Hanna Mignano

Interpreting Practicum Fall 2021

10/1/2021

“Black, Deaf, and Extremely Online”

30 min.

“Black, Deaf, and Extremely Online”

As a nice compliment to the documentary “Signing Black in America”, I followed up with this

New York Times article discussing the history and future of Black American Sign Language. It was

very informative, and covered much of the same information that was in the documentary. I learned

some more differences between BASL and ASL, namely that BASL uses a higher signing space closer

to the forehead as opposed to lower on the body. As one person interviewed in the article describes it:

“BASL got seasoning.” I couldn't think of a better way to describe it. Also discussed was Black signers'

use of codeswitching between BASL and ASL, depending on the situation. It was interesting to get

some more historical background on BASL also, to learn how it was born of racial segregation. The

indifferent attitude from white deaf schools towards black deaf students allowed their own version of

the language to develop and flourish as black deaf culture gained more rights and recognition through

history. Also worth mentioning is that in the state of Louisiana, the state's white and black deaf schools

delayed integration until as late as 1978, which I found to be an eye opening, albeit sadly not

surprising, bit of information. Overall this was a great follow up to the previously reviewed

documentary, and I really enjoyed spending this portion of my professional development on learning

more about and gaining a new appreciation for Black American Sign Language.