I5O

APPRECIATING DIVERSITY THROUGH STORIES

ABOUT THE LIVES OF DEAF PEOPLE OE COLOR

GLENN B . ANDERSON AND

KATRINA R . MILLER

ANDERSON IS DIRECTOP OF TRAINING.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS REHABILITATION

RESEARCH AND TRAINING CENTER FOR

PERSONS WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF

HEARING, L IHLE ROCK. MILLER IS AN

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF REHABILITATION

COUNSELOR EDUCATION, WINSTON-SALEM

STATE UNIVERSITY, WINSTON-SALEM, NC.

NE WAY OF ENHANCING appreciation of cultural diversity wiihin theAmerican Deaf community is by collecting and analyzing stories aboutDeaf people of color. The authors examined biographical profiles in na-tional print and visual media published since 1988. The materials fo-cused on life stories of individuals identified as Deaf persons of color(e.g.. Deaf and identified as Black'African American, Hispanic/l,atino.Asian/Pacific Islander, or American indian/AJaskan Native). Anecdoteswere selected that provided a sociocultural rather than medical orpathological perspective and reflected the featured individual's view-point. Four categories of shared experiences emerged: experiences re-lated to overcoming obstacles to educational opportunities, storiesabout individuals who influenced the direction the featured individualtook in life, childhood and family experiences, and experiences relatingto stereotypes, cultural conflicts, or discrimination. The authors con-clude by discussing lessons and messages derived from the stories.

America is noi like a blanket—otie piece of unhrokeJi cloth, thesame color, the same texture, the same size. America is more iike aquill—many pieces, nuiny colors, many sizes, all woven togetherby a common thread.

—THE REV. JESSE JACKSON (Reyes. 1992. p. 23)

As the American Deaf community be-comes increasingly multicultural, thetasks of appreciating its diversity andweaving together the common threadsnecessitate that one first understandthe commonalities shared by the di-verse groups within that communit)'.One way to facilitate appreciation of di-versity is to examine life stories of Deafpeople of color as reported hy the me-dia. For example, in 1996 an ariiclc ap-

peareti in the Silent News about a 13-year old Black student n^imed KevinHall, who was attencting the St, RitaSchool for the Deaf in Cincinnati, OH("Young Deaf Golfer," 1996). Hall wasthe first student in the school's 80-yearhistory to play a varsity sport at a nearliyptihlic school, where he was a memberof the golf team. As a high school fresh-man, he shot a 78 in a local countrycluh tournament, a score that amazed

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LIVES OF DEAF PEOPLE OF COLOR

many of the spectators. He was even-tuiilly recruitt'd to play on the golfteam at Ohio State Univei-sity. While at-tending Ohio State, he took a sign lan-guiiijc intcri^rettT with him to everyclass and maintaint-d a giatle point av-erage over 3-0 (GoUWeb Wire Services,20()4). During his senior year, he wonthe Big Ten Conference golf tourna-ment hy 11 strokes, let! Ohio State toIIH.- team title, and became the firstBlack golfer in Big Ten history to shootunticr 200 in league championships(Wlieeler, 2004). His college golf ca-reer having ended in summer 2(X)4.his goals were to become a |irofes-sional golfer and join the ProfessitinalGolfers' Association tour (Hoffman,2004).

Hall's stor\' is a micn^osm of therich diversity of the Deaf community.As a group, Deaf students attendingelementary and secondary schools aremore diverse and multicultural thanthe general school-age population(Sass-Lehrer, Gerner tie Garcia, &Rovins, 199S), Our purpo.se in thepresent article is to provide Deaf stu-dents of color with information aboutpositive role models aiid success sto-ries relevant to their own ethnic cul-tures as well as the mainstream Deafand hearing cultures.

MethodWe located biographical profiles ofDeaf persons of color in nationalnewspapers, magazines, periodicals,books, and videt)tapes published inthe United States in 1988 or after.These materials focused on the lifestories of indi\'itluals who were identi-fied as Deaf persons of color (e.g.,Deaf and identified as Black/AfricanAmerican, Hispanic/I.atino, Asian/Pacific Islander, <.)r Ainerican Indian/Alaskan Native). We selected anec-dotes that provided a socitKulturalrather than a pathological perspec-tive, and that reflected the viewpoint

of the featured individual. Biographiesthat did nt.)t meet these criteria werenot included. Four categories of expe-rience emerged from analysis of thematerial we collected: experiences re-lated to overcoming obstacles to edu-cational opportunities, stories aboutpeople who played a key role in influ-encing the directions the featured in-dividuals took in their lives, childhoodand family experiences, and experi-ences relating to stereotypes, culturalconfiicts, or discrimination,

Overcoming Obstacles toEducational OpportunitiesMany oi' the stories were alioui en-countering obstacles to educationalopportunities, Tliese obstacles werenot solely related to the experience ofbeing Deaf; they were als(.) attributableto the sociopolitical and economiccontexts of the featured individuals'lives. Several of these stories reflect thegreat lengths to which some individu-als and family members went to ensureaccess to educational opportunities.

