Two days ago, there was a video that caught my attention through the news feed on Facebook, in that video it was an American Sign Language lesson in profanity by Nyle DiMarco and for past these two days since that video caught my attention I have kept my eyes on the commentary where the Deaf community would share their opinion on the video of Nyle DiMarco’s American Sign Language lesson in profanity. While there are a lot of people who have shared their views about it and I have not. I never left a comment, tweet or wrote a wall post on Facebook because at that time I had to think hard because I admit that at that time I was baffled – too baffled to think of what to say I guess. So, now that two days have passed or three, I decided that I should just go ahead and share my opinion on what Nyle DiMarco did in the video where he teach profanity using our native language which is American Sign Language. Please note that I am not speaking for everybody, this is only based on my opinion and my thought so if you are curious what are their thoughts you are more than welcome to ask them or to look for that video on Facebook. It is a video done by Buzzfeed, one of popular blog and now vlog brand or company. I exactly don’t know if I should say one of popular news because they don’t exactly focus on news. I think it would be safer for me to say that they focus on educational niche or opinion niche like mine except that they do vlogs.
In case if you don’t know who Nyle DiMarco is, Nyle DiMarco were a contestant for American’s Next Top Model cycle 22 and won, also who were a contestant for 22nd season of Dancing with the Stars and won the mirror ball trophy. What made him so special at that time is that he is Deaf who is fluent in American Sign Language and that had millions of Deaf people’s attention because he was Deaf-centric. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten that kind of attention, but he was, and the Deaf community quickly made him a representative for the entire Deaf community here in America.
Nonetheless, a year or two years later his spotlight had started fading and his involvement in the LEAD-K were his hope to keep the spotlight going. Nyle DiMarco do means well when he said that he wants to help the Deaf children especially hearing parents who gave birth of a Deaf child and he have built his own foundation to offer the resources for the parents while promoting that the Deaf children to be exposed to American Sign Language early on otherwise the Deaf children would be deprived of their native language. I never will deny that, I compliment him for that because there are indeed a lot of Deaf children who are deprived of their native language or a delay in exposing them to their native language which is American Sign Language because there are studies done that said if the children learns American Sign Language right away that they would have the ability to learn other things. I mean, that is common sense, right? How can you learn anything if you are being taught in a language that you don’t understand? So, that is why it is important that the parents of Deaf child need to understand that it is vital that their child be exposed to not only American Sign Language but also English and that would be an approach to bilingual-bicultural education.
Nyle DiMarco’s Buzzfeed Video of American Sign Language in Profanity
Back to the subject, BuzzFeed apparently have asked Nyle DiMarco to do a video for them by teaching their subscribers how to cuss in American Sign Language. That baffled me, for one of many reasons is that Nyle DiMarco has set up a foundation that is aiming to provide resources for the parents of the Deaf CHILDREN and he is a spokesperson for the LEAD-K which is an organization who make sure that every state in the United States to provide the Deaf children education in American Sign Language when they enter in kindergarten. LEAD-K promotes language equality and acquisition for the Deaf Kids. (L)anguage (E)quality and (A)cquisition for the (D)eaf-(K)ids. Nyle DiMarco’s foundation and LEAD-K works very closely together to pass a law in every states to make sure that every Deaf child have their education in American Sign Language ready for them when they enter kindergarten. Not only that, large portion of his fan base are children and he is endorsed by organizations who works to make sure that the Deaf children to receive proper education while making sure that the Deaf child are not deprived of their native language.
Get the big picture? Okay, I will give you a minute. AH! You got it. No? Geez, okay. Nyle DiMarco teaches profanity in American Sign Language while representing for Deaf kid’s education and speaking on behalf of LEAD-K who’s an organization that make sure that there is language equality and acquisition for the Deaf kids. If that doesn’t make you cringe, then there is something wrong with you. Not only that, it is bothersome that Nyle DiMarco was willing to do so and there are several hearing people who asks Deaf people or even interpreters for how to say a certain cuss words in American Sign Language. In my perception, I always view it as a disrespect to the American Sign Language and in some extent to the Deaf community especially when the hearing people asks us for how to sign some certain cuss words. So, it isn’t just because that Nyle DiMarco is a spokesperson for LEAD-K or the fact that there are a lot of Deaf children who consider him to be their role model then having him to appear in a video done by BuzzFeed teaching cuss words in their native language – it is more than that. Maybe it is just me, but I look at it as a disrespect to the American Sign Language by doing something like this. If they want to learn American Sign Language, that is great, but I am not going to allow them to only ask me how to sign some cuss words and then nothing else. It is shame for Nyle DiMarco to do something like this but again his spotlight is being dimmed and continues dimming until there is no light left in his spotlight.
Now you have my perspective and you are more than welcome to share yours by leaving a comment below if you would like for others to know a different view than mine. If you have a blog and wrote a blog post to share your opinion about Nyle DiMarco’s BuzzFeed video teaching American Sign Language in profanity, then you are more than welcome to do so by adding this article’s URL in your trackbacks. Thank you for your time reading and I hope you have a great night!
Thank you,
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan
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