Unread Posts

On June 1st I am debuting my first documentary. I am a social work student with a focus in community organizing and advocacy. I have directed, written and produced a documentary titled “My Eyes” Your Eyes and will be selling DVDs and showing the film in order to educate the public regarding those of us who are blind and visually impaired. The film is artistic, fresh and educational. Please send me your e-mail address if you are interested in purchasing a copy or if you can host a showing. I am willing to travel to different locations around the country or even out of the country to show my film. We are an oppressed population and it’s about time we have our voices heard. My blog is found here.
ladyindigo217-leadwithfaith.blogspot.com

can someone please explain to me, and by someone I mean you, how exactly we are an oppressed population? Unless you live in some country where blind people are still killed for not being physically pure or perfect. I'm just curious how you think we're oppressed.

You are centered strictly on America?

We have an 80% unemployment rate because of discrimination and lack of education. Women who are blind and visually impaired who give birth are questioned as to the extend of their parental abilities. Many youth who are blind and visually impaired are frequently bullied and excluded from social events and after-school activities. Do I really have to continue on and on with specific examples? How many people with blindness and visual impairments do you know who don’t have experiences of discrimination? How many jobs have you applied for when the business appears enthusiastic to higher you after reading over you resume, however when they meet you in person they miraculously have a more qualified applicant? How many people do you know who are taken advantage of on a daily basis financially and emotionally because of their disability? Why would America have to enact the American’s with Disabilities Act? Why are child abuse and neglect rates higher for families with children with disabilities?
Our population is a minority and is subject to similar oppression as any minority race. What about people with blindness and visual impairments who are also lgbt? How would they survive in states where they cannot legally marry or where they are legally discriminated against in terms of employment and housing? Think about those of us who want to buy a house, but cannot afford it because our SSD checks are pocket change and we cannot find suitable employment?

No! We are all not living in some group home for the unfortunate blind or piled up like sticks to be burned like the Jews who were lgbt like in WWII, but we are socially and politically oppressed.

What are critical thinking skills? What does it mean to think for yourself? You are also probably one of those people that thinks the Holocaust never happened.

Actually, i'm one of those people that think if you can't find a job, its your own god damn fault. I'm one of those people that thinks saying, "oh dear, little johnny wasn't played with because he was blind", should be a legal reason for being slapped.
I knowmany blind people who do very well for themselves, got a job, got married, had children, and lived wonderful lives. We have blind people who are musicians, authors,, community leaders, even the mayor of a major metropolitan area of our country. since you obviously can't think for yourself enough to find out a reason why this might be, I'll tell you. its because they didn't sit back on their lazy blind ass and let the world spoon feed them. They didn't swallow that, "your blind so your entitled" bullshit. they, instead, said, "I'm blind, so I have to work a little harder." They didn't just expect everything to be perfect for them.
If a blind parent wants to have a child and is questioned about their ability, they should go out and prove it. If they want to marry, they should work for it. Not all of us blind people are cry babies who whine to our mommy's when things aren't easy. Some of us take pride in ourselves and have a little more self respect then that. Some of us find it insulting that you, a blind people, would have the gaul to actually make a documentary, saying how oppressed we are. When the actual adjective you should have used was fucking lazy, or fucking useless.
Its because of you, and people like you, that blind people are still thought of as weak and helpless. its because of you, and people like you, that none of the rest of us self respecting blind people, who don't want to take what we're given, who want to work for a bit more, and who aren't afraid to break a sweat doing it, are still "oppressed" as you put it.
You don't want to be oppressed anymore, then stop your bitching, chave your mommy change your underwear, and go out and start working for yourself. Stop wanting everything to be easy, stop wanting the world to be as easy for you as it is for a sighted person. Your not sighted, and its never going to be. No matter how many laws you get passed, or how many documentaries you make.
Stop wasting our fucking lives by telling the sighted people across the world, that us blind people are nothing more than a sack of whiny, lazy, helpless children. If you find a wall in front of you, instead of bitching, knock it the fuck down. Not only will your life eventually become easier, but you will be filled with an overwhelming sense of self-accomplishment. A feeling that I'm sure you've never felt before, because your parents, or the government, or your teachers, or some authority, has probably spoonfed you all your life.
So while your out making whiny documentaries to admit how helpless you are, I'll be off trying to make myself fit into the world. Don't try to change the shape of the hole, change the shape of the peg your trying to fit into it. I'll translate, don't try and make the world conform to you, your a lot smaller, you have to change to fit the world.

wow, well said cody. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Librated dilapidation, it strikes me that you're slightly confusing the issues in front of us as visually impaired people. people questioning our abilities because of our lack of sight, is not the same thing as people actively oppressing us because of it. For example you sight the fact that blind parents are asked questions on how they'd cope with a child because of their not being able to see. Now that stems from ignorance not oppression. If we were dealing with oppression then visually impaired people would simply have any children removed from them at birth and would never be given the chance to prove their abilities as parents. Oppression is the act of forcefully limiting the rights of a group of people and I can't actually think of a single example where I have ever felt oppressed, either in Britain where I was born and grew up, or now here in the United States. I can think of plenty of examples of having to deal with ignorance, and that I think is what you really mean.

