Ethnic Minorities in America Essay -- Ethnicity Hearing Impaired Paper

Ethnic Minorities in AmericaIn the United States the term minority often infers membership inwardly an ethnic or cultural minority convocation. However, this term also encompasses other groups that lack equality, such as women, homosexuals and people with disabilities. By definition, the hearing majority classifies deaf people as minorities because of their inability to hear. Yet linguists and social scientists argue that the basis of Deaf peoples status as a minority group is not star of disability, but as a cultural and linguistic minority (Lane, Hoffmeister and Bahan 1996 335-6). In order to assert that Deaf people are a linguistic and cultural minority in America the characteristics of a minority group must first be defined.According to Schaeffer, members of a minority group share the spare-time activity five characteristics Members of a minority group experience unequal treatment and have less power over their lives than members of a dominant group. Members of a minority group share physical and cultural characteristics that distinguish them such as skin color or language. Each society has its own arbitrary cadence for determining which characteristics are most important in defining dominant and minority groups. Membership in a dominant or majority group is often involuntary Minority group members have a strong sense of group solidarity. Members of a minority group generally marry others from the corresponding group. (Schaffer, 1998 6) Furthermore, ethnic minorities have other characteristics that set them apart from the majority such as language, national origin and cultural differences. (Schaffer, 1998 7) Audism is defined as an attitude base on pathological thinking which results in a negative stigma toward anyon... ...ick. The World According to Pat Reflections of Residential School Days ASLRTC Video Proceedings, TJ Publishers, silvery Spring, MD.Humphrey, Jan and Alcorn, Bob (1995). So You Want To Be An Interpreter An Introduction to Sign Language Interpreting (2nd Edition) H&H Publishers, Amarillo, TX.Lane, Harlan Hoffmeister, Rob and Bahan, Ben (1996). A Journey Into the Deaf-World cut through Sign Press, San Diego, CA.Padden, Carol and Humphries, Tom (1988). Deaf In America Voices From a Culture Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Schaeffer, Richard T. (1998). Racial and Ethnic Groups (7th Edition) Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., New York, NY.Shelly, Suan and Schneck, Jim (1998). The Complete Idiots Guide to education Sign Language Alpha Books, New York, NY.Wilcox, Sherman (ed) (1989). American Deaf Culture Linstok Press, Burtonsville, MD.