The Power of White Gaze: Erasure of Black Signers
Due to the popularity of my published article, The Power of the White Gaze: Erasure of Black Signers. So many Deaf people have making a request for my article to be translated into ASL for accessibility. I’ve asked three amazing Black signers to do their rendition for my lengthy article.
Kyle Morris (link), Akeya People (link), Amy Parson (link).
About five years ago, I took an evening course called “Diversity in the Deaf Community” at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. J Matt Searls, Associate Professor for Cultural and Creative Studies, proudly reminded the students that the “Deaf community belongs to the white people” on the first day of his class. I was stunned because I was looking forward to learning about the historic contribution of Black Deaf and Deaf People of color in the Deaf community. His message was absolutely clear that the Deaf community in America is not a welcoming place for Black Deaf people. Oh, did I mention that this professor happened to be an older white Deaf man?
With the power of his white gaze, he smashed my Black Deaf membership in the Deaf Community to the smithereens just because I’m simply Black. I dropped his class afterward and used his statement to help me to analyze his perspective on the history of (white) Deaf communities and their inhospitable relationship with Black communities, especially Black Deaf people. It is impossible to come up with a statement without a reason. Toni Morrison, the author of “The Bluest Eye,” stated in her perspective on white gaze in an interview. She said, “As if our lives have no meaning and no depth without the white gaze. “I’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.” American Library Association acknowledged that her novel, “The Bluest Eye” was ranked as the second most banned book in the United States because of how she described what happened to her main character and how that character experienced being raped. The fundamental premise behind the power of the white gaze is based on the worthiness of our existences in predominantly white spaces. Black stories must be in accordance with the white gaze that relies on the omission of race and white privilege. White gazes exist where the sphere of powers lies within institutions that hold the society together. Malcolm X addressed the power of the white gaze that can be used to benefit the dominant group’s narrative. He said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocence, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
I grew up in the racist socialization where white people developed their preconceived notions about Black people’s capabilities and culpabilities in America. White signers who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or a Child of Deaf Adult (CODA) who have an innate knowledge of Deaf culture, the community, and its struggles against many facets of audism — such as language deprivation, infantilization, monolingualism approach of oralism, and undervaluation of Deaf people’s contribution to societies. White signers usually cast their white gaze on anyone who is not white or occupies their white-dominated Deaf space. We are now living in an increasingly interconnected digitized world where access to smartphones and platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Medium, WordPress are prevalent and only increasing.
Last summer, I wrote my very first “Dear White Deaf People” article on my Wordpress blog to address their denial of white privilege in the white-dominated country due to the grotesque death of George Floyd at the hand of Minneapolis cops. Deaf people constantly minimize the role of race in order to reinforce the claims that they cannot be racist because they are not the dominant group. With the power of their white gaze, Deaf people successfully discarded their whiteness to become raceless Deaf people in the struggle against raceless hearing people.
My article unexpectedly became popular and was widely shared in the Deaf community and it was translated by brother Kyle Morris who is an alumni of Rochester Institute of Technology. Yet, I was cautiously mindful of my newfound popularity because of my first article. I vividly remembered J. Matt Searls’s honest assessment of Black Deaf people’s place in Deaf communities, which helped me to look beyond the illusion that certain Deaf communities have placed on us this last summer. This last summer, the Deaf community showed a high amount of performative allyship which proved that the Deaf community doesn’t necessarily have a safe space for Black Deaf people. Over the summer I wrote several more articles and the last one for my Wordpress blog was about elitism and how elitism is embedded with racism that continuously oppresses Black Deaf people. Elena Ruiz wrote their article,”Beyond Elitism”, with no mention of my articles. They successfully reframed elite Deaf people as raceless Deaf people who are widely misunderstood in their passion to protect their Deaf culture. Their article sent my elitism articles into an abyss of oblivion with the aid of their white gaze that fit their narrative as raceless Deaf people. The power of white gaze also exists in Deaf space in a digitalized world.
Digitized spaces provides signers with a new strategy to sustain their culture without the requirements of occupying physical spaces. The key sustainability for a culture is through language that survives through economic, political, and social changes. Deaf culture is no different from other cultures that transmit their culture through signed language. Only difference of Deaf Culture’s cultural transmission is that signed language relies on signers’ visual perception skills, not auditory processing skills.
American sign language went from an obscure and much-maligned language to one of the most popular languages in America. This was thanks to William Stokoe and his Deaf colleagues, Carl Croneberg and Dorothy Casterline and their linguistic works to elevate its status as a true language. “American sign language is not used only for everyday communication. Artistic forms such as storytelling, percussion signing, drama, comedy, poetry, and film have long existed in the Deaf community. The artistic forms of ASL have played an important role in transmission of culture and history from generation to generation of Deaf people.” (Valli et al., 2011) The ongoing activism of Deaf and signing communities to preserve their languages and to educate the public about the benefits of learning sign language for various means in Deaf schools, postsecondary institutions that offers an extracurricular activities like signing language clubs, and Deaf community events serve as cultural spaces where signers can easily express themselves in their natural language.