Of course I don't know where you are from and it is entirely possible that circumstances are different there, however, were you truly oppressed where ever you are, is it really likely that you'd be able to create such a documentary?

I think SilverLightning pretty much summed it up for me when he said that we live in a World where, granted through no fault of our own, we just have to be that bit better than the rest. I mean I wouldn't have worded it quite as vehemently as he did, *Grin*. But the point is well taken. As a group we can piss and moan all we wish but the simple fact is that we live in a sighted World. It's a World built by people with sight to work for people with sight. Yes we certainly are a minority, and yes sometimes because of the ignorance in others that stems from us being a minority group we will face discrimination. But again, the key word there is ignorance not oppression.

I can certainly understand why you using the word oppression would irritate many on here too, I must confess I read this topic when you first posted it and came close to formulating a response at that time because of your claim that we were all oppressed. It seems to me that the moment you start throwing out such forthright condemnations of the World at large that you're only likely to achieve getting people's backs up and that generally isn't a good way of going about trying to encourage change.

I would think taking an approach along the lines of showing people how negative stereotypes impact upon lives of visually impaired people would be far better received by audiences than calling them all oppressors because really, they're not. You're clearly educated for example, one can't help but wonder how much of an education you'd have received were you truly oppressed.

I don't say that the message you wish to portray to the World isn't a message worth portraying, I just think you need to consider the ways you're doing it, and start by toning down the accusatory language.

Dan.

Rather than a documentary, I still posit that we need to change how the funding for technology works. We are in a technological universe, and blind people need access to Braille displays and the like to do their jobs. This doesn't come out of thin air, and if I hadn't gotten moey in the early nineties from inheritance from a distant relative, I could never have bought a screen reader or anything else I needed.
Motivation is fine, but if the sink in my daughter's bathroom is leaking, I will opt for my pipe wrench rather than some motivational speech. The tool and a bit of torque is gonna get the job done, not a documentary, and not bitching about bitching or trying to motivate.
Then again, I guess I'm more a man of action / look for solutions and the tools it takes to get people there.
Take all this complaining that blind people don't have the social skills or whatever to work. Oh yeah? Why not tool them and find out. Such numbnuts complaining is about as useless as if I stood in said bathroom with the pipe leaking and said how bathrooms needed more water retension skills. Nope, as for me, I'm stickin' to the pipe wrench style solutions. And won't respect any agencies that don't: Show us the money and let's tool up these low income folks, get 'em the technology they need to compete, and I'm betting on a win.

I’m glad I spark such attention. This documentary isn’t some motivational aim to make us look helpless. I used the word oppress to illustrate that we as a population have to work much harder than a person with certain privileges. My documentary isn’t some “Oh We are just like everybody else” ignorance fest. I am well aware that people who are blind and visually impaired can live, work and get married if they want to. I’m not denying that we can assimilate. Technology advancements occur each day and each day we lag behind in terms of adapting our adaptive technology. I’m doing something about the change I want to see. I’m not complaining behind closed doors. I’ve been presenting trainings for the last 2 years in order to educate social workers on the most respectful ways to work with clients who are blind and visually impaired! Don’t accuse me of being helpless! You don’t know me at all. I was amansapated at 17 and had my own apartment before I graduated high school. I am the first person let alone woman in my family to graduate college. I grew up living off of food stamps and know struggle and triumph. I am not aiming to please anyone because no one will always agree with any cause I pursue because it’s not just about me. I’m so glad I could get you all so worked up over my documentary.

Then you need to go find a bookshelf, take a dictionary off of it, and look up the word oppressed. it doesn't mean anything near what you just said. someone who went to college should know that.

All right. I honestly do appreciate all of the feed back. Any good plan of action needs arguments for and against it.

sell it to 20/20 and then we will talk....

agreed with Cody, Dan, and others; I especially love the last post.

Dan, I think you've got the best post on here. You were able to be constructive and get your points across, without being inflamatory.

