King Jordan and his oral supremacy

The current situation at Gallaudet is exactly like the situation of the oppression of black people in the South by white supremacists.

What is the parallel? On the one side we have I. King Jordan, who is a demagogue. He brainwashes people with false information, and intimidates Board of Trustees members so that he can control them.

I. King Jordan is like a white supremacist, except that he (Jordan) is an oral supremacist. He thinks that deaf people who can speak and lipread are more intelligent than ASL deaf people...

This oral supremacy has been spreading at Gallaudet like a cancer growing in the body since Jordan became president of Gallaudet in 1988. We need to have major surgery at Gallaudet to remove the cancer.


PS Here's a quote about demagogues that fits King Jordan exactly:

"Demagogues may make use of logical fallacies, though persuasion may require no use of logic. While it may not rely heavily upon outright lies, the use of half-truths, omissions, and distortions are what define demagogy — it is, in essence, giving bad-faith arguments for the purpose of political gain."

(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogy )

That's exactly what Jordan has been doing since 1988. First of all, he was only on the list of finalists to become president in 1988 as a token candidate. No one had any intention of choosing him. No one took him seriously. Then, the evidence shows that his prior friend Senator Harkin made a couple of phone calls, possibly to Jane Spilman, and that is why Jordan was chosen instead of Harvey Corson to become president. [NOTE: Some evidence points to the existence of a prior aquaintanceship/friendship between Jordan and Harkin (prior to March 1988), although the evidence gathered is not yet conclusive and neither Jordan nor Harkin has publicly acknowledged such.]
So his whole presidency is democratically illegitimate and is a farce. Then, when Jordan becomes president in 1988, he *hijacks* the Deaf Culture Movement that created all the political capital for him to use. He starts an 18-year career of lies and half-truths as president, saying that the DPN movement was all about deafness as a disability (and not about Deaf culture) and launching an 18-year effort to push Deaf culture to the side, support cochlear implants and mainstreaming, and to try to close the residential schools for the deaf...

He kept the lies and half-truths going, trying to say that Gallaudet has nothing to do with being the center of Deaf culture. But that is *exactly* the purpose of Gallaudet. The word "culture" includes the concept of education.

To say that Gallaudet is supposed to be the center of the Deaf Culture Movement, means exactly that Gallaudet is the *educational* center for deaf people who use ASL. That is how Gallaudet started, and that is how Gallaudet College actually *created* the Deaf culture that exists in America today, by sending out graduates all over the United States to establish residential schools.

Jordan tries to confuse us by distorting the definition of "culture." He wants to trivialize it and say that "culture" only talks about "way of life" and other minor preferences which are optional. THAT is why he is a demagogue. He distorts the truth for his own political gain. We won't let him get away with it.

It's a total and complete lie. DPN was the result of the Deaf Culture Movement which had been going on since the 1700's in France. In 1960, William Stokoe helped to rekindle the Deaf Culture Movement. Finally, by 1988, the rekindling had turned into a roaring flame and the deaf world wanted to support the Deaf Culture Movement by having a deaf president at Gallaudet.

William Stokoe would be turning over in his grave now if he saw what Jordan has done.

[Edits: 7/30/2013]