“He was raised oral without much exposure to Deaf culture and community—and here at Gallaudet he, for the most part, was an outcast. Wirick vented to me before about deaf-to-deaf audism, which enraged him. He didn’t like how Gallaudet treated him and didn’t know how to fit in the university.”Some students, especially new ones who were brought up in an oral/aural environment are able to recognize, understand and cope with this general clique-y-ness circle in a Deaf environment seen on the campus of Gallaudet University. But in Wrick's case he claimed to have experienced these oppressive attitudes acted out his frustration by espousing alarming predictions of shootings on campus. But other students of similar upbringings might have shown their frustrations through suicides or by leaving the university which may or may not have been attributed to the well known Deaf on deaf oppression in some circles on the campus of Gallaudet University. I know this happens. I was one of them that experienced those attitudes against me in rare instances. But the difference here is that I recognized it was a problem early on and it wasn't about me but them.
The first clue I got about this "attitude" seen on campus was through my good friend of mine who also grew up orally/aurally when we both lived in Washington while growing up. He was my first contact when I first arrived at Gallaudet University since he had been there for about a year or so prior to my arrival. He was the only person I knew on the whole campus. Soon after arriving I finally met him after so many years apart. He began to introduce me to a few people but soon quickly noticed a pattern of him avoiding me. I couldn't figure out why he acted like that. I soon found out he had joined a fraternity and once in he was lost in his own world of getting accepted by his own frat boys in the Alpha Sigma Pi or the "Cobra" fraternity. This was early on in 1988 when I first arrived. I shrugged it off and continued to make friends, learned about the Deaf community, ASL and continued my studies. I never had any desire to join a fraternity in the first place though I had gotten a few offers which was kind of funny looking back. I felt that joining a fraternity was simply too "clique-y" for my own taste simply because of my independent nature. I had better things to do than to worry about getting "accepted" by an organization.
Joke: Why did a frog hop across a busy road?
Answer: He was taking a leap of faith.
Back in 1990 or 1991 fake "FROG fraternity" t-shirt was set up as a joke aimed at fraternities and soroties when I was a student in Gallaudet University at the time it happened. Check out my blog piece I did in 2006 "One FROGgy year at Gallaudet University."
Back in around 1990 or 1991 on the campus of Gallaudet University there was this new independent “fraternity” group who called themselves “FROG” with the Greek capital letters phi (F), rho (R), omicron (O), and gamma (G) or (ΦРОГ ). When finger-spelled it is spelled out as the letter “F,” “R,” “O,” along with an upside down “L” to look like the capital Greek letter “rho” which spells "FROГ."
This was a fine and dandy thing except that some of the fraternity members on campus were whining about the fact that “ FROГ “ was not a legitimate Greek organization. Probably because somebody misunderstood what this whole "FROG" thing was about. I remember hearing about this complaints and just laughed over it. The hilarity was over the fact that some of the campus fraternity members actually felt threatened by a group of people who wanted to sell green T-shirts with large greek letters that spelled "FROГ" on the front. This was never meant to be an official Greek organization. The people who brainstormed this idea just wanted to sell T-shirts to make a point and for people who are proud to be independents and not frat members. It was Robert Johnson, creator of Sextoon who was killed last year in a car accident, who helped set up and organize this short-lived ad hoc “Greek” organization.
This ad hoc "Greek" organization, "FROГ," was all about poking fun at the Greek organizations during their infamous Rock Festival weekends.
The beauty of FROГ was that anybody can join, except for members of legitimate Greek organizations on college campuses. Also, no hazing is required to be a member. Just buy the T-shirt and, voila, you're a member of the Greek "FROГ" organization. Ribbit. Ribbit.But this Wirick case raises some serious questions on the possibility of these "Deaf on deaf" and even "Deaf on Deaf" avdism charges that do exist on campus although I would suspect it's a rare thing if not uncommon when compared to 1990. Newer students may feel vulnerable because of their oral/aural upbringings or because of their cochlear implants who may get rejected because of that. Again, not a common practice, I believe. Some students are able ignore this problem while others, like Wrick perhaps, dealt with it differently. This is reminescence of how students who got bullied would retaliate in the wrong way against his/her oppressors. But this time is different, we have the ever pervasive internet, new words being invented to describe select oppression, and new groups over the internet that help create more fear and suspicion or create a false sense of unity that have perhaps helped foster bullying attitudes on the campus of Gallaudet University. What are the factors here that contribute to this attitude of elitism by the few on the campus of Gallaudet University?
Something to think about. Is elitism a serious problem on campus thinking it's justified to have these, though rare, examples of Deaf on deaf/hh oppression? Maybe it's not a rare thing and it's more common than one would think?
If there are Deaf people who have actually accused Tayler Mayer, owner of Deafread, of being an "avdist" then we can certainly expect Deaf students (maybe some faculty members?) who have accused other deaf/hh and perhaps some Deaf students of avdism as well whether directly or indirectly. Pretty silly but it does happen. Just look at Tayler Mayer as an example of that elitist attitude.
But the question here is what is helping promote or encourage that kind of an oppressive environment on campus? Would some of the more highly sought after fraternities or sororities such as KG (Kappa Gamma) or PKZ (Phi Kappa Zeta) be somewhat or partially responsible in helping establish and promote that kind of an environment over the years where they are sometimes seen as an "elitist" members? What about sport jocks such as the football team? Wrestling? Baseball team? What about counselors who do not seriously take these types of oppression against new students who do not necessarily "fit in" in the general sense of the word here. Would it be possible that some of the Deaf faculty members may also help contribute to this environment on campus as well? Maybe some organizations or groups seen over the internet could have been indirectly responsible in helping encourage that "oppressive" environment on campus in an elitist sense? Maybe it's an "entitlement" or heirarchy thing like being a 7th, 8th or 9th generation Deaf person. Who knows? Perhaps Wrick exaggerated his claims in order bring attention to himself? Perhaps not and everything he said was true?
I think the Wrick's case brings up more questions than not on what's happening on the campus of Gallaudet University that led him to act that way. And that "unity" and acceptance on campus was never really the case in Wrick's eyes.
What do you think?
