Information about a protest taking place in Manchester on Thursday 28th February over new "Deaf and Dumb" bar.
The demonstration will be held on Thursday 28th February at 8:30pm, outside “Deaf and Dumb”, Grovesnor Street, Manchester
The demonstration will be held on Thursday 28th February at 8:30pm, outside “Deaf and Dumb”, Grovesnor Street, Manchester
Local Outrage at new “Deaf and Dumb” Bar
Protesters will be taking to the streets this Thursday to demonstrate against a new Manchester bar, “Deaf and Dumb”. The name has sparked outrage amongst locals due to its use of the term ‘dumb’, an extremely offensive label that dates back to an era when deaf people were considered mentally subnormal.
The bar is situated on Grovesnor Street on the former site of DADI, the “Adult Deaf and Dumb Institute”. The building is grade II listed and is an important part of Manchester’s heritage. Eleanor Bullen, who works with deaf learners said:
“The Deaf community of Manchester have only just found out about this. People are incredibly offended, angry and upset. They can't believe that people can be this insensitive. We will not just take this.”
The bar has already been inundated with complaints via email and their Facebook group. Trof management, who run a chain of Manchester venues, have responded by saying that they are aware of the offensive nature of the phrase however they have chosen to continue with the use of the name, despite growing pressure to do otherwise.
There are concerns over whether the name of the bar violates the Disability Discrimination Act, a law designed to protect customers and employees against discrimination. Protesters are calling for the bar to remove the phrase “Deaf and Dumb” from the bar’s name and all promotional material. Many locals have agreed to boycott the bar until this occurs.
The demonstration will be held on Thursday 28th February at 8:30pm, outside “Deaf and Dumb”, Grovesnor Street
Protesters will be taking to the streets this Thursday to demonstrate against a new Manchester bar, “Deaf and Dumb”. The name has sparked outrage amongst locals due to its use of the term ‘dumb’, an extremely offensive label that dates back to an era when deaf people were considered mentally subnormal.
The bar is situated on Grovesnor Street on the former site of DADI, the “Adult Deaf and Dumb Institute”. The building is grade II listed and is an important part of Manchester’s heritage. Eleanor Bullen, who works with deaf learners said:
“The Deaf community of Manchester have only just found out about this. People are incredibly offended, angry and upset. They can't believe that people can be this insensitive. We will not just take this.”
The bar has already been inundated with complaints via email and their Facebook group. Trof management, who run a chain of Manchester venues, have responded by saying that they are aware of the offensive nature of the phrase however they have chosen to continue with the use of the name, despite growing pressure to do otherwise.
There are concerns over whether the name of the bar violates the Disability Discrimination Act, a law designed to protect customers and employees against discrimination. Protesters are calling for the bar to remove the phrase “Deaf and Dumb” from the bar’s name and all promotional material. Many locals have agreed to boycott the bar until this occurs.
The demonstration will be held on Thursday 28th February at 8:30pm, outside “Deaf and Dumb”, Grovesnor Street
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
Help us out
25.02.2008 20:43
ignorant
It's in the article
26.02.2008 10:33
Simply 'Deaf'. You notice the use of the phrase “The Deaf community of Manchester"?
'deaf' (no capitals) refers to the medical condition of deafness e.g. 'He's deaf'. Some people with the medical condition prefer other terms e.g. hard of hearing etc. Hard of hearing is like being short sighted which can be corrected by wearing glasses or hearing aids.
'Deaf' (capitalised) refers to the cultural community of sign language users (which also includes hearing fluent signers, hearing children of deaf parents, etc). It generally doesn't include deaf or hard of hearing non-signers, who are welcome to join it by learning signing (and many do.)
Deaf people aren't dumb, and it's very insulting to refer to us as dumb. Dumb refers both to being stupid, and being incapable of speech or of making any sound. Firstly, we're not stupid, we don't need people making decisions on our behalf, and secondly, most Deaf people have some speech even if it's just yes or no, and all us Deaf people can be damn noisy when needed!
TT
Demo cancelled due to victory!
26.02.2008 11:32
Eleanor
UPDATE: "Deaf and Dumb" Bar Demonstration
26.02.2008 14:11
The demonstration is no longer necessary as a result although people will be visiting the bar on the opening night to see that Trof has notified customers of the changes. This is a very positive result which has raised Deaf Awareness and helped to change people's attitudes.
I will publish an update shortly.
Best wishes,
Georgina
Georgina Sullivan
e-mail:
DeafNOTdumb@gmail.com
Made of Fail
26.02.2008 14:27
MonkeyBot
oh well
26.02.2008 22:04
Sadder still that rather than educate people, it seems that the preferred action is just to accept the bastardisation of the language and make the word itself taboo.
dumbfounded
Challenge the use of dumb to mean stupid
26.02.2008 22:45
I frequently challenge the disablist use of "dumb" to mean "stupid", just as I challenge the homophobic use of "gay" to mean "useless". It's the use of dumb to mean stupid that should be challenged, not the name of the pub.
Alan
e-mail:
astinchcombe@hotmail.com
get with the beat, bonzo
27.02.2008 00:38
However, D/deaf people may well not be mute - there's a whole range of deafness and ability to speak English contained within the term deaf. Using the term dumb is at worse offensive, and at best confusing and inaccurate. The use of the word to mean mute is not so well known anymore, and whatever the case may be, it is up to Deaf people themselves to decide how they consider the term, not up to us hearing lot. So if Deaf people are offended by the term (or gay, women, BME by other terms...) then we should respect that (& not say "you've missed the point", thus showing ignorance of Deaf history, social models of disability, self-determination etc etc). End of story. To argue any differently is disrespectful and dumb!
PS the pub is in the old Deaf & Dumb Institute (if you'd read the posts properly), hence why they were going to name the pub that; and because something had a name chosen by hearing people a couple of centuries ago, doesn't mean Deaf people should accept it. Doh!
hearing (hopefully not) bonzo
but...
27.02.2008 07:58
But what's historical accuracy when you can print something as incendiary as that?
dumbfounded
actually, yes..
27.02.2008 10:14
hearing (hopefully not) bonzo
Language
28.02.2008 09:51
Dom
Ethics matters not to big brewery businesses!
28.02.2008 17:29
Near the National Express coach station, just past Piccadilly, the first bar you come to is called "CHE" with pseudo-Cuban imagery, plus plenty of avertisements for large capitalistis drinks conglomerates including union-busting and water-depleting Coca Cola and non other than Bacardi, the company who wanted to murder Fidel Castro after the Cuban revolution.
Ethics matters not to the pub and club trade.
Theme Pub Hater
deda s comments on the new bar in manchester named deaf and dumb
18.03.2008 14:43
I am very interested in deaf culture and am currently undertaking a BSL leval1 , having just got my certificate for communication and deaf awarness.I hope to carry on with my learning in this area as this is a very big interst for me.
i have recently asked to undertake some voluntary work whilst waiting for paid work within the deaf commnity in manchester and this issue is naturally of great interes to me.i wish you all the best in your fight to combat discrimination .i must keep my eyes open for more information re his appalling situation.unfortunately I missed the demo otherwise i would have liked to join you. Good luck Deirdra Williams
deirdra williams
e-mail:
deda.com@hotmail.co.uk