Eugenics can be described as the the process of improving the human race. (Dirksen L. Bauman, Simser & Hannan, 2013, p. 12)
Fig. 14
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One of the most well known examples of eugenics is the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler's crazy dream to create the perfect race also effected deaf people. In the book Crying Hands: Eugenics and Deaf people in Nazi Germany (Biesold, 1999), deaf men, women and children were said to be sterilized against their will, as well as murdered. (p. 1)
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Another person who strongly believed in the eradication of Deaf people was Alexander Graham Bell. He is more famously known for his invention of the telephone, but many people should know about his view of Deaf people.
Alexander Graham Bell believed that deafness was a curse and saw it as a threat to social order. |
Fig. 15
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He researched data from different American schools for the deaf and found that deaf people tend to marry other deaf people and that these statistics would only rise in the future. With this information, he feared that deaf people would soon have their own race, describing how it "would be a great calamity to the world". (Lay, 2015) To stop this before it happened, Bell came up with laws that would prevent deaf people from marrying each other, thus reducing the amount of deaf people born. What Bell failed to realize is that 90% of Deaf babies are born to non-Deaf parents. Instead of ending deaf marriage, Bell caused much fear and anger in the Deaf community, as well as sparking many debates. The second way Bell tried to eliminate deaf people was to get rid of American deaf schools, ban the use of sign language and forbid deaf teachers to teach deaf students. He believed that these measures would force deaf people to build their oral skills, allowing them to more easily integrate into the hearing world.
Audism & Discrimination Frameworks
These beliefs and behaviours are some early examples of audism and oppression against Deaf people. Audism can be distinguished into three categories: metaphysical level, individual level and institutional level. The previous examples of eugenics can be categorized under all of the levels and is the root of all audism. At the metaphysical level, Deaf people, though human beings as well, were thought to be inferior and inhuman. (Brueggemann, 1999) Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates individual level audism because he thought that deaf people were unintelligent and incapable of speaking long enough to carry a conversation. Finally, audism at the institutional level is shown through Bell's efforts to eradicate deaf schools, sign language and deaf teachers. He truly believed that these steps would eventually lead to a smaller number of deaf people while having his actions disguised as education reforms. Regardless of which level the oppression is categorized as, audism is always wrong and discriminatory behaviours are unacceptable.
These beliefs and behaviours are some early examples of audism and oppression against Deaf people. Audism can be distinguished into three categories: metaphysical level, individual level and institutional level. The previous examples of eugenics can be categorized under all of the levels and is the root of all audism. At the metaphysical level, Deaf people, though human beings as well, were thought to be inferior and inhuman. (Brueggemann, 1999) Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates individual level audism because he thought that deaf people were unintelligent and incapable of speaking long enough to carry a conversation. Finally, audism at the institutional level is shown through Bell's efforts to eradicate deaf schools, sign language and deaf teachers. He truly believed that these steps would eventually lead to a smaller number of deaf people while having his actions disguised as education reforms. Regardless of which level the oppression is categorized as, audism is always wrong and discriminatory behaviours are unacceptable.