A blind, bald Afro-Latino man crosses his arms and grins toward the camera. He is wearing thick black sunglasses and a grey button up shirt.
|
Episode 9: "Gettin' Extra Blind Wit' It feat. Thomas ReidThomas Reid is a blind advocate and a podcasting maverick who loves talking about his kids. Hailing from the Bronx, he brings that attitude and audacity to each of his episodes. We talk about a range of issues from adjusting to blindness to the significance of being multiply marginalized in today's society. Check out his show at www.reidmymind.com
[Transcript is available below the audio.] |
POWER NOT PITY
A podcast for disabled people everywhere...
Welcome to POWER NOT PITY, a podcast that centers and celebrates the lived experiences of disabled people of color. Season 2 is here and it's better than ever!
This time around, the show will spend time exploring the worlds of people in our community who dare to interrogate the dominant narrative of what survival feels like for a disabled person of color during these trying times. They all demonstrate what it means to thrive fully and authentically. Let's dismantle ableism by listening to each other's stories. |
|
Transcript of POWER NOT PITY Episode 9: "Gettin' Blind Wit' It"
(Theme Chant) Power power power not pity pity pity power power power not pity pity pity.
Welcome to power not pity a podcast all about the lives love struggle and Triumph of disabled people of color Yes, we out here and we ain't going nowhere. I'm your host Bri M. and this-- this is all about passing the mic.
This interview came a long time coming-- many months coming. Actually. It's obviously been a hard time for Black people all over this country and my struggle is no different than anyone else is right now. While I value the interview for what it is, I actually found myself wondering if it was even relevant anymore because of all the space that I had taken away from it, but then I came to the conclusion that of course, it was! Black disabled triumph over the adversity of everyday life is always relevant and always necessary to pay attention to. Now that I've given you a little peek into my scattered thought process, I want to highlight all of the new Patreon supporters who have given me life over the past two months.
What up Claudia O., Hey Gia, Hey Mei Mei, hey Naomi, Vere, Leah, Nataly, Ashley and Max. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Actually I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for keeping this black disabled non-binary podcaster supported and grateful for your patronage. A special Shout out to one of my earlier patrons Sarah Slater. She increased her pledge a few weeks ago. Thank you so much Sarah. It means the world to know that you support my work. I'm so happy that you feel called to support me even more during this time.
Please know that I give half of it to my community through pledges to other Patreon accounts and making donations organizations like Sins Invalid and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. That's the way you do it people, spread those resources around!
Patrons receive not only shout outs but extra access the show through all new takeaway posts and videos! If you dear listener, would like to become a patron of the show just check out my Patreon page! That's patreon.com slash power not pity.
Now. Let me tell you about this brother from the Bronx. Thomas Reid is a blind Advocate and podcasting Maverick. When I found out about Thomas's podcasts on Twitter, I knew I had to get him on the show. Check it. He's been an advocate for blind folks for over 10 years now and he knows a thing or two about changing conversations around what disabled folks really go through. Like minds, like hearts, right? Because his words and his vision is so dope. I really wanted to share his perspectives with you. Reid my mind radio, That's R-E-I-D for those who don't know, is where you can find Thomas specifically sharing knowledge and wisdom to people who are new and adjusting to blindness. So we're going to talk about ableism, We're going to talk about his journey into adjusting to blindness, We're going to talk about disability and Black spaces and being Black in disabled spaces and even how we both identify as aliens sometimes. All necessary conversations to have right? I certainly think so. So I hopped on a call with Thomas and here it is:
B: So let's let's start with podcasting because you know, we We Vibe on that podcasting tip, and I want to know more about how you started what your podcasts are and how you use audio to educate people about issues related to The Blind Community.
