Hi everyone,
As we're all in the middle of the firestorm about Structured Discovery centers and NFB in the news, I'm wondering if it might be helpful for us to push out a special issue of either the Braille Monitor or JBIR to talk about what Structured Discovery is supposed to be and to try to articulate how low expectations and other social phenomena have created a volatile situation that enabled these systemic problems to occur.
For example:
I believe respectability politics has played a big role in this. Basically, in our society, we are only allowed to be progressive to a certain extent before society rejects us. The groups that are the most progressive at anything and successful at all tend to be pretty conservative in other areas. For example, a lot of successful LGBT Q IA / SOGIE activist groups have a lot of challenges with racism. A lot of racial justice groups have a lot of challenges with homophobia and ableism. It's not that surprising that we have struggled with other dimensions of diversity in the NFB because we have spent all of our progressiveness allowance on blindness. I think we are currently reassessing that, and I think we're better for it.
Whether or not you agree with me on that hypothesis, I think it could be really helpful for us to publish some materials relatively quickly on the interplay between Structured Discovery and the issues that are now coming to public consciousness. Perhaps, if lots of us tried to hone in on what societal problems have made these issues possible, that can become the foundation for the beacon that we build to guide our reform.
I obviously do not have the authority to decide that such a publication would exist, but I think there are a lot of people here who could be capable of putting out Braille Monitor-type articles explaining what we think made this all possible. I am NOT (in all caps) suggesting that we try to excuse what bad things have happened, but that we really pinpoint the core social foundations of these issues so that then we can work to change those foundations, which will impact the entire blind rehab system.
I think there are a lot of things that have made these misconduct issues possible that go beyond exactly what our existing materials have been articulating, such as what I put above with the respectability politics. That's what has enabled these things to become what they have become.
What do you all think? Am I off-course? Do you think it could help us? Would you actually make the time to help, or does it just sound cool?
Aloha,
Justin
Justin Mark Hideaki Salisbury
he/him/his
Phone: 808.797.8606
Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu