Founded in 1935, The Los Angeles Club of the Deaf (LACD) was a major center of Deaf social events. Before the club started, it was very hard for Deaf people to find friends. The club helped to bring them together with other Deaf people, helping them make friendships that would last a lifetime. It was not only a place of socializing, but of playing games, having raffles, watching plays and skits, eating, and more. At the club they could relax and be themselves. It was like a family reunion even though they didn’t know everyone there. The video “The LACD Story” discusses how the deaf club got started, what it was about, and its eventual decommissioning in 1985. After watching this video, I was surprised at how important the club was to the deaf community. Most hearing people try not to go too far from home, but the deaf would drive from miles around to come to the club because it was such an important part of their life. It amazed me that they would go to all that trouble just to socialize.
I also found it surprising how difficult it is for the Deaf to make friends. Without a community of other Deaf people the communication barrier is enormous. Many of the types of activities the hearing world takes for granted…like ball games and plays….are all the more difficult for the Deaf to enjoy when no one else thinks about accommodating them. This video also opened up a whole new realm of thought for me. Sometimes in the hearing world it is so easy to respond with little to no thought to other people’s questions. We don’t easily connect with those we don’t know, and a sense of community is not always there. In the Deaf world, however, a hug is a typical part of greeting someone. Whereas Hearing people have to work to have their emotions show in their words, the Deaf can easily maintain a very clear and accurate representation of their feelings and emotions through the use of ASL. Watching this video gave me a clearer picture of the deaf community as a whole.
The more I learn, the more I find ASL to be such an open language, so expressive and vibrant. I also find that the deaf community is very closely bonded. The sense of camaraderie they have is something that I believe the hearing world is missing out on. Too often hearing people are quite distant from others while going through the formalities of greeting. ASL on the other hand is quite a “living” language where people are more intimately involved in their conversations. Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense that ASL is not offered for language credit in high school. It would make a lot more sense to learn a living language than a dead one (Latin). Since there are Deaf people all over the U.S, learning ASL makes more sense than learning French (Louisiana), German (scattered communities), or even Spanish (southern border).