T: I wanted to start a podcast, but I didn't know what I wanted to really talk about. I knew I wanted to produce but I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I started making stories that I thought people would want to hear that had to do with blindness. At first, I was like, you know, I don't think I always want to stick with blindness. I know I can do any type of story right but in disability and in blindness it touches everything, right? Because it's just a part of the human condition is the part of what we experience. So I got more comfortable with the idea of doing that and that sort of became my podcast so I started by me just sharing the pieces of what I was doing for this organization called Gatewave and then I started also telling my own experience because I was doing some things while I was traveling around and all this also, you know, I should tell talk about some of these things that I'm experiencing. And so that's what it is now. It's stories and profiles of compelling people impacted by all degrees of blindness as well as my personal Journey Adjusting to being blind. So that's what it's all about.
Audio was something I was interested in I guess as a teenager, you know growing up in the 80s like that and in the 70s with hip-hop emerging and all. I had dreams of being a DJ and MC. I was a tabletop MC, you know, and I was the beat maker the lunch room and all that, right? (laughs)
Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but then, you know growing up especially back then there was no idea that something like that would be able to be a career. I think I came back to audio when I lost my sight. So I got involved with advocacy organization and started sort of disseminating information via audio instead of saying well, you know what I can use audio to capture a bunch of these moments. So I was really really getting into it both for the advocacy and and also for my personal my personal life and just kind of playing around with and really seeing what I could do and enjoy it. I was really using audio both in my personal life to capture the moments with my kids as well as I started to see what hey I could I could use this to pass information within the organization that I was affiliated with which was the Pennsylvania Council of the blind.
Blind folks were doing podcasting in a sense for like years passing around audio cassettes, you know what I'm saying? So that that's really people don't even think about it, but that's really sort of an early early intro into of podcasting. I just really got into it. I just really got into the whole the aspect of writing, you know, um, because that's the way I like to tell my stories. I like to really kind of write them in advance and plot it out and I just kept kept doing it.
B: I mean, you've got that that kind of like hip-hop Spirit right? Like always about the culture and always about like for us, you know for Us by us and I love that spirit because that's what drives me too.
T: When when I lost my sight I was fortunate, because I had some people, I met some people, I met one person in particular and he and I got to bond over this loss. He was already a little more experienced with vision loss than I was. It was just on that level we could share. We were two black men very similar. He had two daughters, older than mine right? He moved out here to the Poconos area, and so it was like we had so much in common and it was just like really important to both of our adjustments.
I don't think most people who have an acquired disability are going to be ready. I don't think so. And I don't think it's like, you know, I don't feel any Shame about that or anything like that and I don't think we should. The same way it's like, you know, there are so many people who now, you know, some people who have spoken to some people on my show to like like, you know, they were born with a disability and really, you know, try to either hide it or just felt some type of way about it and then they came to learn and to me my lesson from that.
It's not like it's a right or wrong. Like it's the way in terms of how they feel because a person's you know, how they feel is never about right or wrong, but it's like it's almost expected because you know, this is what you're taught in the society, you know what I mean? And so so if that's if how else are you going to feel, unless you have a foot in that world and you're educated. I didn't even know the word the term:
ableism
I never heard that term until after I lost my sight. Yeah, I even years after that. It wasn't until I started to really do research On my own and start to read about disability that I came across that term.
B: I had never heard that term before I became disabled either. Yeah, because I think that were programmed to not know, you know, we're programmed to just overlook it because it's seen as something negative.
T: It's not about the person being disabled us about Society disabling, right?
Because it's about the society not giving these opportunity, Society not making it accessible, society is what restricts not the person's disability. Initially you know it was that whole person first thing. I was always okay with the word blind, but I probably didn't put it in front of anything else, right? So I wouldn't be a blind man. I was going to be a man who was blind.
I'm okay with someone saying a blind man because my definition changed. I know their definition didn't change. Society's definition is still that same way that I looked at it back in a day, you know, they only sees me as being blind. And I know that's the case, that that is the case, the way most people in society look at me right? But I'm okay because I know that the blind part is just referring to the fact that I don't see. And there's no doubt about it, (laughs) I do not!
