The hearing community has, through the course of history, treated the Deaf community as a particularly undesirable species of weed. Hearing aids, cochlear implants, speech education, the marginalization of signed languages, sterilization programs, and now even the use of CRISPR gene splicing technology, are all attempts to remove or correct the Deaf weeds in humanity’s garden. Crab theory is a major and ongoing discussion in the Deaf community due to the intensity of the internalized oppression felt by group insiders who have often been intentionally isolated from their peers and language models. This poem uses the metaphor of unwanted weeds as a way to process that history and reframe the community as a stubbornly resilient population, capable of growth and beauty.
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The hearing community has, through the course of history, treated the Deaf community as a particularly undesirable species of weed. Hearing aids, cochlear implants, speech education, the marginalization of signed languages, sterilization programs, and now even the use of CRISPR gene splicing technology, are all attempts to remove or correct the Deaf weeds in humanity’s garden. Crab theory is a major and ongoing discussion in the Deaf community due to the intensity of the internalized oppression felt by group insiders who have often been intentionally isolated from their peers and language models. This poem uses the metaphor of unwanted weeds as a way to process that history and reframe the community as a stubbornly resilient population, capable of growth and beauty.
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Douglas Ridloff
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