Sarah Marshall linked to this on Facebook and now I’m really into it:
Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a village sign language once widely used on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, U.S., from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both deaf and hearingpeople in the community; consequently, deafness did not become a barrier to participation in public life. Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language played a role in the development of American Sign Language.
The language was able to thrive on Martha’s Vineyard because of the unusually high percentage of deaf islanders and because deafness was a recessive hereditary trait, which meant that almost anyone might have both deaf and hearing siblings. In 1854,when the island’s deaf population peaked, the United States national average was one deaf person in 5728, while on Martha’s Vineyard it was one in 155. In the town of Chilmark, which had the highest concentration of deaf people on the island, the average was 1 in 25; in a section of Chilmark called Squibnocket, as much as a quarter of the population of 60 was deaf.
Hearing people sometimes signed even when there were no deaf people present: children signed behind a schoolteacher’s back; adults signed to one another during church sermons; and farmers signed to their children across a wide field, where the spoken word would not carry.
Related to the Chipewyan naming issue we talked about on Tuesday, how Facebook (in league with trolls) messes with Native names:
Iron Eyes says that in late summer 2014 Facebook disabled his personal account and asked him for ID to restore it. That account suspension meant that Iron Eyes—who also co-founded Last Real Indians—also lost access as an administrator to the site’s Facebook page.
“I turned in my Standing Rock Nation ID twice, but Facebook kept my account disabled anyway,” Iron Eyes says. His tribal identification allows him to vote in North Dakota, but Facebook required a state ID.
Iron Eyes, who was highly visible during the protests in Leith, suspects that PLE targeted him, but he hasn’t been able to prove it. Ultimately he holds Facebook responsible for what he calls discrimination. “So many of us Lakota people have these two-word last names that were sometimes handed down [in] ceremonious and meaningful ways. Facebook has belittled and singled us out because of it,” says Iron Eyes, who adds that the social network didn’t offer him an explanation about why his account was flagged in the first place.
mad men oral history yes please also megan is the prettiest woman in the world and a great canadian and bc cobie smulders is also the prettiest woman in the world I THINK I HAVE A TYPE:
this was yesterday BUT STILL:
GUYS TODAY IS THE 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY THAT CAT HELD ITS FAMILY HOSTAGE IN A BATHROOM pic.twitter.com/EvRUWczYVs
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) March 11, 2015
mouthy bitches on Twitter talk about being mouthy bitches on Twitter:
I hate the idea that social-media accounts — or people, for that matter, and especially women — have to fit into this sort of mold or type to be taken seriously. Like many of those on Twitter, I am a human being, so it’s not weird to me to tweet about systemic racism and tacos in the same day — those are two things that coexist in my world, and there’s nothing weird about that juxtaposition. My feelings on Ferguson absolutely should not be discounted because I also take toilet selfies, and anyone who thinks so is a goddamned ninny.
That was noted troll Jazmine Hughes, a repeat offender in our link roundup.
The world’s saddest story:
