Blind Planet

So let's now talk about being blind while in public. That is, how to interact with the sighted. I know there are people whose approach to this is much more
hard-line, but being hard-line just isn't my thing, at the risk of perhaps not changing as many minds as a more hard-line approach might. You have to figure
out what works best for you in the end, but this is how I approach the whole subject.

So, a lot of this should be not only common sense, but stuff that's pretty much automatic if your parents raised you with these ideas. First, just because
you are blind does not necessarily mean you are invisible. This means you can't go around in those jeans with the holes in the knees and the shirt you
just spilled coffee down the front. Put on clean clothes that aren't full of holes and stains, even if you don't really care.
Next, cut out the blindisms, yeah, the dreaded rocking and eye-poking that people trot out to give the rest of us the impression that most blind folks
are nothing but super-dependent eye-poking fools. That kind of behavior does not make you look good in public, so cool it.

Those are the basics. You see, a pretty common sense approach. I just don't think you have to be three or ten or twenty times more perfect than a sighted
person just to get people to say hi to you and brush past you instead of just ignoring you if you acted like yourself or any other typical human. No amount
of perfectionism will just break down stereotypes and notions that have been a part of human culture probably since human culture began. Just be yourself.
Some people will get it, others will not, and the ones who don't get it are probably stubborn fools who will strongly resist any new input being sent to
their brains.

So what about the media and stereotypes. Yeah, this is a bit of a rebuttal to another post in somebody else's blog on this site. Before we even talk about
this subject, there is one thing people have to realize about the media. Everything you see on TV or read in magazines or whatever is just filler for advertising.
The media, despite what people actually think, are not some kind of mirror held up to reality to reflect it, but just all the spectacular bits and the
unusual bits of life are put on there in order to hold your attention until it's time for the commercials. Advertising and the selling of it is what keep
the media going. So, just because you see something on the news or in a magazine does not mean it's true or has anything to do with actual reality. It's
all just a show. As for portrayal of the blind in the media, I don't know what the solution is. If the media were all about educating people and telling
the truth, I'd push for more realistic portrayals of us in the news and in TV shows. But that will not sell advertising. So anyone who believes what they
see in the media is reality as it actually is is being lead down a path of foolishness, and that's what they want. No, I'm not against buying stuff or
owning stuff, but you just have to understand what the TV set is all about. Turn off your TV and go outside to see reality. So, when there are stories
in the news about the blind, we're just there because the particular subject is something spectacular or unexpected. Just showing an ordinary blind person
making a meatloaf or taking a bus to their customer service job would be boring and would not sell advertising.

Now, what about educating the public. This is one I still haven't figured out yet. The problem is that I'm not an idealist. The idealist believes that if
you try hard enough or think positively enough or do something enough, things will turn out the way you want them to. Me, I believe you just can't fix
everybody or turn them round to your way of thinking or whatever. Despite all our efforts, it seems that most people still don't know how to act around
us, fear speaking to us lest they use the wrong term around us, fear employing us because they'd have to bother to make things accessible, and oh, what
if we fall? What if I fall? Then I'll get up, that's what. So it looks like we're not leaving people with much of an impression, are we?

Somehow I think there are a lot of things lacking in our atempts to educate the public. First of all, my impression is that most people out there just don't
think about us every day. Maybe we're only thought of if we are seen from a distance or if there's the potential that somebody may actually have to interact
with us instead of ignoring us like they usually do. So people probably think they shouldn't have to learn anything about blind people because all they
might do is help them cross a street or find a store or anything and they'll probably never meet that person again. So perhaps we need to find a way to
appeal to people's greed and mindless self-interest so they understand how important it actually is to learn about us.

Another impression I have is that most people grow up believing that as they go through life, most of the people they will encounter, save for in passing,
will be similar to themselves in some way. They will speak the same language, have a similar ethnic or cultural background, even perhaps live in the same
neighborhood or whatever else. So if you think this way, let's say you're an American. Why should you bother learning about, let's say, Japanese culture
if you have no intention to go to Japan and you probably will never meet a Japanese person. So that same kind of thinking seems to also apply to the blind
or anyone with any sort of disability or difference. It's silly and irrational, but I think most people spend most of their time believing silly and irrational
things. Am I cynical yet? Hahahaha!

So, I dunno what the solution to educating people is. I guess I'd do what most people do. Try and do it as a one-to-one thing, and you have to just go with
your gut to see how curious or interested the person is and how much time that person has to listen to you.

So what do I think of sighted people in general? You probably think I have a bitter and generally icky attitude towards them. I admit in the past, due more
to stories I heard from others and not actual experience, I didn't always see them in such a favorable light. I think it's like trying to scope out anyone.
There are good ones and bad ones. There are those who get it and those who don't. However, I will say this. Although I don't believe the sighted have it
in for us or are conspiring to make life difficult for us or actually hate us in that Ku Klux Klan sort of way, I think most people are generally ignorant
and self-involved. A lot of this might just be humans being typical humans, I don't know. The problem with ignorance, however, is that sometimes it can
bring out the ugly in people. I think people want to help us in sort of an abstract way, but they also want to help us on their own terms. With some ignorant
folks, if it is suggested that helping us would mean some major change is to be made to the way something is, people start feeling threatened and start
accusing us of asking too much or thinking we will just go around suing everybody until every last thing is modified to accomodate us, no matter how unreasonable
it might be. I think part of what might play into this is the controversial subject of majority privilege. These are probably people who not only do not
and will not understand what it's like to be blind, but they do not expect they will ever become blind or disabled at any time in their life. Now, this
might be a stretch, but I also have to wonder if such people believe that the majority should always get the perks and the rights and get overall preferential
treatment and should never be inconvenienced to help anyone else live equally. Again, that might be a stretch, although if it were actually true I wouldn't
be surprised. I also think what is called ableism plays into this. This is more a term used by folks into disability politics, but my impression is that
ableism means that a person believes that being able-bodied is a superior way of life than is the life of any disabled or blind person. So perhaps these
rather mean-spiritted atitudes might spring from ableism. But despite the fact that some people are just stupid asshole jerks, most people are not downright
evil by any means. They might not expect to have anything to do with us, and they might not expect to do more with us than be anonymous helper droids,
but sighted people are not evil.

There may be more, but I think I've said all I want to say here. Next I want to talk about how blind people treat other blind people, which also might
be an itchy subject. Who knows.