Lindsay DunnUnder the apartheid system in SouthAfrica, young Lindsay Dunn had tochange his last name from a commonSwahili name to that of his mother'suncle, "Dunn." His uncle was of mixedBlack and White ancestr)'; thus, hewas considered "Colored," which af-forded him a higher status than beingcla.ssified as Black. Sch(K,)!s for Coloredchildren were free, I)Ut the school fcjrColored Deaf students was a 3-daytrain ride away from Dunn's home.Although he was accepted into theColored school for the Deaf, he stillhad to wait 3 years to enroll becauseof a long waiting list. Rather than al-low him to remain uneducated forthat length of time, his mother senthim to the local library every day.

Dunn spent his diiys reading, andwhen he was finally admitted into

school, he found that he was more ad-vanced academically than most of hisclassmates, Dunn earned his B.A, fromGallaudet University, and a master'sdegree from New York University. Hewas the first Black Deaf person hiredto work as a special assistant for diver-sity and community relations in theOffice of the President of GallaudetUniversity (Carroll, 1995). Currently,Dunn is special assistant for advocacyin the Office of the President andserves as a member of the President'sCouncil,

Yolanda RodriguezYolanda Rodriguez's father died whenshe was 12 years old, leaving hermother to raise five children alone.Rodriguez attendetl the Gabriel SchcH)!for the Deaf in Yauco, Puerto Rico, for4 years prior to being mainstreamedin a private school. She credits hermother with encouraging her to suc-ceed and never doubting her abilities.In Puerto Rico, she notes, "the gov-ernment school curricula failed toinclude Puerto Rican Sign languageand Puerto Rican Deaf culture" ("Ro-driguez Becomes Nation's First," 2002,pp. 28-29), Rodriguez, embraced a vi-sion focused on changing attitudestoward Deaf people in Puerto Ricf).She began working toward her goal byearning a bachelor's degree in specialeducation and serving as a teacher ofDeaf students, making recommenda-tions that the schools teach Puerto Ri-can Sign Umguage first and thenapproach instruction in reading, writ-ing, and speaking in Spanish as a sec-ond language.

By 1994, Rodriguez and Deaf col-league Elizabeth Rios had cofoundedan advocacy group. Sordos de PuertoRico. In 1998, Rodriguez was honoredas one of the United States' top teach-ers. This award resulted in a trip toWashington, DC, to meet with Presi-dent Bill Clinton. Rodriguez then left

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her close-knit family to enroll in thedoctoral program at Limar Universityin Beaumont. TX. which was her firstexperience of living outside PuertoRico. She earned an Hd.D, in (.leaf edu-cation in December 2001 and was ap-pointed supervisor of deaf educationin the Puerto Rico Department of DeafEducation.

Fat LamLike the mothers of Lindsay Dunn andYolanda Rodriguez. Fat I-ani's motherstrongly embraced the attainment ofeducation as a family value. Lam grewup in Hong Kong. His father diedwhen ]^m was 11 years old, whichforced the family to move from theirhome into a hut that, while rent free,had only a metal roof and no runningwater. At age 13, I^m took a job paint-ing toys in his home. He did this for ayear, then got a job making clothes in atailor shop, working grueling 12-hourdays. After 4 mfinths, he went on towork as a carpenter's apprentice,working a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift. Thisgave him more time for reading.

According to bim, "Education is al-ways important in the Chinese tradi-tion, especially for children fromimpoveri.shed families. Education isthe ticket out of poverty" (Shettle,1995, p. 21). A cciworker gave him ac-cess to books by passing on his son shigh school texts. After 6 years as acarpenter. Lam became a bricklayer,helping construct apartment build-ings. He finished all the high schoolbooks he had borrowed from hiscoworker.

