Asl part --3 misc.

Oralism was and is one of the most hated subjects in the history of the Deaf people. The main proponent of oralism was Alexander Graham Bell, the man who invented the telephone. He is known as the enemy of sign language and the Deaf and what he did is considered to be eugenic. Bell proposed legislation against the intermarriage of congenitally deaf people and suggested three ways to prevent the marriage of more deaf adults. He said that hearing people should eliminate the residential schools which would've alone “eliminated” the Deaf people. Many deaf families believe strongly in special schools for their children and would even relocate to get the best one. He also wanted to forbid signing, and prohibit deaf adults from being teachers. Bell also founded the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, and was the leading oral advocate of the 1860’s. He believed that deafness was a horrible curse, as he called it a pathological aberration.
Although Bell was not the only person in the recesses of Deaf history to be racist, one name is hated almost as much as his. Jane Bassett Spilman, who was on the Board of Trustees for Gallaudet University, worked with deaf people day in and day out. Yet, she made an inflammatory quote when the Gallaudet students demanded a deaf president. Gallaudet was in the process of selecting a new president for the university and the deaf students started a movement which is now referred to as the DPN (Deaf President Now). It was 1988 and rallies were held in support of the deaf candidates Dr. Harvey J. Corson and Dr. Irving King Jordan. These men were running against the lone hearing candidate Dr. Elisabeth A. Zinser, with the odd stacked two to one the students were hopeful that Gallaudet would have is own deaf president. But Zinser was selected and the Deaf community rioted. They marched to the hotel where the candidates were being housed and that is where Spilman, in an effort to address the crown made her infamous remark. She said “Deaf people are not ready to function in a hearing world.” Within a week Spilman was forced to resign and Zinser followed suit. Irving King Jordan became Gallaudet’s President and the deaf community rejoiced.