Community Cultural Wealth and the Empowerment of Blind People through the National Federation of the Blind

by Justin Salisbury

From the Editor: One of the things I admire about Justin Salisbury is that he is constantly trying to incorporate what he learns with what he practices and knows to be the philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind. In terms of the gap between consumers and professionals, he is constantly trying to narrow it, and he doesn’t for one moment hide the fact that the National Federation of the Blind is the key to real progress forward for blind people. Here is what he has to say about cultural capital and what we might say to those who ask why they should be concerned about and encourage their clients to be involved in the National Federation of the Blind.

Science and research have sometimes been harmful to the blind, but there are indeed forms of science and research that we can use to our advantage. The theory of community cultural wealth was not specifically developed by the blind or for the blind, but I believe it is a powerful tool that we can use to explain a type of strength that we hold as a community.

I am currently in my fifth year of life as a PhD student, and I have continued to be fascinated by how this important theory in educational research matches up so well with the kinds of benefits that I have received from my participation in the National Federation of the Blind. The term community cultural wealth can be used to explain to many educational administrators, teachers, researchers, and gatekeepers how blind people of all ages can benefit from connecting with the National Federation of the Blind.

Before the framework of community cultural wealth was first published by Dr. Tara Yosso in 2005, it had been far too normal for education scholars and administrators to argue that students from marginalized racial groups were struggling in education and employment because they lacked the cultural capital required for success in education and employment. It was commonly argued that white people were the primary holders of this cultural capital, and if the people of color could just get better at whiteness, they could succeed. It was a way of blaming the marginalized people for their own struggles, arguing that the white way of doing things was the right way of doing things, and justifying an inherent superiority of the dominant group. Yosso used critical race theory to turn the old theory of cultural capital on its head and instead focus on the strengths that socially marginalized groups bring with them into education and employment. Yosso argued that marginalized groups cultivate and nurture community cultural wealth through six forms of capital, which I will define and explain soon. (The definitions are taken from Dr. Yosso’s original article, which is cited at the end of this one.) These forms of capital are (1) aspirational, (2) linguistic, (3) familial, (4) social, (5) navigational, and (6) resistant. With the introduction of this framework, leaders in education had a powerful framework to talk about the positive ways that marginalized communities were succeeding in the face of oppression.

For those of us who are blind, we are used to society framing us as having deficits. We carry a kind of collective trauma from centuries of researchers assuming that something was wrong with us and trying to figure out what that was. This continues today, and we should not assume that it is over. There are ways that we can focus on the strengths of blind people and those things that help us to succeed the way that we want to succeed. I am not proposing that I am the first one to do this; in fact, there are researchers who belong to the National Federation of the Blind who work to uplift those strengths of the blind community. This theory is another tool for explaining what we already do, especially if we are talking to people with graduate degrees in education. When educational administrators want to know why they should help a blind child connect with the National Federation of the Blind, an answer in their jargon might be “community cultural wealth.”

Aspirational capital is “the ability to maintain hopes and dreams for the future, even in the face of real and perceived barriers.” The National Federation of the Blind helps blind people to hold onto hopes and dreams, even in the face of structured inequality and societal misperceptions and low expectations. I had a dream of becoming the first person in my family to earn a college degree, and I also had a dream to go into the United States Coast Guard. I had thought that I would do both by attending the United States Coast Guard Academy, but becoming blind during my sophomore year of high school put an end to that. Before I met the Federation, I struggled to hold onto hope that I could really succeed in college. The Federation provided me role models who helped me to keep dreaming and hoping. I still hope that blind people can one day serve in the military, and the National Federation of the Blind is advocating for this change.

Linguistic capital means “the intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style.” Braille is not a language, but thankfully, this definition allows other options. Braille is a style of communication which supports us to develop and maintain intellectual and social skills. Braille gives us strength. It allows us to record important information and share it with each other. When I give presentations, I use notes in Braille, and I have the uncommon ability to read while maintaining eye contact with my audience. Some Braille readers like to have Braille versions of the most difficult things that they need to read because it can help them to grasp the information more fully. Using screen readers is also part of our linguistic capital. I catch a lot of spelling errors that sighted classmates miss because JAWS makes the awkward words sound noticeably different.

