From Pity to Pride: Growing Up Deaf in the Old South | 
 enlarge | Author: Hannah Joyner
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $57.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1773508
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.8 x 0.8
ISBN: 1563682702
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.90820977
EAN: 9781563682704
ASIN: 1563682702
Publication Date: June 25, 2004
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Product Description
The antebellum South’s economic dependence on slavery engendered a rigid social order in which a small number of privileged white men dominated African Americans, poor whites, women, and many people with disabilities. From Pity to Pride examines the experiences of a group of wealthy young men raised in the old South who also would have ruled over this closely regimented world had they not been deaf. Instead, the promise of status was gone, replaced by pity, as described by one deaf scion, “I sometimes fancy some people to treat me as they would a child to whom they were kind.”
In this unique and fascinating history, Hannah Joyner depicts in striking detail the circumstances of these so-called victims of a terrible “misfortune.” Joyner makes clear that Deaf people in the North also endured prejudice. She also explains how the cultural rhetoric of paternalism and dependency in the South codified a stringent system of oppression and hierarchy that left little room for self-determination for Deaf southerners. From Pity to Pride reveals how some of these elite Deaf people rejected their family’s and society’s belief that being deaf was a permanent liability. Rather, they viewed themselves as competent and complete. As they came to adulthood, they joined together with other Deaf Americans, both southern and northern, to form communities of understanding, self-worth, and independence.
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"Speak Softly, Love...Come Be My Ears For Eternity." August 7, 2005
3 out of 16 found this review helpful
Hannah Joyner lost the hearing function of one ear in 1993 during surgery for a non-cancerous brain tumor at which time her acoustic-vertibular nerve was accidentally cut. She explains how that complicated the Ph.D. exams as she could not hear and her balance was badly impaired.
My balance has been off kilter since 1995 after a year of ear infections doctored only with ear drops by a country doctor in Clifton, Tennessee, until he was involved in a car accident and one of his nurses said to me at a routine office visit, "It is time you saw a specialist." The young doctor in Nashville used steroids and real radium in a test on my brain, from which I have never recovered. I can hear, but my walking is like a drunk person's.
In 2000, I thought that Eric could not hear as he was never aware of my presence any time I was around him. He would not look at me, which distressed me a great deal, and I exclaimed, "This child can not hear." As time went on, it turned into something much worse, autisium from which he may never fully recover. Poor Eric, so pretty with bright, sparkly eyes, but to him I (his grandmother) am and has always been a non-entity. That is a sad situation all around.
Ms. Joyner gives the stories and accounts of various other Southerners who were deaf. Helen Keller was by far the most famous, and her loss happened during her early years due to a high fever caused by a disease. It is not shameful to be deaf here in the South.
On the contrary, there is a School for the Deaf in South Knoxville where the patients are taught self-sufficiency skills and sign language. In the old days, the poor children were objects of pity because they were not normal. Can you imagine having to go through life and never hearing beautiful music? If I had missed Michael Feinstein my life would have been grim indeed.
When the person loses the use of one of his/her senses, the others will make up for it in many ways. Eyes can be the ears by touch and watching the hands speak to and for you. They are indeed 'prisoners of silence,' even though they have good minds. It is better to be this type of prisoner than one who is deprived of his/her freedom for a matter of hours when nothing is wrong but a depraved ER physician.
Back in the Glory Days of the South, they were considered the victims of a terrible 'misfortune,' and only the rich could find a way to overcome the deficiency. This was a permanent liability and they were tagged as deaf and dumb. Young Eric has a future perhaps not as bright as a mere mute, but I feel that he will 'overcome' to be a product of his environment. He can and hopefully will become a productive citizen. Ms. Joyner is a historian who researched this in depth after her tragic surgery which went wrong. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland in the U.S.
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