NTID Professor Dr. Joseph Hill on intersectionality and Black ASL
THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a guest presentation at the University of Michigan by NTID/RIT professor and socio-linguistic researcher Dr. Joseph Hill.
(B-roll of Dr. Hill giving a presentation)
Dr. Hill’s presentation title was “Black, Deaf, and Disabled: Navigating the Institutional, Ideological, and Linguistic Barriers with Intersectional Identities in the United States.”
Dr. Hill shared some of his research on Black ASL.
I will show you clips of an onsite interview and show you some clips of his live-streamed presentation from the University of Michigan, which I have permission to share.
DR. JOSEPH HILL:
(Close-up onsite Interview)
I’m Dr. Joseph Hill. I work at RIT in the Department of ASL and Interpreting Education. I teach interpreting students.
(Stage presentation from UM)
I’m sure many of you have taken ASL classes. I’m seeing a lot of hands raised. Many of you! Okay, in your ASL classes, have you learned something about Black and Deaf history, culture, or language? How many hands? Not many. So, many of you took ASL classes but have not learned about Black Deaf culture, history, or language.
(Close-up onsite interview)
I teach linguistics, do interviews and assessments, also interpreting research. That’s my background. But it’s not just that as I do research on various socio-linguistics topics, which means I focus on how language and culture overlap each other. Most of the time I look at language variations.
(Stage presentation from UM)
(Sign for birthday)
Where is that? That is in the Pennsylvania region.
Another sign is this. (Shows sign).
Another sign is this. (Shows sign).
Another sign is this. (Shows sign).
And here’s another one. (Shows sign).
There are more signs like (Shows various signs).
So, there are many different signs. One of my favorite ones is this (shows sign.)
(Close-up onsite interview)
Black ASL is what I’ve researched for some time now. Many ask me “What is Black ASL?” It is a language variation that you can pinpoint based on geographic locations as you will see that people from a certain area sign differently from other areas. There is also a social aspect, which is a different race. You can notice that Black people sign differently. If you look at white people or other races, you will see that they don’t use those signs. So there is a Black ASL variation.
(Stage presentation from UM)
I visited North Carolina and their sign was (shows sign). That’s their sign for science. That’s among North Carolina Black Deaf individuals. That’s not a current sign as it is from the past and from older groups.
(Close-up onsite interview)
How do I identify it? I will study different features such as sign vocabulary. There are various signs — “birthday” is an example. Generally, there are variations. Does this apply to Black people? I’ve seen that older Black Deaf people from the era where their Deaf schools were segregated use different signs that I’ve never seen anywhere else. North Carolina people sign bathroom this way. (Shows sign). Texas people sign this way (shows sign). That’s what Black Deaf people signed in the past.
(Stage presentation from UM)
(Shows sign). You all know that sign. But in North Carolina, what do they use? (Shows sign). Again, this is among Black Deaf people from older groups who used it in the past. (Shows sign again).
(Close-up onsite interview)
Now those signs are fading away because they are not passed forward to young people. But younger Black Deaf people still have their own variation as well. It’s based on their relationship to the Black community. There are certain vocabulary words that influences how they sign. For example (shows signs for “My bad,” “Tight,” and “Tripping.”) So, that is an example of Black ASL. I want to emphasize that Black ASL is not the same everywhere. It’s not. There are variations, just like all other languages. That’s the gist of my research.
(Stage presentation from UM)
It’s a total of six states here, see the ones in green. But understand this, there are 18 states that had a Black Deaf school. I couldn’t visit all of them as I had limited time and resources. I had to choose six. For each state I visited, I did research on two different groups. The first is an older group, which is those who are 55 years old and above. We collected data before 2007 up to 2010, in that range, so they were 55 years and above at that time. So it means their educational experiences were different. They were often segregated. While with those who are younger, those under 35 years old, they were in an integrated environment. So their educational experiences are different, which could affect their language use.
(Close-up onsite interview)’
For me, I feel as a socio-linguist, I feel it is my duty to do research and find information about Black and Deaf people because who does that work? Not many. For me, it is frustrating to see Deaf Studies or ASL classes or interpreting classes — their course material is often not diverse. There is no or very little mention of cultures, images, or videos. I feel there needs to be a lot more diversity in materials. This is critical. But how do we get there? Who has the ability, the network, the resources? It means you have to produce materials, then figure out a way to publish it, and disseminate it so others can have more. That’s my calling for the Black Deaf community. But there are other communities that also has needs. Asian, LGBT, and many others. So, for all of us, it shouldn’t just be me doing the work, it requirers all of us to create those opportunities to increase diversity in our literature, our schools, our businesses, and other areas. So we have to think hard on how we can elevate all Deaf people to be involved because Deaf people are not just “Deaf” — people are people. We really need to include more diversity so we can show we are diverse in different ways.
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THE DAILY MOTH (ALEX):
Thank you Dr. Hill for your time. He co-wrote a book on Black ASL with another Black Deaf researcher, Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, and two others titled “The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure.”
Dr. Hill said he hopes that there will be young people who feel inspired to continue his work in researching Black ASL.
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