David Player calls to be heard, exploring the ideology of language and identityBy Nathalie Thomas <\/p>\n
David Player is a part-time lecturer in deaf studies and Black educator at CSU Sacramento who communicates through American Sign Language and deliberate hand movements that carry historical and cultural significance for himself and the Black Deaf community.<\/p>\n
Player has taught ASL courses at Sacramento State for about three years. As a researcher and writer, Player said he has spent his life positioned between Black and deaf worlds.<\/p>\n
Born hearing, Player became deaf by the age of four following\u00a0spinal meningitis<\/a>, where inflammation affected his auditory nerve. It wasn\u2019t until he learned to sign that he began developing his identity as a deaf person.<\/p>\n Growing up in Louisiana, Player lived in a household that relied on spoken language, communicating with his family primarily through gestures. Player said he often\u00a0code-switched<\/a>\u00a0to navigate the two communities.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that what impacted me the most was just noticing that I had two identities,\u201d Player said. \u201cI had to figure out how to navigate the educational system, whether I was rooted in one culture or another. I had to navigate across all these platforms, so I found myself having to code-switch.\u201d<\/p>\n Balancing those two spaces, Player said, often left him feeling split between two worlds. He noticed the cultural differences between the hearing Black church he attended and the language used in the Deaf program at his mainstream school.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking in the Deaf world, they use sign language and it was more accessible to me,\u201d Player said. \u201cAlthough in Black culture, I can see that it\u2019s my race, the food, the clothing, the movies, everything. And of course, the language.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that he felt most connected to the Black community through shared race and culture but struggled with a language barrier. Without access to sign language in many of those spaces, inclusion felt incomplete.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I could see within the black community it was a more auditory base,\u201d Player said. \u201cIt\u2019s our human right to have access to communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Player said he had to explain that the Black Deaf community has its own language and history.<\/p>\n \u201cFor those in that community who didn\u2019t know about the Black Deaf history, they just noticed that I couldn\u2019t hear and that I couldn\u2019t talk.\u201d<\/p>\n As Player entered adulthood, his challenges shifted from identity to access, representation and opportunity for the Black Deaf community in educational and professional spaces.<\/p>\n Player said that many Black Deaf students face lowered academic expectations early, often limiting their exposure to higher education opportunities and steering young black men toward athletics.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you hit the sixth grade, that is the glass ceiling for them, for Black Deaf students,\u201d Player said, \u201cFor the white Deaf individuals, they had no limits.\u201d<\/p>\n Player enrolled in\u00a0Gallaudet University<\/a>, historically known as the\u00a0first<\/a>\u00a0higher education institution for deaf students since its founding in 1864. Many other Deaf students enrolled at Gallaudet as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a well known University for the Deaf community. Once a deaf individual graduates from high school, they go on to Gallaudet.\u201d Player said.<\/p>\n Despite this, Player said he still struggled to fully connect within the Deaf community.<\/p>\n \u201cI would recall seeing at Gallaudet University all of these pictures along the hall, though they\u2019re all deaf, they were white,\u201d Player said.<\/p>\n To him, the absence of Black faces among Deaf historical figures reflected a broader issue within Deaf education. This experience encouraged Player to begin studying systemic racism hiding within Deaf academia.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see documentaries all over the place that talk about these same issues. When you look at it from our lens, there\u2019s no spotlight on us,\u201d Player said.<\/p>\n The same structural racism present in the hearing communities, is embedded within Deaf spaces, he said.<\/p>\n