Familial capital means “those cultural knowledges nurtured among familia (kin) that carry a sense of community history, memory, and cultural intuition.” The Federation gives us kinfolk who share community history, memory, and intuition. We teach each other how to sense when something seems good or bad for us as blind people. We teach each other about histories of our movement and the blind community, from asylums to working homes to sheltered workshops to today. We know how hard blind people have fought to expand and protect Braille literacy. We know that we share a responsibility to manifest the dreams of our founders. Someone once told me that those who came before us are our blind ancestors, and I absolutely agree. I inherited many rights that my blind ancestors created for me. We share our history intentionally.

Social capital means “networks of people and community resources.” Quite simply, the Federation gives us social capital because the Federation gives us networks. Some of us may slip into the trap of thinking that the Federation is a referral service to send blind people to agencies that will handle all the learning. I emphasize that the Federation itself is the most important resource for blind people. When I need to learn something about the city where I live, I can go to a local chapter meeting of the NFB and ask. I may need to ask someone how to make a certain argument to advocate for myself or how to vote accessibly in the federal elections. My social capital through the Federation helps me to access other kinds of capital.

Navigational capital means “skills of maneuvering through social institutions.” I am not using navigational capital to describe cane travel skills. Still to this day, when I navigate through the vocational rehabilitation process, the knowledge and skills that I have gained through the National Federation of the Blind have been essential. When I first needed to learn how to negotiate accommodations in the classroom in higher education and learn who was responsible for what, the Federation was my key resource. I still use that knowledge today. We help each other learn to navigate systems all the time.

Resistant capital is “those knowledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality.” Resistant capital can show up when blind people advocate for ourselves individually or collectively. We could be meeting with Senators to pass a bill that eliminates the legal practice of paying disability-based subminimum wages. We could be pushing back when a vocational rehabilitation counselor denies our request to attend an out-of-state training center. We could be marching to protest service denials from rideshare drivers. We could be attending an individualized education plan meeting to help ensure that a blind child is taught Braille.

From my understanding of community cultural wealth, every socially marginalized group has its own special flavor of community cultural wealth, but what is consistent is that we have one. The kinds of resistant capital that one marginalized group needs may be different from the kinds of resistant capital that another marginalized group needs because we are marginalized in different ways. Some of the stereotyping I receive as an Indigenous person in the United States is different than the stereotyping that I experience as a blind person, so I need different ways of pushing back on those stereotypes. If we look at linguistic capital, I have different phrases or words that I may use in primarily Indigenous spaces that differ from how I speak in an NFB affiliate board meeting. If I am in an NFB affiliate board meeting, I may use the term “VR counselor” and feel no need to explain it because it is part of the linguistic capital of the blind community.

Marginalized groups often share some kind of identity, and these identities can be separated into vertical identities and horizontal identities. These different kinds of identities are outlined in Solomon’s book referenced below. Vertical identities are identities where most people with that identity share it with their biological parents. Horizontal identities are identities where most people with that identity do not share it with their biological parents. In other words, a horizontal identity is simply a characteristic that members of a group have in common with others but that doesn’t come directly through their family or ancestry. Either the identity most often comes vertically down the family tree, or it most often does not. Therefore, blindness is a horizontal identity; it can, of course, be genetically inherited in some cases, but not all blind people acquire it in that way.

With communities based around horizontal identities, organizations of people with that identity have a powerful role in defining the community values and positions, and they also act as a mechanism for transferring community cultural wealth. Since my sighted parents could not teach me about the community cultural wealth of the blind community, I needed to go outside the family and learn our community cultural wealth through the National Federation of the Blind. With vertical identities, biological parents can share it with their children, so the community organizations do not play as heavy a role in that process. The Federation is the primary hub for community cultural wealth in the blind community in the USA.

For blind children and adults in the education and rehabilitation processes, learning about and embracing the community cultural wealth of the blind community helps us to become more successful. When we know how to dream and aspire, use Braille and other communication styles, navigate complex social systems, grow and maintain networks of supporters and allies, learn the knowledge from our blind ancestors, and know how to push back effectively against discrimination and low expectations, we become better equipped for success. To all the parents, teachers, special education administrators, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and college professors: If your blind student or VR consumer gets connected to the National Federation of the Blind, we will share our community cultural wealth with them. We will give them important tools to make them successful. We know our community cultural wealth better than anybody, and we are eager to share it with everybody. Sharing it does not deplete it. The more we share it, the stronger our community becomes, and the more our community cultural wealth grows. Let us share it with your student. Let us share it with your consumer. Let us share it with you.

References

Solomon, A. (2012). Far from the tree: Parents, children and the search for identity. Simon and Schuster.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). “Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.” Race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 69-91.