as head of the world’s only university for the Deaf.

Since that time, political activism within the international Deaf community has led to greater public awareness, beneficial legislation, favorable court rulings, and some lessening of audist control. One positive outcome has been increased access to employment, medical care, public events and other services by the provision of interpreters.

Power and Oppression

We would be remiss, however, if we left the impression that the war has been won. Many of the Deaf individuals you will work with as an interpreter carry with them the scars of ongoing disenfranchisement. There is still a disproportionate number of Deaf people who are unemployed or underemployed. A large number of Deaf adults feel alienated from their families due to strained communication and their sense that family members don’t understand life from the perspective of being Deaf – and have no interest in doing so. Daily, Deaf individuals deal with the reality that they are excluded from the “privilege” of the hearing majority. Oppression is “alive and well” in Canada and the US today. After all, oppression is an inevitable result when a “power-over” rather than a “power-with” mindset exists.

Humour

Humour is used by minority groups to deal with their day-to-day experiences of disenfranchisement. The humour of marginalized people often incorporates images of turning the tables on the majority group, proving the intelligence, resilience, perseverance and ultimate empowerment of the minority group. Thus, humour is one of the tools used by members of minority groups to fight oppression. The humour of the Deaf community provides examples of this phenomena. Let’s look at a few examples.

Deaf Joke

Once there were three men sharing a compartment on an extended trip by train. One day, as the hours wore on, the first fellow – who was from Russia – opened a bottle of expensive, top quality Russian vodka. After consuming less than half of the bottle, he opened the window and tossed the bottle of remaining vodka out the window. The second fellow – who was Deaf – was astounded and asked the Russian why he had discarded the expensive flask of vodka. “Oh, there’s lots more where that comes from,” was the reply. Later in the day, the third fellow – a Cuban – lit up an expensive, hand-rolled Havana cigar. The aroma carried the sweet fumes of a cigar of truly extraordinary quality. After smoking less than half of the cigar, the Cuban tired of it, opened the window, and tossed the remainder out. Once again the Deaf fellow asked why he would do such a thing, adding “what a waste!” The Cuban replied, “Oh, in Cuba there is no shortage of cigars – don’t worry.”

After reflecting on his experiences of the day, the Deaf fellow orders a sandwich, eats half of it then suddenly stands up, grabs the steward and throws him out the window. When confronted with the shocked faces of the Russian and Cuban passengers, the Deaf fellow confidently replied, “Oh, don’t worry. There are plenty of hearing people where I live!”

Here, you see a form of humor that focuses on the minority status of people who are Deaf. Statistically, we know that approximately ten percent of the population has some significant degree of hearing loss, but a small portion of that percentage subscribes to the language and behavioural norms of the community.’ The idea of turning the tables and disposing of the “excess” is thus humorous to the minority group members, who frequently face the majority community’s reluctance to accommodate the needs of Deaf people due to the lack of a critical mass. This is encountered by Deaf individuals when requesting interpreting services at public events, increased closed-captioning on TV, accessible telecommunication devices in public places, or simply for a store clerk to take the time to write notes so they can get assistance with a purchase. While the passage of legislation has helped alleviate some of these difficulties, the lack of authentic access is a daily frustration for Deaf people.

Deaf Joke

Deaf people across Canada and the U.S. held a convention and took a vote. It was unanimous – the oppression had become unbearable. They hired a number of space ships and set out en masse to establish a new planet – one that would be based on their cultural norms! After flying for several years, they landed on an uninhabited planet which they named EYEth, Things were great! The language of education, politics and media was ASL, The laws established reflected the cultural norms of the new inhabitants; pollce, judges, and lawyers were Deaf. Homes and businesses were arranged to maximize visual access. Children were born and things seemed ideal.

Then to the dismay of all, a child was born who could hear! Specialists were brought in and tests conducted, but it seemed nothing could be done to eliminate this unexpected disability. The child was sent to special schools and was required to wear large ear muffs which emitted “white noise” and a mouth piece to prevent inadvertent utterance of spoken words. Still, In the privacy of his home or when he thought no one was looking, the child spoke and reacted to sounds around him. One day, scientists from the Eyeth space program contacted the parents with good news. They had discovered a distant planet where there were others like their child. With mixed feelings, the parents sent their son to earth,

This joke reflects a sarcastic tum of the tables on those who have inflicted years of speech-training, aural amplification, and other audist-based norms on members of the Deaf community. Interestingly, it includes a play on English words (Eyeth and Earth), a phenomena more typical of English jokes than those evolving in ASL Here, you have an example of humor that acknowledges the power that interpreters hold.