Lam dreamed of going to collegeeven though he did not have a highschool diploma. He found informationabout Gallaudet when he visited theinformation service at the U.S. con-sulate in Hong Kong to look through acatalogue of American universities.When he came across an entry aboutGallaudet, it caught his attention be-

cause it described the school as a col-lege that served deaf studenLs. Afterwriting a letter to Gallaudet, he re-ceived an application and later tookand passed the atlmissions exam. Hewas then able to obtain financial su|vport from the Lutheran World Fedeni-tion to travel to America and enroll. Bythe time he entered Gallaudet, l-imhad studied enough English on hisown to enroll in sophomore-level Eng-lish classes. He eventually completedbachelor's, miLster's, and doctoral de-grees. He is the first Deaf [person fromChina to earn a Ph.D., and is a tenuredlircjfessor in the Department ofMathe-matics at Gallaudet (Shettie, 1995).

Robert DavUaLike \jAm, Robert Davila traveled fromafar to realize his dreams. At the age of8 years, he traveled 500 miles from amigrant farm near San Diego, CA, toattend the California School for theDeaf in Berkeley. When he enteredschool, no one there knew his nativelanguage, Spanish. Additionally, hedid not know Ainerican Sign Lan-guage (ASL), which made communi-cation with his classmates difficult,Davila learned both English and ASLquickly, making such rapid progressthat he won admission to Gallaudet atthe age of 16. Of Davila's rapiti acqui-sition of English and ASL. the Gal-laudet Progress Report noted. "Thatfeat would not be easily duplicated bya child with intact hearing; for pro-foundly deaf Robert Davila, it was noless than astonishing" (quoted inMoore & Panara. 1996. p. 282 ).

After Davila s graduation from Gal-laudet, he continued his education byattending graduate .school at a timewhen ven- few Deaf individuals weredoing so. Davila said that he attendedgraduate schools "that had rarely, ifever, .seen a deaf student before . . .and which offered no interpreters, nonote takers—in short, no supports"

(Moore & Panara, 1996, p. 282).Among Davila's many notable accom-plishments are his appointment ashead of the Office of Special Educa-tion and Rehabilitative Services in19S9 (which made him the highest-ranking deaf official in tlie history ofthe U.S. government) and his selec-tion as chief executive olTicer and vicepresident of the Natit)nat lechnicai In-stitute of the Deaf, Rochester Instituteof Technology, in 1996. In addition, heis the recipient of four honorary de-grees (Moore is Panara, 1996).

Life Choices: One PersonCan Make a DifferenceMost people who make positive lifechoices and experience success in.school or at work had at least one per-son in their life who helped make a dif-ference for them. Such an individual isgenerally someone who has served asa source of influence or inspiration, oras a mentor or role model. The biogra-phies of Deaf people of color empha-size the importance of role mottelsand key sup|iorters in their lives.

Andrew FosterIn the ca.se of Andrew Foster, two indi-viduals helped make a difference inhis life choices. For several years, Fos-iLT, an Alabama native, attended theAlabama School lor Colored Deaf inTalladega until his family reltKrated toDetroit, Ml, in 1942. When the familyarrived in Detroit, Worid War 1! hadbegun and the booming war industry'was in great need of workers. Stil! inhis teens. Foster began work in a fac-tory that produced military equip-ment (Moore & Panara, 1996).

After the war, Foster, who had com-pleted the eighth grade at the AlabamaSch(K)l forCxilored Deaf, applietl to theMichigan School for [he Deal" in Flint(Carroll & Mather, 1997). Because theschool would not accept him, he con-tinued his education by obtaining a

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LIVES OF DEAF PEOPLE OF COLOR

diploma in accountancy and businessadministration from the Detroit Insti-tute of Commerce in 1950 and a highschool diploma through correspon-ttcnce courses from the AmericanSCIKX)! in Chicago in 1951 (Moore &Panara, 1996). He also met Gallaudetalumnus Eric "MaJz" Malzkuhn, whowas a vocational rehabilitation coun-selor in Flint. Mabkuhn's impression ofFoster when he met him ("he was 22and I was 25") was that "he was just assmart as I wa.s—if not smarter" (Moore& Panara. 1996, p. 215). Althoughaware that that no Black student hadpreviou.sly graduated from Gallaudetand ttiat segregaticjn by race was thelaw, especially In many southern states,Malzkuhn encouraged and supportedFoster's application and admission toGallaudet in 1951 (Carroll & Mather,1997). Foster earned his bachelor'sdegree in education in 3 years and be-came the first Black student to gradu-ate from Gallaudet.

