Transcriber: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
[The interpretation provided for this presentation
is live and unrehearsed.
Interpreter(s) assigned may or may not have had materials
in advance for preparation.
Inaccuracies related to the content of the material
may be due to imperfections in the interpreting process.
This interpretation has not been reviewed by the presenter.]
[H Street; Late night; Beer;
Capitalism and America as a threat to deaf community]
Just a few years ago, one evening,
I was on H Street with a friend of mine dining in a bar, in a restaurant
and talking about a whole host of issues,
politics, and so forth.
And we started talking about the American system of administration,
capitalism and rugged individualism.
My companion that evening
told me that the notion of capitalism in this system
is really destroying the deaf community and is harmful to the deaf community.
I was more than a little shocked by this
and asked him why.
And he said, "Think for a moment of infinity.
Think of an infinite loop."
Deaf people must have this infinite connection
and interconnection with each other.
We require eye gaze for conversation.
So this same notion of individualism doesn't fly as well.
So there's also the fact
that two hearing people need not observe each other to communicate,
and deaf people do.
Hearing people hear their own voice.
That supports this notion of individualism.
So, if we look at how this evolution has taken place,
and what it bodes for our future,
we have to examine capitalism and its effect on our community.
[Social Darwinism and Stairway to Heaven;
Two paths to go by]
So how then do we, as a deaf community,
ensure that we persist?
How do we evolve and survive in this changing world?
What are our options in this rapidly-changing world?
What is our role?
How do we remain relevant?
How do we stay connected and interconnected
without losing ourselves?
Well, there are two different paths that we can take at this juncture.
[PATH ONE - Islay and dystopian literature
The process or fact of isolating or being isolated.]
You know, the book "Islay" fancies the notion of an island of deaf people.
And that is actually dystopian -
Dystopian capitalism is something that we could escape from
in this Islay notion,
but that also separates us from the larger ecosystem,
though it shields us from the capitalist dangers.
But we are, as a community, somewhat akin to an organism.
In order to survive, we have to find our niche,
we have to have the energy and spirit of our community
collectively together.
If we are distinct and separate, but isolated,
then no one cares, no one notices in the larger ecology.
[PATH TWO
This seething cauldron we call humanity
Search for a model]
As part of society, I have to ask how we, as a community,
can persist, grow stronger,
both economically, socially, culturally, and so forth.
What value do we have to offer the world?
And what then does the world have to offer us?
And beyond that, what does that model look like?
How do we see this synthesis?
How do we plan and prepare to have this kind of interconnectness?
So, in musing over these problems,
one thing that occurs to me based on my own upbringing ...
[Momentary lapse of reason]
is called to mind in this map that you see.
If you look at this map of Toronto,
and, in fact, how fortuitous, we just had a mention of Toronto a moment ago
in the other presentation.
But if we look at Toronto, we generally think of it as a single city.
But within that city,
there are a number of different ethnic enclaves.
There's an Asian enclave, a Jewish enclave,
and so forth,
all within this one city.
So each of these enclaves has its own identity,
its own collective spirit, its own language, its own culture,
its own businesses in fact.
And you've seen these all existing within the larger city.
They're all part of the city as a whole.
So the ability to have the distinct enclave and community
and still be part of the larger community
is one that I find interesting,
because the Toronto Museum of Deaf Culture has now been established there
and is a nexus of drawing visitors to that area.
So, going from isolation to attraction of the larger society,
we see that museum being a centerpiece.
How can we be a part of that
and part of the success as a whole of the community and its enclave?
We see enclaves in New York City, where there's Little Italy, Chinatown.
Miami has Little Havana,
and Virginia has the [Little] Saigon area.
And you'll notice their streets signs, their business signs
are in their own native language.
This is important because it's a way of plugging into the power
of the structure as a whole for the city,
the economic structures.
So you could have a council member that represents your community,
which gives you greater voice for your community.
But I've talked now so far about cities.
But how then can we see that same sort of idea occur in other areas?
The deaf community is not a large one.
It's a very small community.
So, outside of urban areas,
what are the possibilities for such connections?
[Here, there and everywhere...]
This example that you see on the screen is Little Kabul.
It's in Fremont, California,
right near the California School for the Deaf at Fremont.
Not that large of a city.
Small in fact,
but even in such a small place, they have ethnic enclaves,
and we see this really around the world.
So can that model be successful anywhere?
We have to wonder though
where we are, and how do we push for a deaf enclave in rural areas?
Where do they exist,
and how then can we invest our time and resources
to create and sustain these enclaves?