Deaf Joke

There was once a miser who lived next door to a Deaf man. One bitterly cold winter, the miser broke down and decided to buy an electric blanket, He put on his boots and heavy coat and went out to the spot in his backyard where he kept his cash box buried. (He didn’t believe in banks.) To his dismay, he saw footprints in the snow around the very spot where he had buried hls money and when he dug up the box, it was empty. Tracking the footprints, they led straight to his Deaf neighbor. Enraged, he stomped over to his house and pounded on the door, When the Deaf man cane to the door, the miser demanded his money, gesturing wildly, but the Deaf man didn’t understand him. As much as he hated paying for it, the miser called an interpreter. Together, they went back to the neighbor’s house and as the miser once again demanded the return of his money, the interpreter conveyed his words to the Deaf man. As he proclaimed his innocence in Sign Language, the interpreter told the miser what he was saying. Finally, the miser pulled a gun from his jacket and said in frustration, “Listen! You give me the money or you’re dead!” Frightened, he quickly signed the location of the money, The lnterpreter turned, smugly hiding the knowing look on her face, and said to the miser, “He said he doesn’t know where your money is and if there’s going to be violence here, I’m leaving;’ With that, she turned and left.

While interpreters are a part of daily life for many Deaf individuals, there is no one who desires to conduct their personal and business affairs in the presence of this ancillary third party. There is always a sense of invasion and loss of privacy (and you would probably feel the same way if the tables were turned).

Further, Deaf people experience abuse at the hands of unethical and insensitive members of the interpreting community. On more than one occasion, members of the Deaf community have gone for a job interview, accompanied by an interpreter, only to find later that the interpreter was offered the job! On other occasions, interpreters have inappropriately shared information about a Deaf person that the interpreter had gleaned from his interpreting interactions. Increasing numbers of lawyers are using “consultants” to assist them with information about the language and culture of Deaf people when they are working with a Deaf client, which is a great turn of events. However, there is grave concern that the individuals serving this function are frequently interpreters, rather than members of the Deaf culture and community.

While there are – thankfully – not many interpreters who behave unethically, it only takes one bad one here and there to create an environment of mistrust and suspicion. Jokes such as the ones above grow from experience.

The Impact of Oppression on Interpreters

Interpreters are exposed daily to the encounters of the privileged and the disenfranchised – to the conflict of cultures, norms and expectations. The presence of an interpreter ameliorates the lack of access to some degree but in other ways our presence exacerbates the situation.

We see the subtle ways Deaf individuals are excluded, encounter the ignorance of non-initiated hearing people and the arrogance of some educators and medical practitioners who are bent on “fixing” Deaf people. Interpreters work in situations where we see disrespect and denigration of Deaf people on a daily basis. This includes:

• Employers who ignore a Deaf employee or dismiss his or her request for minor accommodations;
• Parents in denial about their child’s deafness dragging the child from doctor to doctor in search of a miracle; and
• Overhearing rude comments made by patrons in a restaurant who assume that everybody sitting at the table is unable to hear.

What’s worse, these insults and innuendos are typically communicated through us – through our hands, gestures and facial expression. Further, we heat· Deaf community activists fight against the closure of state and provincial schools for the deaf, but we accept work in the local school districts where children are being mainstreamed. We see the plight of qualified Deaf individuals seeking employment and being overlooked, yet we earn a decent living as interpreters profiting from their deafness.

This puts us all in an awkward position. Deaf people know us as friends and allies in their community yet they struggle at times to separate us from the majority group of hearing people.

In addition, interpreters are often the target of the backlash of the oppressed. This manifests itself in:

• Frequent comments about ignorant hearing people;
• Having to laugh at (and often interpret) jokes thatmake fun of interpreters or hearing people in general; and
• Interpreting the comments of a Deaf person who is blaming or criticizing you for something.

When these things happen, we labor to separate out our feelings of hurt at the insult from what we know to be a justified statement based on the Deaf experience. Further, there is a kind of”initiation” that we experience as we establish ties in the Deaf community that involves a certain amount of testing and teasing with us as the brunt of the joke.

This reality sets up a dilemma for the interpreter. We are generally drawn to the field of interpretation because we care about people, communication and access. Thus, seeing oppression in action day after day stirs up empathy in us that may lead us to feel rage, shame or a sense of helplessness. At the same time, we might feel attacked or defensive when we perceive some of the comments, jokes and insults are indirectly aimed at us.

If you want to be an interpreter, you must be prepared to struggle with conflicting and sometimes confusing feelings regarding your role in relation to the Deaf community. The role of an ally is challenging and living with “one foot in each world” is not an easy task.

Humor as a Tool for Interpreters

A sense of humor will help you in your journey into the culture and community of Deaf people. As a member of the majority hearing culture, it is easy to take offense at jokes aimed at that culture. Don’t! Try instead to understand this as a glimpse of an upside-down world in which Deaf people have a chance to gain something from being a member of the minority. Learning to laugh at yourself and your inevitable cultural faux pas is another tool that will help you on your journey.

Comments About Hearing People

It is also important to realize that when you see Deaf individuals talking about “those hearing people” in humorous or critical ways, that they are generally speaking of – the doctor, school administrator, or psychologist, for example. As you learn to act with respect toward the cultural norms of the Deaf community, you become a member of the larger Deaf community. As such these comments are not referring to you, but to those members of the majority group who have not yet demonstrated awareness of or sensitivity to the needs and norms of the Deaf culture and community.