While Malzkuhn helped influenceFoster's decision t< attend Gallaudetand earn a college degree, a mission-ary who had given a lecture at Fos-ter's church in Detroit during histeenage years inspired him to con-sider a missionary career (Moore &Panara, 1996). The missionary's lec-ture was about his experiences work-ing with Deaf people in Jamaica.Through the lecture, Foster realizedthat Deaf people in the United Stateswere fortunate compared to Deafpeople in other parts of the world.They had many more opportunitiesto go to school to get an education,to attend church, and to learn aboutGod (Carroll & Mather, 1997). After(jbtaining graduate degrees fromEastern Michigan University andChristian Mi.ssions College in Seattle,he traveled to Africa in 1956, a timewhen many African countries were justbecoming independent from Euro-pean colonialism, laking on multiple

roles as teacher, administrator, teachertrainer, recruiter, fundraiser, and evan-gelist, he established 31 schools forDeaf children in 17 different Africancounti'ies, and has been widely ac-claimed as the lather of Deaf educa-tion in Africa (Kiyaga ik. Moores, 2003)-

Ernest HairstonThe stor>' of F.rnest Hairston also il-lustrates how a single role model canmake a difference. Hairston attendedthe West Virginia School for theColored Deaf and Blind (WVSCDB).near Charleston. Because very fewBlack students tjualified for college.WVSCDB provided highly skilled vo-cational training for its students. Stu-dents were assured of employmentin their vocational training areas aftercompleting school, regardless ofwhether they received a diploma or acertificate of completion. Studentswere also required to master twotrades before graduation, Hairston'strades were tailoring and barbering.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Courtruled that segregation was unconstitu-tional. West Virginia's schools wereamong the first to comply with theCourt's integration order. By 1955, stu-dents had transferred from WVSCDBto the West Virginia School for theDeaf and Blind (WVSDB). in Roniney.Hairston scored at the top of the classon placement tests and was enrolledin a 1-year college preparatory pro-gram. His English teacher. Mac Nor-wood, asked what he planned to doafter graduation, and Hairston replied,"Work as a barber." Norwood felt thatHairston ct)uld accomplish more thanhave a career in barbering. He becameHairston's mentor and encouragedhim to further his education and at-tend Gallaudet. Hairston went on toearn his undergraduate and graduatedegrees, and later a Ph.D.. from Gal-laudet, and eventually succeeded hismentor, Norwood, by becoming chief

of the Captioning and AdaptationsBranch of the Office of Special Educa-tion Programs of the U.S. Departmentof Education in 1989 (Moore & Panara,1996), Hairston is the coauthor ofBlack and Deaf in America (Hairston& Smith, 1983).

Karen Billie JohnsonKaren Billie Johnson was born inShiprock, NM, on the Navajo reserva-tion (Irgens & Wood, 1999, 2002),and was raised in a traditional six-sided hogan. At age 6 years, she wassent to the New Mexico School forthe Deaf, in Santa Fe. Johnson's initialadjustment to school life was difficult,She was very homesick, and she hadnever seen indoor plumbing or elec-trical appliances. Eveniually. Johnsonbegan to team ASL, An important ele-ment of ASL is to point at objects orpeople for identification. When John-son returned home from school, shequickly found that pointing a fingeror any object at another person isconsidered an insult in Navajo cul-ture. She had not learned this beforebecause of the communication bar-rier between her and her family mem-bers, One of her five brcJthers waswilling to learn ASL, which helpedjohn.son begin to understand theNavajo aspects of her bicultural envi-ronment. She learned to adjust herbehaviors in order to meet the expec-tations of the people around her atschool and at home.

Johnson credits several mentors forher desire to prtimote the understand-ing and pre.sei vation of Navajo cus-toms, but she says she was mostinfluenced by Esperanza Correa La-timer. Latimer was not only a Gallaudetgraduate, but the first Deaf alumnus ofthe New Mexict) School for the Deaf toreturn to teach at the .school. After at-tending a founder's day celebrationthat l.^timer had organized in honor oftwo local Deaf women, Johnson began

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to develop a sense of her Deaf historyand Navajo identity. As an adult. John-.son was invited to present on Navajoculture at the Colorado Schcwl for theDeaf and Blind during Deaf AwarenessWeek. Her goal is to work as a teacher'saide witli members of the Navajo na-tion who are Deaf. She believes thatcommunities and schools should worktogether, "to understand what makes aculture and how to a[)preciate its val-ues" (Irgens & WcKXi, 1999, 2002).