So the selection of a place for an enclave
actually involves a number of things.
[Education institutions as the giver of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness]
The deaf community's strength
is that it is very closely tied to its educational institutions.
Workplaces in areas surrounding the deaf schools
have created mini-economies that are already existent
and could then be strengthened.
In Fremont, we see this to be true;
in Riverside; in St. Augustine;
in Austin, Texas; in Indianapolis, Indiana;
in Frederick, Maryland, we see examples of this.
And there are already existing enclaves in these areas:
Rochester, New York; and here in Washington, D.C.
Gallaudet University is really the heart and center
for the surrounding enclave.
So these educational institutions can help to create
what we might call a deaf ethnic enclave.
[The Land of Canaan
Are we in Colorado or Washington State yet?]
So "the promised land" is out there.
How do we get there?
How do we get to that ethnic enclave?
It can't really be set up randomly.
How do we then create it?
How do we get support for the creation and sustenance of that enclave?
If it only involves deaf people, that's fine,
but how do we create these interconnections
to find a way to build our economies,
our social and cultural institutions?
[The grid
Crowsourcing
End of Big]
So how do we map onto the grid?
One example of this that's called to mind
is crowdsourcing,
which is all the rage right now.
So the way crowdsourcing works is that with a crowdsourcing site,
you would then define how you're going to connect with others,
what different ideas you bring to the table.
And you connect those ideas to people with the money to invest in them.
One example that exists here in D.C. is "Fundrise."
Fundrise is a website that's quite interesting.
The owner of that company searches out capital funds
for development and re-development.
He buys buildings.
Now, the old model would be
that you would look for a particular investor,
and then, once you find them and have enough capital to invest,
then the people with the most money that invested
would have the most power to define the development and use of that.
And so they lead the decisions on a day-to-day basis.
But Fundrise's model is quite different.
They have a building.
They post the building information about it,
its sale price, other conditions,
and so they offer that building to be bought by everyone,
from investments of $100 to $100,000.
So there are many, many owners of that building.
That then helps
to be sure that we are connecting to these other groups
and that we remove barriers that exist
to connect them to those with the capital to invest.
So we have local people who buy into that particular building.
They then have a vested interest in the success of that building.
They're connected to it,
and they are "business owners" if you will.
So the crowdsourcing concept
could be one that we use to attract more people
with the capital to invest in deaf community enclaves and ventures.
Deaf community businesses could be investing in these.
That's one particular model.
Another is ways to promote our ideas
so that it gets to those who could invest and support in them.
Forbes magazine has said
that crowdsourcing is going to be the hottest thing over the next few years.
It's predicted to be a wonderful tool.
So then how can we use that technology to our advantage to overcome barriers?
There was one book written called "The End of Big."
that I'd like to refer to.
That book actually predicts
that we will then be returning to our roots:
the roots of local economies,
of "local craftsmen."
In days past, when you went to go shop for your needs,
those commodities were built and made
in your local economy, in your local environment.
The age of industrialization and mass production
took root, took hold and spread,
and it has de-humanized, de-personalized a great many things
and created vast separation between people in there -
the people that make their commodities.
So if we look at sustainability movements,
local food movements,
we see them really exploding,
and there are a lot of markets there that could be tapped into by deaf people.
Add to tap into that kind of investment
so that we're supporting the enclaves
by people buying into our ideas and cultures and ventures.
[A community of our own
Martha's Vineyard Redux
When all are one and one is all, to be a rock and not to roll]
So very often I have dreamed
that if we were able to establish such enclaves,
I think about the kind of community we have here,
with Gallaudet's real estate holdings on 6th Street,
the vibrant change on H Street
where at Union Market and H Street
you can go anywhere and find people that sign to some extent.
This brings to mind that Martha's Vineyard model.
It's often known
that Martha's Vineyard had people who signed all over the community,
yet only 5% of the people there were deaf.
So it only takes a small number of people,
you need a sufficient critical mass that's quite small to create this lifestyle.
How then do we create
that kind of access and that opportunity for deaf people
where more people are signing and greater access is to be enjoyed.
We can do that by, as I mentioned before, having deaf people enter into politics,
not necessarily president, but delegate in your town council.
So your enclave is then represented in the larger community.
It creates greater voice for your community.
Deaf professionals who are signing in different environments,
such as medical professions, legal, and so forth,
that creates the community wherein we can feel home,
feel at home even within the larger scope of home, of the city and the larger realm.
We can do this by collaboration,
by working with other deaf organizations.
And thinking ahead, planning proactively
will lead us to success.
With that, I thank you.