Let the Trashings Begin

Let the Trashings Begin. 

 

One of my coworkers at the Department of Services for the Blind, a wise Black woman, observed, "Whenever a blind person makes good or stands out, the rest of you publicly tear them down with negative criticism".  She went on to say that Blacks are not above being critical of their successful members, but they do it within their own community.  "We present a unified front to the rest of the public", she said.  Perhaps this is true about the Black community, I am no expert there, but it is pretty much right on when it comes to us blind people.  Unless your name is Erik Weihenmayer and you just clambored down from Mount Everest, you most likely were fair game whenever you stuck your head above ground level.  Anytime one of my blind coworkers received a promotion the break room was a buzz with caustic comments by the blind employees.  And it made no difference who else was in the room. 

A friend of mine who had been Region 10 RSA Commissioner until the office was closed, was hired as an assistant director at the Department of Services for the Blind.  Blinded by RP, she had been a successful attorney in the private sector prior to her appointment as Commissioner.  You would suppose that the blind community would cheer the appointment of one of our own to this significant position.  Instead she was trashed at every turn.  It was whispered that because she was NFB, she was a political appointment.  It was even hinted that she and the DSB director "had a thing going".  Blind staff within the agency, some angry that they'd been passed over, balked at working with her.  She became isolated, depressed and imobilized.  Finally she returned to private law where she is very successful and very much removed from the blind community. 

As I moved up the ranks and became director of the adult training center, and later assistant director for field services, I certainly had my detractors.  I suspect that I withstood the assaults because I'd built up a strong support team over the years, blind and sighted. 

But we were always far less critical of sighted people than of our own.  It might be that we didn't expect as much from the sighted folks.  And probably we demanded far too much from our own.  We seemed to say, "If you dare to rise above the rest of us you'd Damn well better be perfect or we'll tear you down." 

We looked for our blind leaders to be all that we couldn't be. 

At some level we are unable to celebrate our fellow blind's success. 

Is this a characteristic of any oppressed minority group?  Or have we blind people been conditioned by public attitudes to believe that we really can't be successful to a point where we are unable to accept the success of one of our members? 

As soon as a blind man became governor of New York state we began the trashing.  Oh sure, there were some efforts at recognizing the magnitude of Paterson's ackommplishment.  But then it began.  He didn't have Braille skills.  He didn't use a cane.  He didn't associate with blind people.  On and on the nay sayers went. 

One thing about negative attacks on a persons character is that it is self fullfilling.  We never turn away from the negative and look for anything positive to say, until they're dead.  We examine every word from their lips, every lift of an eye brow.  We read negative meanings into what they eat, who they talk to, how they smile, and on and on until there is no way that they can be successful. 

And when they crash and burn we say, "See, I told you they were highly over rated". 

Perhaps we need to begin a serious campaign to say positive stuff about one another every time we start to do the bad mouth routine. 

It could work. 

 

Curious Carl