Interpreters for Social Justice: A Call to Action

Hello again it has been quite a while, and now this rambler is on a mission!

 I am in the process of establishing in the Seattle area, a cohesive network of qualified and committed American Sign Language interpreters prepared to work with grassroots social justice organizations in the movement for collective liberation. Over the course of the last several months I have been inspired by–among other catalysts–the Coalition of Anti-Racist whites in Seattle, #Black Lives Matter, INCITE!, and many of my magnificent and powerful friends both Deaf/Hard of Hearing (HH) and hearing (that’s what a person who is not D/deaf is called ;-), to start my work on this project. Accessible opportunities for solidarity in the movement are long past due, and it is a matter of accountability on the part of radical hearing and deaf interpreters that we provide access to a diversity of experiences. Out of these motivations and a strikingly conducive and encouraging grassroots climate, comes the beginning of the organization currently entitled Interpreters for Social Justice, Seattle. If you want to be a part of powering this organization as an interpreter, organizer, or in any other capacity you feel compelled to contribute, I would love to hear from you!

 This organization will begin the process of revitalizing reciprocity on the part of Seattle interpreters, specifically in areas of great need with few ties to signing culture. I hope that it will be a step on the road to making actions like the rallies and protests in solidarity with Ferguson readily accessible to the Deaf community and building strong relationships between Deaf and hearing activists. At the moment access to these events in Seattle is reliant upon happy accidents like the one I experienced on Tuesday Nov. 25th. I was strongly compelled, for my own reasons, to attend the march and rally in solidarity with Ferguson in the streets of Seattle organized by NAACP and United Black Clergy. A Deaf/HH friend and excellent radical disability justice activist,  also autonomously attended; we connected at some point during the day and realized we would both be participating. Luckily enough, after a period of confusion and scuffle–you know, the usual standing on things up high waving at strangers, signing to…nobody–we were able to locate one another and I was able to ask my sweetie (a hearing non-signing rad activist) to relay the speeches to me, so that I could interpret the information. In many ways it was a beautiful moment of resourcefulness and solidarity. Ultimately, it is a testament to the severe lack of reliable interpreters for ongoing resistance and radical movements across the country! How many Deaf/HH folks who wish to stand in solidarity with the Ferguson protests forgoed this rally and many others because they knew they would be able to access neither the motivating and meaningful speeches nor essential instruction and dialogue at the action? Deaf/HH folks cannot generally attend a public rally, protest, or other grassroots action with any kind of assurance that they will have communication access, even those who have close and politically active friends who are interpreters, cannot rely on this kind of serendipity.

 As a field, American Sign Language interpreting is transitioning from the friends and family model into an era of the professional interpreter. We are  increasingly adopting what we call the ally model of interpreting and yet as our profession grows I see diminishing numbers of sign language interpreters working in spaces where they are not paid. I would caution that coming out of a period characterized by strong personal relationships and now pushing a work model invoking the ally (not only as a practice but as a noun or identity) in a profession which hosts much fewer of these close relationships, we run an increasing risk of encouraging the ideological myth of altruism. There are many of us who, upon a thorough self-examination will discover that we believe the work we do to be radical: a form of political or social reform affecting the fundamental nature of an oppressive system. But the systems which have been accessed are largely the institutions which reproduce the same systemic oppressions that disempower Deaf, Queer, Disabled people and People of Color. Between 1970 and 1990, as the right to communication access hung in the balance around Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, the participation of interpreters in the movement may have been a radical act of solidarity. The success of this movement was the result of tireless work from Disability Rights communities and Deaf communities in Solidarity and resulted in a reformation of communication access nationwide.This access was hard won and a serious milestone for Deaf/HH access equality. It also began a period of secure paid work for ASL interpreters. What is radical or progressive even, about getting paid $55/hr (oh shit, they** said it…and that’s on average) to work for the state,  or corporations? We are becoming increasingly commodified and therefore a functional cog in the machinery of capitalism, reinforcing its hold on the vital resources of our planet and its human resources, now including communication access.This is not to say that our work is not valuable, it truely* is and we do deserve to be compensated. However, if we are truely revolutionaries; if we believe that our state has been corrupted by corporate interest and capitalist greed which subjugates the underprivileged and reinforces existing hegemonic power structures; if we desire the destruction of this broken system and revival of our society; if we believe in the untapped power of the enlightened masses, we cannot allow for our institutionalized work to outweigh the need for radical access! No one provides financial assistance for hiring (increasingly expensive) interpreting services for grassroots action against institutionalized racism, ableism, sexism, audism, continue the indexing… Access must be made available and apparent to underserved organizations, movements, and people who desire and deserve solidarity with Deaf/HH communities and do not have the means to pay. Our relationships with hearing organizations doing a diversity of radical work–some of which is familiar to the Deaf community and some of it quite novel–is tenuous at best. Those relationships can often be most effectively accessed through an interpreter! It is our responsibility as hearing individuals who sign and who cultivated our marketable skills in the hands of the Deaf community (quite literally),  to make access available in these spaces. This is the mission I am on: the formation of Interpreters for Social Justice, Seattle hopes to cultivate meaningful relationships with organizations doing radical work in Seattle and connect these organization with resources and services necessary to begin the work of coalition-building between organizations run by People of Color, Queers, women, Disabled/Crip people, hearing interpreters and the Deaf/HH community!

 So, if this post has made you think, opened your eyes to an opportunity you didn’t know existed, made you angry, made you hopeful, or told you all the things you already know–contact me! We are moving now, gathering motivated minds and hands Deaf and hearing alike and moving out into the streets with these organizations. Let us know you want us, or want to be one of us, reclaim your power by making access a reality and giving hands to all voices in the movement for collective liberation!