B: (laughs) A lot of people will say your disability is not something that exists right? Like oh, I don't see you as disabled! But yo I use a cane like I'm obviously disabled! and when people try to downplay it, it's almost like they're saying we don't see your disability. So we don't see that part of you. We are trying to actually actively not see that part of you.
I think every kind of decision that people make, especially white people, make around people disabled people of color is political, right? And I think it's also impacted by like what you said before, Society disabling us. It's really hard to combat that and it's hard to come to a different place understanding about it just because it's the ways that people, You know stereotype us and you know, I'm just really fascinated to hear that your journey has changed and so many different parts over the years.
T: Yeah. It's been a like, you know, it's so much think there's so many things that I think as we get older we have to unlearn right? I give people a pass because I don't think they know. Now if I tell you and you do it again. Well, see now we got a problem.
B: Yes.
T: I already told you and now you specifically don't care. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to take a person now. You don't want me to play in the sandbox with you. You want me to go over there to that other one or just stay in my corner? And I don't like that. That's that's not cool. So I will give people a pass but I do think we're we're on learning so much and it's in all aspects of life. Like I'm guilty of a lot of things. Things that I shouldn't have done, you know, I'm saying? I still got em, you know every now and then, you know, my daughter will be like that's toxic masculinity coming from you and I'm like, you know what? You're probably right. (laughs) I'm like you right, You right, you checked me on that, I appreciate it. But at least I'm open, I'm open to it and I know that I have to grow.
B: So here's my favorite part of the interview. I'll let your ears be the judge, but it felt very afrofuturistic to talk to him about this subject. Listen in as we talk about feeling like aliens!
So here's a question for you: When I was on your show, You asked me what it meant to be an alien. I believe that we're all aliens in some way because we have so much experience and culture and like struggle behind us that we're able to survive anything. We're more than human. So I want to know more about what you feel is alien about you and in a good way, I guess, in terms of being a black disabled person?
T: So I think when I heard that when I heard you talk about that. Yeah, I definitely identify with it. It was just the the difference in terms of the idea of alien and and the traditional quote-unquote idea of an alien from outer space, right so we know nothing about them.
Number one. Okay. So let's say we, let's say we start with the premise that yes, they exist right, (chuckles) you know if people just start start there, but we know nothing about what their lives mean. We know what we how we interpreted right? We know how we might you know, imagine it to be but we don't know what it truly is and that to me is like a definition about how people look at disability.
They know nothing about, so people assume that my life is a certain way and those things were evident very early on in my blindness. You know, I Remember I asked where the bathroom was at this location and a family member, not immediate family, was like, oh I think asked my wife or somebody else I was with or something like that. "Do I need to take him, does he need help?" and I'm like bro. I just asked you where it was I ain't ask you for none of that and why are you not talking to me? So it was like what the hell do you think my life is like because I can't see? Like you you know me like, what does that mean that you're gonna help me? Like, I don't even want to go into what that could mean! (laughs)
It's those things that make me feel like well, what the heck like what do I look like now? Like do I look that different? I do feel like an alien sometime because that's the way people treat me. Now the dope thing about it that I guess I can say is is, you know aliens a lot of times when we do think, We say we do think like yo, they got some they got some crazy UFO science! (laughs) It's like Oh, Oh, like what do they have? Oh! (laughs)
And I think sometimes, I think yes, I do feel like I got some crazy UFO science, you know, because because of that whole idea of adaptations and that way of thinking. And I feel like yeah, I got a little something more than and you don't know about it, it's my secret, I guess because you don't really want to know about it. Because you want to keep thinking, you know, your nonsense about disability, about blindness. So I'll guess I'll just hold on to my secret, but if somebody want to know I'm more than willing to talk to them about it and share it.
B: This is where things get real already on the topic of being marginalized by how we choose to identify. We've already got our UFO science, but now here's our conversation about how we are marginalized by something we cannot choose our skin color.
Here's where we discuss what it's like to be in disabled spaces as Black people and what it's like in the opposite situation being disabled while in communion with our people.