Childhood Experiencesand Family LifeC. J. JonesFew [')rofiles were found that providedin-depth information about the child-hood and family life experiences ofDeaf persons of color. This could beattributed in part to the nature and fo-cus of the profiles. Wliile most of thecomments about parents and siblingswere brief, it was apparent that theseindividuals had a significant effect onthe lives of many of the people whowere profiled. For example, at age 7yeai-s, C. } . Jones contracted spinalmeningitis. He recalls that while hewas recovering in the hospital, thecUx'tors slowly antt sadly brought thenews to his parents that he wouldnever hear again. But his parents sur-pri.sed the doctors with their reactionsto the news; they were thrilled. Hisparents were Deaf.

Very few Black Deaf individuals areb(irn into or raised in Deaf families. Ofhis childhood, Jones has said, "Icouldn't have asked for a better family.1 was blessed to grow up in a homewhere everyone signed fluently" (Car-roll, 1997, p. 8). Jones's home was atthe center of a small Deaf communityin St. Uiuis, MO: 'At night Deaf peoplewould come to di.scuss their lives withmy father. My father would help themwith their decisions and problems. Hewould also make jokes—and makethem laugh, 1 would stay up late,

watching them sign by the light of thekitchen. It was almost like watchingmy father in a movie" (Carroll. 1997,p. 9).

Today, Jones is a professional actorand comedian, He has traveled andperformed with the National Theaterof the Deaf and played a guest role onthe NBC television series A DifferentWorld. He is currently the executivedirector of Hands Across Communica-tions, which produces educationaland family-oriented videotapes. He isalso the .star of 'Ihe Ride, a short filmin which he plays a Deaf hitchhikerwho travels across California with asongwriter (Willard, 1997).

Michael Byrd^>/}lile C. J. Jones was instilled with astrong sense of Deaf identity, MichaelByrd experienced confusion about hisethnic identity. Byrd, a full-bloodedRappahanntick American Intiian. at-tended an integrated .school in Vir-ginia in the 1970s. Students who livedin the eastern part of the state wereassigned to the Virginia School forthe Deaf, in Hampton, which hadoriginally been the school for Blackstudents. Sttidents who lived in thewestern part of the state were as-signed to the Virginia School for theDeaf, in Staunton. Because Byrd livedin the eastern part of the state, he at-tended school in Hampton, thoughhe later transferred to Staunton tocomplete his high school education.As a new student, he introduceii him-self as an American Indian. But peo-ple at Staunton judged him by hisappearance, assuming he was from amixed racial backgrounti, either Blackand European American or Black andHispanic.

One day, his eighth-grade teachertold several other students that Byrdwas not an American Indian. Becauseothers were questioning his identity.Byrd began to do the same. When he

went hotne, he asked his mother andsister if he was truly an American In-dian. They assured him that he was,and confronted the school to discusstheir concerns regarding the teacher'sactions, particularly the conftisionthat had been created over Byrd'sidentity. The next day, his teacher in-formed the .student that there hadbeen a misunderstanding and thatByrd was indeed an Ainerican Indian,

l^ter, when Byrd enrolled at Gal-laudet, he was again judged by his ap-pearance and there was confusionabout his racial identity. The other Gal-laudet students also assumed that hewas from a niixeti racial backgrounti. Itwiis difficult for him Et> convince hisfellow students of his Native Americanheritage liecause he apparently didnot have the stereotypical featuresthey apparently a.ssociated with NativeAmericans. Byrd thus had to assumeresponsibility to educate his fellowclassmates about the considerable di-versity that exists among Native Amer-icans. After attending Gallaudet andNorth Bible College in Minnesota, hereturned xo his hometown of Milford,VA, where he is involved in publicspeaking, teacliing. and advocacy withDeaf Native Americans (Massey, 1992).

