Recommended Resources
Paddy Ladd’s “Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood”.
This book is truly powerful and world-changing in understanding what kind of oppression has been visited upon our people. Phonocentric colonialism is a form of oppression that marginalizes and destroys the native language and culture and replacing it with dominant’s own. This book lends a lot of interviews with GRASSROOTS Deaf people and their stories and history of resistance in different ways are inspiring and uplifting. This helps us better understand ourselves, our relationship with hearing lay people versus specialists, and this is crucial to understanding how to do the next steps in effecting systemic change. Buy the book at DawnSignPress. |
George Lakoff’s “The ALL NEW Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate”.
This book is an essential reading on the power of reframing, and the terrible consequences of operating under wrong frame. Emotions, not logic, play key role in framing issues and reaching (or piercing) through the people. We will apply the lessons from this book into classroom discussions and explore the TRUE thinking of hearing people taking classes. With that, we can begin to develop messages, ideas and more importantly, principles that underpin the Deaf community and get that out to the wider world. This book, along with the next book, make up a core tool set in understanding the power of reframing. Buy the book on Amazon.com. |
Drew Westen’s The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
Similar arguments are advanced in Lakoff’s book here — however, this large volume book presents things in more depth, and shows us how to craft an emotional constitution in order to reach hearing parents with Deaf children and resonate with them the principles of Deafhood, ASL, Deaf Culture and its impact on Deaf children worldwide. This book explores the importance of appealing to people’s emotions to achieve necessary change in one’s thinking by drafting an “emotional constitution”. Buy the book on Amazon.com. |