Sunday, May 01, 2011
When signing could be hazardous to your health
Mostly it's the lack of education but people who use sign language in public places to communicate could potentially be perceived as to be something else and get attacked thinking they are a part of a gang by other gang members. So, it's not a real good idea to go along with this whole "hoodie" mentality when people can easily mistake you for a gang member. It's bad enough when you have hearing gang members think deaf people belong to a gang just because of their signing. It'd be a bad idea wear a hoodie jacket with the hood up while signing might cause some real gang members to think they're seeing a bunch of new gang members flashing their own signs. It actually happened to a deaf guy who recently who got stabbed in the back for signing in a bar thinking he was flashing signs. Crazy world, yes. But that's just an unfortunate byproduct caused by a lack of education on the general public.
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6 comments:
One time, in Reston, VA at 7-11 near W&OD bike trail. Me and a friend stopped for a gator aid at the 7-11. While drinking and having a rest by the 7-11 we were "talking". Gang guys came up and didn't look friendly. But they saw we were using sign language because deaf. but at first they looked very mean and I remembered story of Gallaudet student
That's very true, have heard of several stories where deaf folks either got hurt or killed by gang members because they thought they (deaf people)were using rival gang member signs. Signing with a hood up, isn't smart, I agree.
I watch local news today and the deaf victim's photo appeared . The problem was his appearance look like gang type attire. . He look like a thug so he came in wrong time and wrong place.
Yeah, looking like a gang of some type doesn't help the situation either.
Can be messy too MIke, try going out of an evening for a drink with a dozen signers without an umbrella :)
I have seen the victim's photo. In the photo he didn't look like a gangster or a thug. He looked like a typical young man dressed in average attire. Who knows what he and his friends were wearing that night. So, I don't think we can conclude that what they were wearing contributed to letting some crazy 45 year old woman think they were throwing around gang signs. Who knows what happened?
But, yes wrong place and wrong time unfortunately.
Scary.
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