John YehJohn Yeh was born deaf in Taiwan in1947 during a lime when matiy Chi-nese families were ashamed to havechildren with a disability. \eh. how-ever, had the good fortune to he borninto a family of devout Christians whoconsidered all their children giftsfrom Got! and who sought to he good"stewards of this gift." (Moore & Pii-nara. 1996. p. 371). His .siblings in-cluded a younger Deaf sister, Fanny,and three older hearing brothers,James, Joseph, and Jeffrey. His par-ents placed a high value on educationand expected all their children to besuccessful and obtain professional

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jobs. Because the parents desired bet-ter educational opportunities for theirchildren than were avaiial:)ie in Taiwan,the family sailed to Iim/il on a cargoship when Yeh was 13, then moved tothe United States 2 years later

After earning hi.s undergraduate de-gree in mathematics from Gallaudet in1971 and a tnaster's degree in com-puter .science from the University ofMaryland, Yeh worked for 5 yeai's de-veloping Gallaudet's computer re-search information program. While histhree older brtnhers were already wellestablished and successful in the com-puter field, Yeh developed a more am-bitious aspiration: He wanted to starthis own company. His brothers lefttheir jobs and joined him in starting anew venture, Integrated Microcom-puter Systems (IMS), in 1979.

Within a decade, the company be-came a multimillion-dollar enterpriseand was considered one of the fastest-growing businesses in the Wa.shing-ton, DC, area. Its revenues in 1991exceeded $38 million, and Yeh re-ceived numerous awards, such as theNorman Vincent Peale FoundationAmerica's Award and the Employer ofthe Year Award from the President'sCommi.ssion on the Employment ofPeople With Disabilities (Moore & Pa-nara, 1996). According to Yeh, team-work with his brotlicrs and the valuesinstilled in him anti his brothers by hisparents in regard to education andprofessional achievement were thekeys to the success of IMS.

After 16 yeai's, Yeh and his brotherssold IMS and became "semiretired"in 1994. Two years later, he founded anew company, Viable Technologies,which uses remote technology to offeraffoaiable real-time transcription serv-ices, The services are targeted to Deafand hard uf hearing students inschools and colleges. In addition, he ischairman of WebbyNation, which spe-cializes in media. Internet, and wire-

less services and is the parent com-pany of deafbuy.com and DeafNation(NTAC-AAPI. 2004).

Cultural Conflicts,Stereotypes, andDiscriminationDeal' persons t)f color maintainboundaries and interact in multiplecultures—their own hearing racial orethnic group, their Deaf racial orethnic group, the mainstream Deafcommunity, and the mainstream, pre-dominately White, hearing commu-nity (Sa.ss-Lehrer et al., 1995). A themeshared by .several individuals involvesseveral experiences dealing with per-ceptions other people had aboutthem, or with the behavior of otherstoward them. Often, these percep-tions were stereotypical or discrimi-natory. It was sometimes difficult totletermine if the problems were inreaction to their race or to their deaf-ness. Nevertheless, most of theseachievers had the ability to hantllethese situations veiy effectively antlchange others' perceptions of themfrom negative to positive.

Wendy ArmstrongWendy Armstrong, an African Ameri-can student at Gallaudet University,went home to Kan.sas to visit her fam-ily during winter break. Her brother,who worked at city hall in her home-town, loaned her his car while she washome. Later, she went to city hall toreturn his car. While in the building,she ran into her cousin by the elevatorand stopped to talk. As she was talk-ing, she felt someone whack her onthe arm. Puzzled, she looked aroundand saw a detective standing nearbytalking to her. He asked her if she hadheard him calling to her Ai'mstronginformed him that she was deaf andgot on the elevator, thinking that theconversation was over.

Suddenly, several police officerspulled her out of the elevator and puthandcuffs on her. She was taken to aroom and shoved into a chair, and thepolice began to interrogate her aboutwhere she lived, She explained thatshe was a college student on break.The police then informed Armstrongthat because she was from out ofstate, she would have to either pay aS300 fine or go to jail. Armstrong, whodid not have the money, was put Intoa holding cell. She broke down andcried because she was frightened andconfused. Armstrongs mother, whoalso worked at city hall, heard whathad happened and called the policechief. The police later realized thatthey had mistaken Armstrong and hercousin for murder suspects.

Such an unpleasant exjierience withthe police could easiiy cause a personto be bitter and angry for a long time.But following her graduation, Arm-strong became the first Deaf person towork as a special police officer at Gal-laudet University. She has been work-ing at the university as an officer since1991 (Carmll, 1993).