 

This post is a brief and passionate display of my intent and energy. It is by all means open to your criticism, questions, and other feedback and is by no means perfect or comprehensive. I welcome discussion, questions, ideas, and refutations of all kinds. Please be respectful of those who may read your comments and be aware of using explicit or provocative language or subject matter which may be triggering to your audience. If you are interested in joining this group in any capacity, you can contact me at socialjusticeterps@gmail.com.
*don’t question my spelling of ‘truely’ friends, that’s how I spell truely. It’s prettier ;p

**gender neutral pronouns (for me!) thanks. confused? look it up. And/or look for future posts on personal pronouns.

HEARING-BLIND

Over this last weekend there manifested several instances of chaotic thought vying for a spot on this blog. There are two thought experiences that won out, their common thread: identity politics, of course!

[Warning: the following blog assumes a general acquaintance with identity politics in Deaf and Queer communities and includes some ASL (American Sign Language) glosses. Please enjoy with a grain of salt!]

Funny, you’d think by now I’d have a general grasp on the intricacies of identity having struggled with my own for several years prior to and during university and ultimately studying the stuff (hehe, as though it were a substance). The truth is that identity is fluid and especially in moving to a new place with new people and new micro-cultures… I’m finding myself having to reassert and re-examine much more regularly than prior to the move. In a lot of ways I think this is freeing and educating, not allowing me to become TOO comfortable (addressed in a bit) with any situation at any time. Traveling will do this to a person–force you to re-evaluate constantly and if you want to locate a support system or common bond to really search yourself and your experiences. If all of this has you nodding in agreement and waiting for the point well then you’ll enjoy this next bit. With that! . . .

I spent the weekend at the Seattle Deaf Film Festival (the details of that experience you’ll be able to read about on Vagabonds shortly, if you so choose), and after two rounds of films we joined a group for dinner near the University of Washington campus. The topics of the evening harkened to the film content which of course included Deaf and Queer/Trans (capitalization? hmm… future topic!) identity issues. In a conversation with Austin of ‘Austin Unbound’  I mentioned the ballots that were passed out asking the audience members to rate the films. I expressed my discomfort with the identity labels provided in the ‘who are you’ section of the ballot which attempts to glean the demographic of the audience:

• Deaf; Hard of Hearing; Deaf-Blind; Non-disabled (which we all promptly crossed out)
• Male; Female; Trans; Other

After a brief lament on the insufficiency of identity labels in general I stated that I simply crossed out ‘non-disable’ and wrote in an ‘other’ box and marked it, remarking that -gloss- HEARING DIFFFERENT++ HAVE, my intended point being that simply ‘hearing’ would also be an insufficient label for the various types of hearing members of the Deaf community (topic for another blog). However, Austin’s response was at once unexpected, heartening, and intriguing: YES, LIKE HEARING-BLIND, with a thoughtful look on his face.

Hearing-Blind. Of course, what a natural parallel with the familiar Deaf-Blind identity label (silly Mary, why shouldn’t this occur to you?). But hearing people would never identify this way, certainly hearing people outside the D/deaf community would never identify as ‘Hearing’ either. Hearing is certainly, if you’ll allow the allusion to countless Deaf and disability theory writings, an invisible identity. However, unlike invisible disabilities, hearing as an invisible identity is theoretically invisible to itself; not attempting to define itself but seeking only to identify all those which it is NOT and placing itself in opposition to those classifications. This unconscious practice often results in hegemonic ideologies. This is the position of a hearing person who does not know oneself to be hearing. This is the ‘hearing’ I believe D/deaf individuals to invoke in their articulation of HEARING. Because of this, when I or someone in the community identifies me as Hearing, I only feel a separation between myself and the D/deaf individuals with whom I’m trying to connect. I do not identify with this word: HEARING. Perhaps I should? Perhaps those of us with an eye on this invisible identity should move to give it form and meaning? Are hearing and Deaf mutually exclusive identities? (Topic for another blog.)

The interesting thing for me about Austin’s effortless articulation of HEARING-BLIND is its function in obscuring the paralleled identities of DEAF/HEARING in a linguistic subversion of the existing hegemony. This instantly (and temporarily) replaces the identity Deaf as the dominant paradigm. Ultimately, this subversion simultaneously directs the Deaf identity toward the established status of… non-disabled*, and therefor requires that the hearing identity disambiguate.  This is a fairly typical mobility for ‘Deaf’, indicative of its multi-faceted nature and its evolution from a finite oppositional classification to a cultural-linguistic identity label, but a refreshingly simple and relatively novel demand made upon ‘hearing’. -smile- So what the hell does hearing mean anyway!? Dumb word! (HAHA, oh the multiple turns of that phrase!)

Some concluding questions:

Would language serve more egalitarian purposes if currently invisible identities (i.e. hearing, white, straight, male) gained cognizant cultural identities effectively joining the masses of mediated and performed identities?

Or, would it be best to dispense of identity labels entirely–or at least their faithful performance–and compel individuals and communities to perform disidentification(1) practices to this end?

*How very ironic, I wonder if anyone checked both boxes? Deaf; Non-disabled…I wish everyone just checked that box!! Non-disabled… or maybe… hmmm oh what are some other fun labeling games we can play with all of that? List below please!

And so is concluded part 1 of 2. The second topic which won its place in my mind and on the blog is shortly to follow. In the meantime let’s play a game! It’s kind of like… pin the tail on the donkey. This being my first post (although I will always remain open to criticism) I’d love to hear from anyone who reads: where are my most pressing assumptions? Please, if you have questions of just want to point out what an ass if been in making a blatant assumption, post below! I have just appointed you my peer editor, thanks in advance for playing the part.