The existence of white gazes often determines the multiplicativity number of viewers based on circulation of viral videos through social media platforms that garnered recognition or praise by mainstream society. White and Black signers posted their videos of ASL music videos and white signers are more likely to get higher numbers of viewers that increased its probability of going viral that could lead to more employment opportunities and name recognition.
Black signers have little or no recognition as bicultural people whose identity that reflects the history of Black Culture and Deaf Culture which are interwoven within Deaf communities. The erasure of Black signers in both physical and digitized spaces for Deaf and signing communities go unnoticed due to the underlying role of the white gaze in Deaf and signing communities. Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s WAP song is one of the most popular songs that was released last summer. Raven Sutton, Black Deaf signer, released her WAP interpretation in American Sign Language version and went viral on Twitter with over 200K viewers. A few weeks later, Libbey Ketterer, who is white hearing signer, released her WAP interpretation in American Sign Language version on YouTube and it was massively popular with 1.9 million viewers. With trained eyes, you will notice that Libbey isn’t a fluent signer without mastering the fundamentals of American Sign Language involving non-communication markers. Raven Sutton is a highly fluent signer who incorporates all features of ASL into her WAP song. Online mainstream media immediately praised and recognized Libbey’s WAP interpretation over Raven’s WAP interpretation. White womanhood vs Black womanhood played out online before our eyes and with the power of white gaze, Libbey’s WAP video prevails. Raven’s WAP version became an afterthought. Ironically, Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion are black artists and the mainstream online media cast its spotlight on Libbey’s WAP interpretation as an accurate representation of the original WAP song over Raven’s version.
American Sign Language interpreters, Hearing and Deaf signers, who are bilinguals/trilingual who are fluent in signed language do play a critical role of bridging both worlds through interpreting professions. ASL Interpreters can be found in traditional postsecondary institutions as the sizable amount of Deaf students are attending. The interpreting profession itself is not only provided in universities, it is also provided at community events, concerts, medical situations, religious services, and working for video relay service companies depending on their career path as an ASL Interpreters.
The sign language interpreting professions is predominately white. According to the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf’s Annual Report in 2018, 87% of interpreters are predominately white while 5% of interpreters are Black. The racial disparity in interpreting isn’t surprising given the racist socialization in America. The designated space for the interpreters exists upon Deaf consumers’ request in accordance to the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. Indeed, white signers and interpreters are also responsible for the erasure of Black interpreters. White interpreters often go viral of their interpreting for the Deaf in concerts with popular hip-hop artists.
Like most employees often making mistakes and fine-tuning their mistakes while on the jobs, interpreters are the same way during their interpreting tasks. Interpreting in the front of Deaf people can be intimidating in terms of providing accurate information for Deaf people. White interpreters are being immunized and being given an unlimited amount of time to correct and fine-tune their mistakes with the loving support of Deaf communities. For Black interpreters, a single mistake can be a death blow to their interpreting career due to the white gaze befall them. They are susceptible to barrage of criticism in attempts to push Black interpreters away from designated spaces that are usually occupied by white interpreters. Black interpreters are also susceptible to bad images of fake interpreters who happen to be Black loomed over them. Marlee Marlin, a white Deaf woman appeared on CNN to confirm their white gazes that this interpreter who appeared at Nelson Mandela’s memorial was fake. She proceeded to criticize him on the national stage. No one cast a blame on the South African government for not fully screening an interpreter to interpret at Nelson Mandela memorial.
Another incident took place at the Tampa police department when a fake interpreter appeared standing next to the Tampa police chief to interpret the timeline of crime that had occurred. The Tampa Deaf community was outraged and unleashed criticism upon her and the Tampa police department’s lack of screening interpreters. This fake interpreter turned out to be a Black woman.
Matt Maxey known as Deafinitely Dope, hard of hearing, was on tour with Chance the Rapper as his ASL interpreter in hopes of spreading the Deaf awareness in Black communities. Someone filed a formal complaint about his interpreting performance which was his first complaint out of all his interpretation experiences. He stated in his interview with Alex, the founder of Daily Moth,“I’m stunned that one complaint has so much power, because everything that we’ve shared in the past about being an ‘interpreter’, Deafinitely Dope, or bringing access — it’s been all positive.” The image of fake interpreters is in the mind of white signers. This all blew up recently when a Black interpreter made a recent TikTok video (which is now deleted) to share his uncomfortable situation with interpreting a sex call on VRS. White signers and interpreters again unleashed barrage of criticism with racial undertones to it because he is Black. Through their hypocritical outrage of this Black interpreter’s “unprofessional” post, Deaf communities failed to acknowledge that Black VRS interpreters are still receiving the short end of the stick for being discriminated against by white Deaf callers and that they didn’t get opportunities to showcase their interpreter expertises. They have lot of uncomfortable stories that we don’t know about and Black interpreter’s complaining about phone sex calls is just a drop in the bucket. White Deaf callers made their feelings known toward them and reduced their interpreting qualification to piles of rubbles because of the color of their skin. White interpreters rarely receive a negative headline for any incidents or receive any blowback from Deaf communities.