B: Do you feel as though when you're in blind spaces, like you're in blind Community? Do you feel like you have to maybe separate your Blackness out or when you're in Black community? Do you feel like you often have to separate your blindness out? Because that's been my experience like when I'm in the disabled community, you know at times I feel like I have to be one or the other. So I want to know if you have the same experience.
T: Yeah, I feel like the communities the way you described them. I think that they they would prefer that I think both both of those. So if I'm in a blind event that actually probably doesn't have a lot of black people. I think they would prefer that I don't, you know, bring up anything that is uh, too Black. (laughs) Too strong? (laughs)
And yes around Black folks, around people of color in general, I think they would prefer and even not even people of color, around able-bodied people, right? Yeah, like they would prefer that I don't bring up anything disability-related. Like there's never really a response. I think that people, able-bodied people hear the word disability whatever it is and you can go into specific ones. It doesn't matter. I think their first reaction is number one. That's not me if they have no disability have no connection to it. That's not me. You know, there's a fear of it, right? Yeah. I think that that occurs right they have that and so they don't they don't go there just like nah that's that's not for me, right? Anything about disability... It's not for me. But like I think that's what like even when my podcast like I'm you know, I might tell people hey, you should check it out like I'll Put it on. Let's say I'll put on my Facebook. Yeah, and it's only the people who have connection with me or they might have a relationship to disability. But other folks like I think that's for them, and that's not for me. But meanwhile, there are all of these connections, they are all these lessons, life lessons, human lessons that that folks could be getting that do start with disability, but they don't end there.
B: They do start with disability, but they don't end there. That's such a powerful statement. I wanted to go back to the ideas that we were talking about in terms of space and tolerance versus inclusion. What if you're with community that you think will be accepting of you, yet. You find out that they're just as weird about your disability as the rest of the world. What would you do? would you call them out or would you accept it for what it is? Thomas once had to ask himself versions of these very questions, but he had a particularly bold way of dealing with them.
T: I was invited to a party by friend. It was their party. They invited me went to the party. I swear, I felt like they sat me in this corner and was basically like, you know, you stay here. because you know, it was like like and yeah, there are things that I could have done. But again, I was new to blindness. I wasn't that comfortable yet in really, you know being forward thinking about learning the space so I can navigate it and stuff like that. Right? So I kind of went there thinking that it was going to be that safe space where if I need to find this or you know, people going to help me do this or get me that what you know, I'm going to be involved. I'm going to be in the group. I swear, I felt that they sat me in this corner. And and that was it and you know, I was with my wife but it was like, you know, we're just going to check up on y'all, you know, they say it but that was that was what they did. It was like I was just in this corner and I remember just being and just you know, so me and my wife we hangin', we doing what we doing, but then it was like:
Let's leave. Let's leave. Yeah, you know, yeah, and that was from that was from a friend.
You know what I'm saying? and that hurt that really hurt and I swear I'm like I won't go to another party. Now, you know, we never had but I don't even feel comfortable where I could have that conversation with that person because I have it. I'm just like, you know, I'm just going to make the choice. I'm not gonna put myself in that situation or if I did, I probably be, you know what I'll probably be extra blind wit' it. Like I'ma walk all around that place, my cane gonna be out! You know (imitates the sound of a cane: ta-ta-ta-ta-ta) I'm walking all around! Like no, I'm not sitting down. I'm not collapsing my cane. It's just I'm just gonna be extra blind with it. That's what I mean by that but it's like, you know, I'm saying just just like comfortable like if that's how you know, don't put me in the corner. But like why should I hide like, why are you hiding me? You know? you invited me here. Why did you invite me, If you wanna hide me?
I think the reaction sometimes from other Black people about my disability, um, I find it interesting because I can't (sighs exasperatedly) like I would think more Black people would be comfortable, but I don't know why I would think that. you know what I mean? I would think that would be a safer space for me when I'm amongst my people but it doesn't necessarily work out that way all the time and not that it not that I get anything extra like any extra negativity, but maybe it's just that. Maybe that hurts a little bit more when it comes from the thing and and you know in a way it's like I don't know about your experience, But when mine I find it more challenging dealing with family than I do with strangers. I would think it would be a more comfortable environment, but it doesn't always necessarily work out that way.
