My brother has been to India several times with our family and there is not a lot of communication on his part with my relatives except in the most rudimentary forms of crude signing with each other. I often felt he missed out on a lot of cultural aspects b/c he coudlnt’ communicate or know what is was like to hear a different language. For him mostly, he’s not one to ever sit and chat, but is always on the move, so he formed friendships through exploration, motorcycle rides, and sheer charisma. He’s not “shy” to try to talk to people and he isn’t ashamed he’s deaf. Nor does he think it’s a disability. My parents do however wish for him to marry a hearing girl because they figure life would be ‘easier’ int the real world for them. My siblings and I have mixed feelings on this notion.

He has visited the Kasergood school for the deaf in India on one vacation and interacted with children who spoke Indian Sign Language, which was neat to see. Mostly we felt blessed that he was always able to study/go to school nearby our home and never had to go into a boarding situation. As with a lot of deaf people, his other skills are heightened. He has an incredible memory, sense of direction, and ability to take things apart and put them right back together. He’s always been the “sharpest” out of us three.

In terms of ignorance, I find a lot of people say things like, “Oh, he doenst’ look deaf!” and I still don’t know what a ‘deaf’ person is supposed to look like in comparision to a hearing person. And the second irritating statement is that they remark on how smart he is, as if because he’s deaf he has learning disabilities, etc. That being said, my brother doenst’ have proper grammar usage at all when he writes, but mainly because he doenst’ care about grammar or proper writing. He writes how he speaks often leaving out the filler words and getting straight to the point. Sometimes people can mistake that as someone who has a low intelligence when all it is is him being lazy.

Yeah but they say that about everything. Its not really a negative judgement. Its more like another form of empathy. But without that cultural experience I can understand how it might be off putting.

I’m with you!

Probably the only people that will cry “racist” over signs are hearing people. Get over it.

It’s refreshing to know that deaf people are not plastic, fake pc-ers.

For the past few months, I have been teaching myself to read and write Hindi. I have NEVER dated a Deaf Desi guy because I haven’t met any. In fact, Deaf guys (white, black, or brown) were never interested in me. And neither were Desi guys (whether Muslim, Hindu, Indian or Pakistani)! The only guys I have dated were hearing white guys who were sympathetic and wanted to learn ASL, read about India and Islam to understand me better.

And lastly, as a Deaf Desi Muslim, I am most certainly NOT offended by the blatant signs in ASL for India, Islam, Muslim, Hindu, or whatever. That’s how we Deaf people are…blunt. We call it how we SEE it. I think people get so offended too easily.

-Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist