Black and Deaf in America: Are We that Different

by Ernest Hairston, Linwood Smith

From the Foreword of this 91 page "Being both Black and deaf is in many ways a 'double whammy' because of society's abrogation of each of these two minorities. When the conditions of Blackness and deafness are combined in one person, the individual effects of prejudice, discrimination, and negative self-image are compounded exponentially. For example, a disproportionate percent of Black deaf youth are educated in urban schools where the programs are often unbelievably bad. In many of these schools, the Black child is mainstreamed with few, if any, supportive services, or else he is placed in classes with retarded children or those having other disabilities totally unrelated to his own. The results are devastating. The ramifications of deafness, the lack of sufficient Black role models, and the overall racial situation in the schools deprive Black deaf youth of the strong sense of racial pride many normally hearing Black youth have. This, added to the educational deprivation and the communication difficulties which are inheritance in deafness, leaves the problems of Black deaf people desperately in need of the attention Mr. Hairston's and Mr. Smith's book gives them. Both authors are Black and deaf themselves and know intimately of the experiences and needs of which they write. In the pages which follow, they unfold a story large in human terms, if small relative to the numbers of the people involved."

91 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983