B: (BREAK) So here's a clip of Thomas talking to his older daughter Rihanna about her experience with his blindness.
(The "Reid My Mind Radio" theme song fades in and out of the track. Thomas's voice fades in.)
T: I asked both of my daughters to give some advice to a little girl who is experiencing what they did as a child; of a parent who becomes blind.
Rihanna: People just don't know stuff. They're trying to learn because they never seen it before. I don't even mean a blind person. I can be anything, I stare at things. Sometimes you might stare at things.
Thomas: No, I don't. (they both laugh)
R: Everybody stares.
T.: What do you think the difference is between a normal stare and a stare that becomes intrusive?
R: (loudly) when you stare too long!
All the regular things. Let's say your father has like a guide dog. You looking, looking at the guide dog you like? Okay. This is interesting. This is new. Well, maybe I'll Google this and then you stop staring but when you're just staring at a person, if you literally turn the tables, that would make you uncomfortable. Stop doing that. You have every right to take it personally, but don't don't let it hurt you because you have to understand that it's all on the person and not your father or your mother who lost her sight. And that's a really big thing to learn and I knew that when I was younger, but I did not know how to communicate that to you Dad because sometimes I feel like you thought you did say that that I was embarrassed by you but I wasn't, I was just annoyed by people.
That's literally been me since day one. I don't like when people stare at anybody. Let me go to all white places like the diner and I will get bad that people stare and people wasn't starin' because you were blind, people starin' because we were Black and that makes me mad! But I'm not embarrassed, I'm serious. I'm not embarrassed to be Black. You know what I mean? I'm just like that gets on my nerves! So people are so intrusive. I can be quiet and shy but I do have a very strong opinion on almost everything in life. So I sometimes want to communicate that opinion to these people like stop looking. Like you want to learn more YouTube. Like there's literally the whole entire internet for you to learn or if you want to learn more, come talk to him. Like ask him some questions that are not expensive. You know what I mean? Like if you really truly have a problem then really staring you could go up there and talk to them say like hey if you guys can come up to my father or my mother, but if you're not going to ask questions, stop staring because you got a phone.
T: ...got a phone as in...
R: ...you can Google it, there's computers. If you don't have a computer, there's a local library, like, come on!
(END OF BREAK)
B: Welcome back! I hope you appreciated that little clip of Thomas'S show "A Celebration of Living and Loving Blind". That last part always cracks me up!
B: Adaptation is just so I think, it's so unique because people are programmed to just do what they're told right? In society. But we decide ourselves that no, we're gonna do things our way because it's easier for us doing it our way instead of trying to fit in your box. Right? So like imagine if the world was optimized for blind people. What would that look like?
T: Okay. So before the iPhone came out and I had people had to spend more money than the phone itself to to get a screen reader on their phone. So there were some available but the screen reader software itself cost a couple hundred dollars right when you look at a computer on a Windows machine the the screen reader.
At a time that was when there was only like one or two available. They were way more expensive, it's like a thousand dollars for just the screen reader. Okay. So what Apple did is that they built in right in so they made using a smartphone a more accessible experience. So we can just pick up the phone. I don't have to go somewhere special. I don't have to go to one little section of the store. I'll have to go to I like to come in through the back door.
You know what I'm saying? I don't have to do that just to get what I need. I can come in the front door. I can go to the same thing that everybody else is looking at pick it up off the shelf (imitating the sound of a touchpad) boop-boop-boop, and now it works for me. That's what the world would look like. Like I could, I could access material. It wouldn't be, just you know, if I want to go to a restaurant and you know, I can't read the menu? I gotta ask somebody to read the menu for me? There should be alternatives. I could go in say and it's the oh, you know, we got Wi-Fi just boom boom jump on our website and we have the menu there. That's fine or yeah, we turned on voiceover for you and they just hand me the menu like it would just be an accessible place right?
