Customer Reviews

The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book to be engaging almost from the beginning; it is meticulously researched, well organized, logical, yet passionate in its defense of an oppressed language minority. One could certainly argue that Mr. Lane short-changes his opponents by not really addressing their arguments on the benefits of mainstreaming Deaf children, but the purpose of this book is not to present both sides of the issues; the purpose is to demonstrate the oppression of the Deaf language and therefore their culture. It provides strong evidence that the Deaf child is a minority, not an invalid, and that the tendency of hearing parents to see mainstreaming as the only option is a dangerous mistake. This is deep reading and scholarly writing, at times to the point of near inaccessibility to a mainstream audience. However, it is convincing and eye-opening if one is willing to put the effort into reading it.

Sadly, the reader from New Jersey seems to have missed the point of this book. By condemning Mr. Lane as refusing to "recognize that different lifestyles are better for different people," he fails to see that Mr. Lane defends the Deaf as a different lifestyle that deserves to be recognized! This book is not saying that no Deaf (especially late-deafened adults) should try to learn lip-reading or consider cochlear implants. It is simply saying that those Deaf who wish to take part in Deaf culture, who wish to be Deaf, should be given that option as well.

It was a long time ago...perhaps 15 years. My kid had been diagnosed as Deaf or "deaf" by the hearing community with a small "d." In those days, parents (especially a hearing parent like myself) had no options. Technology for "aided" hearing in all forms was the rage. ASL was not allowed even in the "deaf" school he attended. But my son could hear nothing even with powerful hearing aids. So, for me, a NJ criminal appellate attorney (for 20 yrs), I wanted facts-not-fluff. Dr. Lane's book in Hardcover was released in 1992. When I read the review in the NY Times Sunday Book Review section, I could not drive fast enough to get a copy. Holed up for a day, I read it front to back. And then I knew. No. My vocation was not going to be a criminal attorney, I needed to become an advocate or "the law firm" for one - my own kid. And we needed to move out of NJ so good-bye law practice and the money. Had it not been for this book, though, he would not be graduating to attend a great college next year. Please buy this book. Please do not let "them" tell you it is "radical." Go for it. I beg you....

Harlan Lane shows how Deafness is a cultural affiliation and only through the hearing world's oppression does it become a disability. Very well-written and researched, Lane digs deep into the Deaf culture and history to bring us this excellent resource. I believe that anyone saying that this work is biased and obsolete holds biased and obsolete viewpoints themselves. Come into this with an open mind, and you will leave a better person. Highly recommended!

I am the hearing parent of a Deaf child and I have very mixed feelings about this book.
On the one hand, I find it very informative and it explains Deaf culture and the history of Deaf education very passionately and accurately. On the other hand, the information about cochlear implants and their efficacy is obscenely out dated and one sided.
As a parent who has chosen ASL as the primary language of their child AND a cochlear implant, I wish there was a better treatment of the subject.

As a person who has a congential deafness of unknown etiology, I sometimes put up with people who are either misguided, ignorant, well-intended but wrong-approached, and likes when it comes to the deafness.

This book is absorbingly poigant and very eye-opening revelation of what has happened to the deaf people who are "victims" of medical procedures by the doctors who wanted to claim their fame as "curing the deafness" in the 1700s and 1800s as well as of badly planned and executed deaf education since the infamous Milan Conference of 1880. It extrapolates what is wrong with the deaf people today and what causes them to experience the indignity, disrespect, and so forth from the hearing people. To this day, they are still disenfranchised...

A Texas senator who pushed for 185-million dollar fund to rebuild almost entire Texas School of the Deaf snapped back at the group who thought he was insane to push for rebuilding the deaf institute when it was popular trend to close the special institutes for the people with disabilities. He said this beautifully,"If you don't understand the deafness, back off!" Exactly the reason for reading this book!

This book written by Dr. Harlan Lane is more that profound. It has the power to solidify any HOH or Oral Deaf persons identity. His book is written as he sees the world though a Deaf persons struggle in a hearing world and goes well beyond to explain what it is really like to be Deaf. I highly recomend this book for everyone.

For a hearing person to genuinely understand the American Deaf perspective of the world, Harlan Lane is the perceptual link. He wields the English language precisely, writing primarily to a hearing audience in an attempt to bring their thinking around to fully understanding and possibly even embracing the Deaf cultural view of themselves as a linguistic minority. My one complaint is that after a point it seems redundant, or at the least tedious, unless you already have an all-consuming passion for the subject matter. In any regard, this is an essential text if you intend to pursue a career in interpreting or any Deaf-related field, if you have Deaf children or parents, if you are Deaf or hard of hearing yourself, or if you have any reason whatsoever to care about the Deaf.

This is the kind of book that deserves its own category--it's one of those "life-changing" books, like "The Autobiography of Malcom X." If you read it, your view of the world will change, because you will see things in an entirely different light. You'll see it from the perspective of an oppressed minority, Deaf people. If you're thinking, what--Deaf people are an oppressed minority?--that's because you haven't read this book yet. It is essential that you read this book with an open mind. You will be surprised, astonished, disgusted (by the prejudice and oppression), and ultimately, moved by the tenacity and strength of a culture that survives despite every effort by the majority culture to stamp it out. If you are a hearing person about to enter a profession in which you will be encountering or working with Deaf people, this book is required reading. If you are a Deaf person, this is also required reading. If you have no clue about anything involving Deaf people or their beautiful language and culture, this is also required reading. Why? You need to know how (or if) you are part of the problem. If you educate yourself by reading this book, you can work on having a positive impact instead of a negative one. I can't give it more that 5 stars, but I would if I could. It's that powerful.

This book is biased, not up to date in it's views of oral-deaf education, and outright offensive to those in the Deaf community who chose to use technology to be able to hear and speak. Yes, some deaf people DO want to be able to hear! Is that so surprising? Harlan Lane is an extremist who refuses to recognize that different lifestyle choices are better for different people. The audist and oral-deaf education community are supportive of and unopposed to sign language and Deaf culture. However, they also believe that if one's choice is to live in the hearing world, one should be afforded the opportunity to do so. Today's technologies of advanced hearing aids and cochlear implants, combined with modern education and therapy techniques make this opportunity available to the majority of deaf persons, particularly young children. The oral-deaf education community recognizes that ASL may still be the choice of many, and has no wish to damage or eliminate deaf culture. Why then does Harlan Lane refuse to similarly acknowledge in this book the fact that hearing aids and cochlear implants do work, and deaf children (and adults) can and do learn to hear and speak very well by using them? What is wrong with that if that is someone's choice, or if that is the choice of the hearing parents of a deaf child?