Cody, you make some good points, and I don't deny that. I do agree with you and Dan that I would not use the word oppressed to describe us as blind people, at least not in America.

However, I also think nicki has some valid points too, even if she has exaggerated in her language. In my opinion, you have seriously downplayed some of the circumstances we have to live with as blind people. It truly is much harder for us to gain employment, and I know through my own experience, as well as that of friends, that it's not always a blind person's own fault that they are unable to obtain a job. I used to think that way, until life came along and kicked me in the ass. Apparently it has not done that to you yet? And, BTW, the friends I speak of are well-educated, well-adjusted blind people, who have pounded the pavement for work, not just sat on their asses. I know what she means about SSI/SSDI checks. I used to hear the term, "disincentive to work," and did not understand it a bit. But, truly in some cases, it does make more financial sense for a disabled person, blind or otherwise, to live off the government than to work at a job with a subsistance wage, which is often what disabled people find as work. i'm not advocating that we live that way, I'm just saying that I have seen and experienced this.

Some blind parents have indeed had their children taken away from them strictly because they were blind, and had to fight the system to get them back. Many of us did go through social hell as children, and our personalities have been effected by it for life. As adults, it is our choice how we handle things, but some of that childhood experience does influence who we become. Lastly, Nicki is right in that here im America, we have it pretty good, and probably places like Canada, the UK, etc. But in countries I have visited like the Dominican Republic and Mexico, I would say that the blind are an oppressed population. Their views have not advanced to some of the rest of the world.

Having said that, Dan is right. Though I have fought ignorance, discrimination, and other such things, I would not say I've felt oppressed. I do know that we live in a sighted world, and have to work harder than most, and I accept that. We are not oppressed, hopeless or helpless, but we are also generally not treated as equal to our sighted peers, and therefore we must keep striving for that equality.

I guess I would have to see this documentary before I could comment much further. These are just my thoughts in response to the posts here.

I am a social worker. We use the word oppression Referring to populations that are frequently disadvantaged. My documentary is my method to give our population recognition for our accomplishments and show how we survive day to day. This documentary is not written or designed to make our population appear helpless. This is not some under handed way for me to gain fame or pity.

I am an advocate and an activist and I have worked my whole life. I have never had anybody cut me much slack and I do not believe in getting my hand held through life. I do think it’s fine if we live as a community with others and learn how to assimilate to society.

People with disabilities, people in poverty, those without health care, women, those who are lgbt, etc are oppressed in our society. It is a word widely used in the health fields and it’s not a term that I’m using because I’m trying to sell our population for my film. I am educating to reduce stereotyping and discriminating by motivating others to do the same. I’m not trying to be the spokesperson for all living with blindness and visual impairments. I am not also deliberately trying to be mean to people. I have responded to a zoner through several pms trying to explain exactly what I’m writing here. The link to my blog is on my first post and I have posted summaries of the 9 days of filming and several other experiences. I don’t really benefit from this project. Any money made will go to an organization that is dedicated to helping students afford adaptive technology since it’s so expensive and I will keep a certain percentage to cover traveling expenses and to pay the man and woman who are helping me film and edit. I’m doing this project because I can and will see it through no matter how much resistance b/c I’m choosing to do something about the problems I see. Also you find these posts on my blog. If you have a problem with this than you should know that I can read this topic without being logged in. So any person could also access these posts without an account. This is in response to a pm I’ve received. Any feed back only serves to build up hype for me and I will use positive and negative attention to promote this documentary. I am trying to show all sides. Although, it is difficult to downplay my project without viewing it first. I will be much more apt to digest these responses after the film is public. I do not aim to please all of you because I will never please everybody.

if you wanna educate people about the misconceptions out there, why not just live your life as you see fit? isn't that enough? to me, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone thinks; I'm not on this earth to please anyone but myself.

Well, some people feel that they need to spread the word so to speak. Maybe it's the only way they can feel any sense of closure for injustices they've suffered. Perhaps this is their own personal way of getting revenge on the people that have wronged them by somehow making them look like asses. Then again, it could also be that they think that by exposing the blind or other so-called "oppressed" populations (by the way, I too think oppressed is the wrong word, it's not like we're living in ancient China where blind babies were put in a basket and sent on their way down the river), they're bringing attention to the problems we face on a day-to-day basis. Personally, while I don't agree with either approach, because there's a 99% chance it won't have the desired effect anyway, I'm not going to say it's not right for somebody else. If spreading the word via a documentary is what will help you find closure from a rough childhood or unforgiving society, I'm cool with that. Just because I don't agree with it doesn't mean the person making it should be belittled for their opinion.

I'm not belittling; simply expressing my views.