Mark MoralesWendy Armstrong does not presentthe only case of mistaken identity.Mark Morales and his girlfriend de-cided to visit Tijuana, Mexico. Theydrove down from lx)s Angeles, parkedon the U.S. side of the border, andwalked over to Tijuana. There theyspent several hours shopping and en-joying the trip. When they were readyto go home, they got into the line forthe customs inspection. Morales'sgirlfriend, who was Wliite, showed thecustoms official her Gallaudet identifi-cation card and was waved through.However, when Morales produced hisGallaudet identification card antI Cali-fornia driver's license, the customsofficial looked over his documentscarefully He began speaking rapidly

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to Morales, who replied, "I'm deaf,please write.•' After the official triedto talk with Morales a second time,Morales was gestured into a nearbystation office.

In the station. Morales gave his col-lege identification card and driver's li-cense to another official, who lookedthese tl(x:uments over several timesand tried to talk to him. Again, Moralessaid, "Im deaf, pltase write." The offi-cial wrote, "Where were you born?" Heanswered, "I-os Angeles, California."She looked at him suspiciously andwrote, "Why are you here?" He an-swered, "I came with my gidfriend tovisit and look around." The officialthen said, "I'm sorry; but you have togo back, you can't enter the U.S."Frightened, Morales tried to talk morewith her, hoping she would cliange hermind. His efforts were to no avail, asthe official would not budge. Moralesbegan to worry about how his girl-friend would get home; she did notknow how to drive a car with a stickshift. He wondered about how hewould be able to contact his parentsand ask for help since there was noTTY in the station, or how he wouldmanage an overnight stay in Tijuanawith his limited funds.

Morales decided to take an as-sertive stance. He wrote, "I was bornin Los Angeles, California. I'm a col-lege student at Gallaudet Universityin Washington, D.C." Once again, heshowed the official his identificatifjn.Finally, she agreed to let him gothrough. Because Morales has dis-tinctly Mexican features, his parentsadvised him to take his birth certifi-cate with him the next time he took atrip to Mexico, so that the border of-ficials would not question his statusas a U.S. citizen. Morales went on tograduate from Gallaudet and nowworks as a certified deaf interpreter(CDl) with Gallaudet InterpretingServices (Morales, 1991).

Glenn AndersonA final story, excerjited below, de-scribes an experience that the lead au-thor of the present article, GlennAnderson, had following his gradua-tion from a predominately Black highschool in Chicago and his enrollmentat Northern Illinois University (NIU):

The obstacles I encountered at NIUwere due to my race a.s well as mydeafness. I chose to attend NIU be-cau.se it was close to my hometown,Chicago. Also, at that time, I was notaware of Gallaudet. All newly admit-ted students were required to cometo NIU for new .student orientationin early June. That was 2 weeks be-fore I was to graduate from highschool, and almost 3 months beforethe start of classes ai NIU. Ii wasquite a cultural shock for me when Iarrived at NIU and found I was oneof only about 100 Rlack stucIunLs ona campus of 15,000 students. Also, asfiir a.s I knew, I was the only Deaf stu-dent enrolled in the undergraduateprograms.

Mivr the orientation program, myfather and 1 asked for applic-ations fbrthe dormitories. To our surprise, wewere told the dormitories were fulland no space was av^lable. We weregiven a list of "university approved"apartments in DeKalb, the townwhere the university wa.s located. Wecalled many of the apartments on thelist and were told none were avail-able. One of the staff" gave us the ad-dress of an apartment in a nearbytown called Sycamore. Once we ar-rived in Sycamore, we found out thatthe apartment was located across therailroad iiacks in the "Black section"of the town, and the only vvay to getto NIU was to commute hy bus. All ofthe Black male students 1 met livedin off-campus boarding houses orrooms. The only Black students wholived in the dorms were the female

students and two players on the has-kc'thall team.

.\lx)ut 1 month into the semester,my adviser in the Physical EducationDepartment became aware that I wasDeaf and tlid not speak as cleiiriy asthe other.srudents in the deparmient.He requested that I meet with him,During the meeting, he suggestedthat 1 either change my major ortransfei' to another college. When Iasked why, he said all physical educa-tion majors were rt-quired to maintainat least a "C" in public speaking priorto their junior year to be eligible forpractice teaching assignments. Al-though I had yet to ennill in a publicspeaking course, it was apparent thathe had already predetermined that 1would not be able t(i attain a grade of"C" or better even if 1 tuok the course.When 1 explained to him that one ofmy goals was to teach Deaf students,his response was, "We tlo not prepareour stutlent.s to teach the Deaf." Hethen referred ine to the counselingcenter

During my meeting with the direc-tor of the counseling center, he sug-gested I withdraw from school. Heexplained that if I withdrew from.school by the end of the week, Iwould be able to get a partial refund ofmy tuition. I declined to do so, and in-stead I went l")ack to iny adviser to tellhim I was not happy with the advice 1received at the counseling center. Hethen referred me for appointmentswith several different peoiile. One ofmy appointments finally jiaid off. Withthe help of the chairperson of the De-partment of Special Education, Ilearned about Gallaudet and was ableto take the admissions exum andtransfer after I completed the fall se-mester at NIU. 'li~ansfcrring to Gal-laudet was one of the l est tilings tliatever happened for me.