With the protection of their whiteness and backing of Deaf communities, white interpreters feel entitled to interpret the usage of an exact word that has historically negative or positive association that is used by Black people. White interpreters arrogantly dismissed Black Deaf consumers’ requests to not sign it. White interpreters ridiculously believe they can disassociate their whiteness like removing their Halloween costume to become raceless interpreters in attempt to interpret that word.
W.E.B. DuBois discussed his experience of dealing with the white gaze that led to his one of his well-regarded research about double consciousness of Black people’s identities in his work in the Souls of Black folks. He stated in his Strivings of the Negro People article, “The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card, — refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in hearts and life and longing, but shut out their world by a vast veil.”
Deaf U, Netflix’s first Deaf reality show, with Nyle DiMarco as one of the executive producers for a Deaf reality show. Deaf U is the manifestation of the Deaf community with a less diverse cast that glorifies white womanhood through the lens of all white Deaf women. Through the white gaze, Black Deaf women/non-binary people disappeared from the landscape of Deaf U and relegated them to the background where their existences became an afterthought. The erasure of Black Deaf women/non-binary people pointed to the power of the white gaze that did not happen in the vacuum.
J. Matt Searls was right about his Deaf communities. Everything that has been transpired in this article further supports J. Matt Searls’ honest assessment of the Deaf community that the Deaf community indeed belongs to white people. His assessment is referring to the heyday of the Jim Crow era when the power of whiteness was and is still being unchallenged in America. White signers are still unconsciously or consciously erasing the existence and cultural footprint of Black signers through their white gazes. Honestly, Black Lives do not really matter in this Deaf and signing communities as they claim.
Abenchuchan, A. (2017, October 27). The Daily Moth: Suspension of Working Relationship With Chance The Rapper 10–26–17. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.dailymotharchive.com/single-post/2017/10/26/The-Daily-Moth-10-26-17
Bois, W. (2020, June 24). Strivings of the Negro People. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1897/08/strivings-of-the-negro-people/305446/
C. (2013, December 12). Marlee Matlin: I knew interpreter was fake. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2013/12/12/ebof-intv-matlin-mandela-interpreter.cnn
Nash, K. (2020). To white hearing interpreters/white hearing signers. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGAiSkbhTgpuNrNoyAEElya3DD6Wk7oQv7Iw340/?igshid=o140ygfmqigk
Okrent, A. (2014, April 09). 3 Awesome Translations From This Sign Language Rap Battle. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/56118/3-awesome-translations-sign-language-rap-battle-jimmy-kimmel-live
P. (2018). When Murakami, Toni Morrison, J D Salinger’s Books Were Banned — Forbidden Pages. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/when-murakami-toni-morrison-j-d-salingers-books-were-banned/forbidden-pages/slideshow/65305453.cms
Pitchford, M., What it’s like in “the Dark Places”: Toni Morrison, & What it’s like in ‘the dark places’: Toni Morrison. (1970, February 21). Beware of the White Gaze. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from http://fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2020/02/21/11505
Press, A. (2017, December 05). Sign language interpreter delivered gibberish at serial killer press conference. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://nypost.com/2017/12/05/sign-language-interpreter-delivered-gibberish-at-serial-killer-press-conference/
Tempesta, E. (2019, October 21). ASL interpreter goes viral with Beyonce performance. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7582069/ASL-interpreter-goes-viral-Beyonce-performance.html
Tempesta, E. (2020, September 11). Woman’s graphic sign language performance of Cardi B’s WAP goes viral. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8723227/Womans-graphic-sign-language-performance-Cardi-Bs-WAP-goes-viral.html
Valli, C., Lucas, C., Mulrooney, K., & Rankin, M. N. (2011). Linguistics of American Sign Language: An introduction. Retrieved October 11, 2020, from https://www.amazon.com/Linguistics-American-Sign-Language-5th/dp/1563685078
Žižek, S. (2013, December 16). The ‘fake’ Mandela memorial interpreter said it all | Slavoj Žižek. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/16/fake-mandela-memorial-interpreter-schizophrenia-signing
More from Journal
There are many Black creators doing incredible work in Tech. This collection of resources shines a light on some of us:
