Discrimination has a flavor

[leora]

In fact, it has two flavors. I think a problem I've seen in discussions about discrimination and privilege is that there are two very different ways that people can be discriminated against, and often people are talking at cross-purposes when someone is arguing that one flavor isn't there, and someone else says yes, discrimination happens, this

Comments

[right]

Your second-to-last paragraph is so incredibly true. And clear. I enjoyed this post a lot, and found it really insightful.

[leora]

On a meta note... I'm glad it seems to have come across clearly. Sometimes I get ideas like this in my head and I want to communicate them, but I don't have any words, just the ideas. And how it comes out when I write it is often very disappointing. So, I'm always pleased when it comes out clearly enough that I appear to have communicated what fell into place in my head.

And sometimes, when I'm very lucky, the words just flow... and I have two stories that I wrote that way, and I quite like them.

[siderea]

Yay! Well put! Can I post a link to this in my journal?

[leora]

Sure and thank you... I was fairly sure this sort of observation is not new, but I was hoping it was still worth saying. I'm pleased people seem to feel it was.

[emberleo]

Having come from Siderea's journal to this wonderful essay, I too am interested in linking it. I'm also putting it in my favorites.

The particular example you chose also amuses and pleases me - My parents and siblings by blood are all left-handed. I'm about half right-handed, including that I write right-handed. My primary household growing up was all female, right down to the cats. It's a very interesting place to be, growing up in a household where what makes me fit into the outside world is what makes me stand out at home, and vice versa.

--Ember--

[leora]

Why thank you, and by all means feel free to link. That does make for an interesting mix... My brother might have had a bit of that being the only or near only extrovert in a family of introverts.

[madmanatw]

Now, people may say, we don't discriminate against left-handed people, because we treat them exactly the same as right-handed people.

This always makes me think of this quote: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges". Just as obviously even, er, handed.

[lady_angelina]

Sort of tangential to the point of your entire post, I am very right-handed, but there are some things that I can only do left-handed (or that would be very awkward for me to do right-handed). But I know a few people who are completely left-handed, and it makes me realize that I and my fellow right-handers take the ease of many tasks for granted, just because items were designed for right-handed folks. Okay, that said

[leora]

Rambling is encouraged in my journal. My comment text is "# rambles / ramble" and has been for a long time. Off-topic comments are welcome on any post (basic rules of civility still apply, but I view all of my posts as open forum for communication on any topic). I ramble a lot myself.

I think it's the complete unconsciousness of the advantage that is the real problem. When it's conscious and malicious, well, that can change culturally. But when it's unconscious and non-obvious, it's hard to get people to understand that there is an ~unfair~ advantage. People will argue, why should we have to change just to make life easier for someone else, and view it as that someone else getting special privileges that they don't get. They don't see how it's already unfairly tilted toward them, because they're just using the system as it exists.

On a side note, I think it was conuly who recently posted an article about different kinds of street designs. One of them does put pedestrians first. The US, unfortunately, has put a huge focus on cars. And it's

[emberleo]

Okay, now I'm curious - what benefits do you perceive to the hearing in learning ASL. I'm not saying I see none (I use little bits of ASL myself, having learned them in Girl Scouts and such) but your list interests me because it's probably far better thought out.

--Ember--

[leora]

First, I'll briefly deal with the issue of blind people. Obviously, sign language will not work for most blind people, and it probably isn't worth the effort for most of them to learn it. The idea is for most people to be multilingual with at least one sound-based language and one signed language. But it is worth noting that ASL is often the language of the deafblind, signed into the palm of the hand, just as Braille tends to be their writing system. There are issues with signing ASL into a palm, and often fingerspelling must be resorted to, but a signed language for the blind isn't as silly as it first sounds