Stevie Wonder Calls for an End to "Blind on Blind" Violence
"The general trend seems encouraging," stated University of Ohio Professor of Blind Studies, Manny Orbach. "But when the statistics are broken down by group, the one that jumps out is the increase in blind on blind violence."
Last year, there were over 8,000 robberies, batteries, assaults and gang-style drive by shootings involving the blind. Of these crimes, 3,000 of them involved blind victims and blind perpetrators. "Close to 30% of the crimes inflicted on the blind were committed by blind people." This number is up from the 1998 figure of 23%.
While experts can't site specific cases, many feel the increasing trend is a product of the powerlessness Blind Americans feel from being stereotypically depicted in society. "They 'see' it everywhere," quipped sociologist James Robertson, emphasizing his pun by curling four fingers and creating the illusion of air quotations. "On television blind people bump into walls, date homely members of the opposite sex, and are constantly victimized in the name of 'hilarious sit-com hi-jinks'. Often it seems the only pro-blind environments are piñata-breaking and donkey-tail-pinning situations"
"These stereotypes are alarming to say the least," lamented blind crime analyst Benjamin Brit while speaking into a carrot he believed to be a microphone at a recent luncheon dealing with violence within the blind community. "Our people must band together to overcome the hardships we face. By assaulting each other with pointy white canes and training our Seeing Eye dogs to attack each other-we aren't helping our cause."
Musician Stevie Wonder agrees. In a statement released through his near-sighted publicist he cited the need for "the blind to lead the blind" and greater unity amongst those without sight. "With this in-fighting we're no better than the unscrupulous art dealers who out-wit us every year by purchasing blind-owned museum quality paintings at a fractions of their true values," he said before bumping into wall, stepping on a small child, and sipping from a bottle labeled "Poison XXX."
Many within the blind community, however, contend that statistics are often inflated to portray them as more violent than other physically challenged groups. "Many say justice is blind this couldn't be further from the truth," contended Wonder. "It's actually deaf and mute as hearing impaired and speech disabled judges and congressmen continue to practice intolerance when 'hearing' the concerns of the sightless."
Wonder concluded by presenting a vision, although not one of the seeing variety, of a peaceful future where technology allows those without sight to more easily become part of the mainstream. He hopes for a day where books on CD replace those on tape, Braille traffic lights are the norm, and humiliating, red-tipped canes are reaplced by highly desirable, robotic, spider monkey manservants. "I see the light," he said. "It's all blotchy and I can't make it out very well, but I see it nonetheless."
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