The Myth of Neutrality

Since the early days when sign language interpreters first began to strive for professional status, there has been an expectation that they be neutral when they work It has even been said that an interpreter should not contaminate an interaction with his or her own emotions or reactions. When you understand the historic and political reality of oppressed people, this makes sense. Deaf consumers need to be free to express their own beliefs, opinions and feelings. They should not have to contend with the opinions or reactions of the Interpreter.

However, the neutrality of an interpreter is a myth! It is not possible for emotionally healthy individuals to work with people without experiencing empathy, as well as other feelings. In addition, others in the communication environment will experience feelings about the interpreter as an individual. All of these reactions impact the interaction being interpreted. It is critical that you acknowledge the effect your work is having on you – whether it is the content being conveyed through your hands or voice, the oppressive behaviour yon witness toward people who are Deaf, or thoughtless comments made to or about you in your presence.

One phenomena interpreters need to be aware of is vicarious trauma – trauma that results from observing another person’s traumatic experience, In this case, it refers to interpreters who witness so much oppression or abuse that they feel like they themselves have been the victims. Prolonged vicarious trauma can lead to compassion fatigue – a numbing of one’s emotions and an inability to interact with others with appropriate empathy. This is most likely to happen when working in serious legal, medical or therapeutic settings for an extended period of time, which you won’t be doing until you have several years of interpreting experience under your belt. Nonetheless, you need to develop strategies as a student that will support your emotional wellness as you move into your professional practice. This may include writing in a reflective journal on a regular basis or finding a therapist who can provide coping strategies.

Power: Implications For Interpreters

When you become an interpreter, you will find yourself in a very powerful position.’ In many situations, you are the only person in the room who knows what is happening in both languages and cultural frames. Further, as a student of interpretation, you will be developing your own values and belief system related to Deaf people, ASL, Deaf education, interpretation, and other related areas.

Denying that you have power will not resolve the issue. Abdicating your power will be a fruitless effort because the power is inherent in your role and is ascribed to you by the other people involved in the setting, Rather, you must learn how to use the power you have in a wise and prudent manner. It also means coming to grips with your own history with power and oppression.

We are all oppressors to one degree or another. If you want to be an interpreter, yon must begin a lifetime practice of reflecting on your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to identify any oppressive tendencies and moving forward to change them. It is also important to avoid the error of early anthropologists who made brief sojourns into foreign territory, observed and interpreted from their own experiential base, and became immediate experts on the customs and traditions of the culture visited, Interpreters are not experts on Deaf culture,

Interpreters are eternal students – inquisitive, observant – and ever humbled by the reality of how much they don’t yet understand.

ADVOCATE OR ALLY

Charlotte Baker-Shenk, one of the first to challenge interpreters to consider our role in light of historic oppression, challenges us to seek out what interpreters can do to foster equality by refusing to be a part of systematic, institutional oppression. When they become aware of the cycle of oppression, many well-intentioned hearing people feel obliged to work to end the injustice.

A common approach is to become an advocate on behalf of Deaf individuals. An advocate is one who speaks out on issues on behalf of others. ‘This role often leads to hearing people becoming the “expert;’ being invited to speak, to the press, a group of employers, or other members of the majority group. “The result is that these hearing advocates often take on a leadership role in the fight for equality, stepping into the limelight and unintentionally pushing capable Deaf individuals aside. This is also a subtle form of oppression,

The cycle of oppression can be broken, but interpreters or other hearing people are not the saviors of Deaf people. The role which we can most appropriately play is that of ally – one who supports Deaf individuals in their own struggle for liberation, Author Ann Bishop’ outlines strategies for becoming an ally, A small sampling of her suggestions for those seeking to become allies includes:

• Learn about oppression – identify it in your own life and begin a journey toward personal liberation;
• Help members of your own group understand oppression;
• Recognize that you may be part of the problem- because we grew up in a society surrounded by oppressive attitudes, we easily become oppressors. At the same time, don’t waste time or energy on needless guilt trips;
• Remember that as a member of the majority group, you cannot see reality as clearly as the oppressed group; listen to and believe Deaf people when they tell you about the discrimination and pain they have experienced and are still experiencing;
• Make a list of the invisible privileges you have as a member of the majority group; in this way you begin to break the invisibility of privilege;
• Do not take a leadership role; work with and support members of oppressed groups but don’t make the mistake of thinking you “know what is good for them;”
• Never take public attention or credit for an oppressed group’s process of liberation; refuse to act as a spokesperson, even when reporters gravitate to you because they are more comfortable with you;
• Do not expect members of the oppressed group to agree on all issues or to welcome you as an ally; and
• Develop and maintain friendships with members of oppressed groups outside of your professional involvement with them.

It is important to remember if you are a hearing person that you cannot comprehend the experience of being Deaf, nor should you claim the roots and connectedness that a history of oppression gives to the community.

Baker-Shenk provides an excellent discussion on this subject in her article entitled “The Interpreter: Machine, Advocate or Ally?” We urge you to read her article and to discuss it with your instructor and classmates.

Credit

This section is copied from Chapter 6, Oppression, Power and Interpreters (Pages 131-142) in Humphrey ,J.H. & Alcorn, B. J. (2007). So you want to be an interpreter? An introduction to sign language interpreting (4th edition). H & H Publishing.