When I reflect hack on my experi-ences at NIU, I am thankful that 1 had

VOLUME 149, No. 5, 2004/2005 ANNALS OF THE DEAF

LIVES OF DEAF PEOPLE OF COLOR

the courage to be persistent and tostand up to my atlviser insteatl of be-coming victimized by him. I can seehow easy it would have been to be-come just another statistic who fellthrough the cracks. (Anderson. 1993.pp. 34-36; excerpt copyright 1993 hyGlenn Anderson, reprinted with per-mission )

Today, Anderson, who earned hisPh.D. ft'om New York University, is thefirst Black Deaf perst>n to serve aschair of Gallaudet's Board of Trustees.Additionally, in 2002, along withRobert Davila, he was appointed byPresittent George W Bush to serve onthe National Council on Disability, anindependent federal agency that ad-vises the president and Congress onissues affecting Americans with dis-abilities.

ConclusionB\' collecting and analyzing storiesabout Deaf [people of color, we haveattempted to identify common threadsor experiences shared by the diversegroups that make up our community.One common thread is the experienceof interacting in multiple culttires—one's own hearing, racial, or ethnicgroup, one's Deaf racial or ethnicgroup, the mainstream Deaf commu-nity, and the mainstream, predomi-nately White, hearing community(Sass-Lehrer et al., 1995). Based onour analyses and summaries of thelife experiences of several Deaf peo-ple of color as reported in various pe-riodicals and related media sources,we discussed four categories ofshared experiences: overcoming ob-stacles to educational opportunity,key figures or role models who influ-enced their life choices, childhoodexperiences and family life, and deal-ing with stereotypes, cultural con-flicts, and discrimination.

These shared experiences provide

insight into vital elements of success.Persistence is a recurring qualitydemonstrated by those who overcameobstacles to obtaining educational oi>portunities. Their personal values in-cluded not only the attainment ofeducation but a strong determinationand willingness to do whatever wasneeded to achieve their educationalgoals, The availabilit\' of a rcile mtxlel,mentor, or source of influence is ofteninstrumental in inspiring one's lifechoices. The le.sson learned is that of-ten all it takes is one person to make adifference in the direction one choosesin life.

The contributions of childhood andfamily life experiences are essential inthe development of a positive self-identity and self-esteem. The indivitlu-ais described in the present article hadfamilies who instilled a sense of cul-tural pride in them, decreasing theirsusceptibility to being overwhelmedor victimized in the face of discrimina-tion. One avenue by which to resolvecultural conflicts and discrimination isto work to change others' erroneousor stereotj'pical perceptions from neg-ative to positive. These are the lessonsand messages that can be passed on tofuture generations of Deaf people ofcolor.

AcknowledgmentsPortion.s of the present article werereprinted with permission of the Lau-rent Clerc National Deaf EducationCenter, Washington, DC. The authorswould like to thank Marie H. Kiitzen-bach and the Arkansas School for theDeaf for their assistance in obtainingseveral of the references we havecited.

The contents of this publicationwere developed under a research andtraining center grant (H133BOIO'501)from the National Institute on Disabil-ity and Rfhabiiitatlon Research, Officeof Special Education and Rehabilitative

Services, Department of Education,Washington. DC 20202. However, thesect)ntents do not necessarily representthe policy of the agency, and youshould not assume endorsement bythe federal government.

All programs administered andservices provided by the Universityof Arkansas Rehabilitation Researchand Training Center for Persons WhoAre Deaf or Hard of Hearing are ad-ministered on a nondiscriminatorybasis without regard to handicap,race, creed, sex, or national t)rigin, incompliance with the RehabilitationAct of 1973 and Title VI of the CivilRights Act of 1964, All applicants forprogram participation and/or serv-ices have a right to file complaintsand to appeal according to the regu-lations g(jverning this principle,—Tbe Authors.

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