Article summary of Deaf persons of Asian American, Hispanic American, and African American backgrounds by Foster and Kinuthia - 2003
- What is deaf culture?
- What is Glickman’s (1996) model of the development of culturally deaf identities?
- How are deaf communities constructed according to Foster (1989)?
- Which hearing/deaf communities are defined by Wolf and Ladd (2003)?
- What is meant with a ¨minority within a minority¨?
- What is Foster´s et al. (2003) model of identity?
- What is identity salience?
What is deaf culture?
Deaf people are members of a unique culture with its own language, history, shared experiences, and identity. Some discover this culture from the start of their lives and go through specialized educational settings, residential schools, and colleges for the deaf. Some are born to hearing parents and consider themselves part of the hearing culture and attend normal schools, churches, etc. In this chapter it will be explored how being deaf influences one's sense of membership and belonging within an ethnic/racial culture and how race/ethnicity affects someone's identity as culturally deaf.
What is Glickman’s (1996) model of the development of culturally deaf identities?
Glickman´s model follows a stage theory approach in which deaf people move through four stages of identity. The first two stages (culturally hearing and culturally marginal) are characterized by ¨hearing¨, a pathological view of deafness, depression, confusion, and conflict. The last two stages (immersion in the deaf world and bi-cultural) are characterized by ¨deaf¨, a cultural view of deafness, more balanced self-acceptance, and group pride. The model is cyclical and people may move through the stages more than once.
What does the study by Foster et al. (2003) reveal about Glickman´s (1996) model?
In Glickman´s model, movement through the stages represents individual progress. However in reality, every stage could be an appropriate and healthy response to a specific situation. Someone who is experiencing ambiguity with their identity or rejects a cultural conceptualization of deafness is not somehow behind a person who has completed the cycle. For example, it is possible to identify as deaf at work and Black at home. Therefore, the stage theory does not adequately capture the variety of identities that can be experienced.
How are deaf communities constructed according to Foster (1989)?
According to Foster it is persistent rejection and isolation within hearing communities in combination with the acceptance by and identification with other deaf people that leads to the social construction of deafness and the deaf community.
Which hearing/deaf communities are defined by Wolf and Ladd (2003)?
They propose a multidimensional model that includes the attitudes of the majority society toward deafness and sign languages, the size of the deaf population, and life choices available to deaf people. Variations across these dimensions produce three kinds of communities:
Oppositional communities (in which hearing status defines access to society).
Single communities (where deaf and hearing communities are virtually inseparable).
Integrated communities (variations in between the first two communities).
What is meant with a ¨minority within a minority¨?
Being deaf and being a member of a minority ethnic or racial group constitutes a double liability in which a person experiences stigma and prejudice relative to both deafness and ethnicity. Their minority within a minority status acts as an exponential factor. With regards to identity development, minority racial or ethnic heritage is a complicating factor for deaf people.
What is Foster´s et al. (2003) model of identity?
The model of identity consists of four factors: individual characteristics, situational conditions, social conditions, and societal conditions. There is also a biographical component reflecting changes in identity that occur over time. Each person is a constellation of many characteristics. Some are stronger than others, but all are a response to a particular set of conditions. Identity is fluid, responsive, dynamic, and contextual. It is a function of the individual's response to a given situation.
What is identity salience?
Identity salience is the probability that an identity will be invoked across a variety of situations, or across persons in a given situation. Identity salience helps to understand why some individual characteristics are more central to identity than others or more persistent over time. When an individual experiences changes in their environment that reduce opportunities to reinforce identity, identity salience changes. With regards to deaf identity, an example is that integration in a college for deaf students reduces the opportunities to maintain a culturally hearing identity, but increases the opportunity for developing a deaf identity.
How does the self-verification feedback loop influence identity salience?
People regularly verify their identities through reinforcing interactions with others. When this feedback loop is interrupted it causes a stress on the identity verification and identity salience. A common source of stress is conflict between cultural heritage and being deaf. For deaf people it is more difficult to learn about their racial or ethnic heritage, because communication with family members can be limited or because they attend special schools where most students are White. Their process of self-verification is often interrupted due to language barriers. That stress leads them to withdraw from social situations in which verification of the racial or ethnic identity is dependent on interaction with hearing people.
What is a nested identity?
A nested identity is based on the idea that a person may have multiple identities that are interconnected and interdependent. People prefer social groups where aspects of their identity receive social verification. These are usually groups with whom they share key individual characteristics with a clear operational salience hierarchy (for example, Black first, then deaf, then deaf Black with low vision).