That tactile that ability to touch and to feel something gives you so much information. I'm talking about using that cane and having that cane touch the wall and still you can kind of orient yourself to the world. Now to sighted people and I understand this, It doesn't look pretty because to sighted people it looks as though when that cane is making contact with something right, especially if you're like in a building, and you're walking. You know you hitting and you tap on the wall, right? Okay. So now some people are like, oh wait, you're about to knock into something, you're about to bump into something. Right? Well, no, I know because I just tapped it. I know it's there. So now I know how to adjust or whatever I need to do.
B: Here's my last question for you. Since the show is called Power Not Pity right?
T: Power power power power!
B: (laughs) I usually ask people at the end like yo, what's your power? What's your disabled power? What is the thing that gives you the most agency in your disability?
T: I think I think it is that ability to adapt, you know. For the last 15 years. It's such a part of how I think. You couldn't stop me. You see what I'm sayin? You couldn't stop me just because I couldn't get around. There's other ways and that's because adaptation. And that to me is a superpower, so I don't know what that makes me, but I'll take it. You know I'm saying?
B: It makes you Thomas Reid!
T: If you make it out of here without disability in your life. I think it's a part that you miss, because it teaches you something about yourself and other people. And now I know people going to be like, oh this brother's crazy like, you know, (laughs) but I really I really do feel that and I wouldn't have said that before.
But I really do feel that now.
Outtake:
T: I got to meet Bri!!!!
(Together Bri and Thomas chant: Power Power Power not Pity Pity Pity! Laughter erupts from the both of them)
(Theme Chant) Power power power not pity pity pity power power power not pity pity pity.
Welcome to power not pity a podcast all about the lives love struggle and Triumph of disabled people of color Yes, we out here and we ain't going nowhere. I'm your host Bri M. and this-- this is all about passing the mic.
This interview came a long time coming-- many months coming. Actually. It's obviously been a hard time for Black people all over this country and my struggle is no different than anyone else is right now. While I value the interview for what it is, I actually found myself wondering if it was even relevant anymore because of all the space that I had taken away from it, but then I came to the conclusion that of course, it was! Black disabled triumph over the adversity of everyday life is always relevant and always necessary to pay attention to. Now that I've given you a little peek into my scattered thought process, I want to highlight all of the new Patreon supporters who have given me life over the past two months.
What up Claudia O., Hey Gia, Hey Mei Mei, hey Naomi, Vere, Leah, Nataly, Ashley and Max. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Actually I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for keeping this black disabled non-binary podcaster supported and grateful for your patronage. A special Shout out to one of my earlier patrons Sarah Slater. She increased her pledge a few weeks ago. Thank you so much Sarah. It means the world to know that you support my work. I'm so happy that you feel called to support me even more during this time.
Please know that I give half of it to my community through pledges to other Patreon accounts and making donations organizations like Sins Invalid and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. That's the way you do it people, spread those resources around!
Patrons receive not only shout outs but extra access the show through all new takeaway posts and videos! If you dear listener, would like to become a patron of the show just check out my Patreon page! That's patreon.com slash power not pity.
Now. Let me tell you about this brother from the Bronx. Thomas Reid is a blind Advocate and podcasting Maverick. When I found out about Thomas's podcasts on Twitter, I knew I had to get him on the show. Check it. He's been an advocate for blind folks for over 10 years now and he knows a thing or two about changing conversations around what disabled folks really go through. Like minds, like hearts, right? Because his words and his vision is so dope. I really wanted to share his perspectives with you. Reid my mind radio, That's R-E-I-D for those who don't know, is where you can find Thomas specifically sharing knowledge and wisdom to people who are new and adjusting to blindness. So we're going to talk about ableism, We're going to talk about his journey into adjusting to blindness, We're going to talk about disability and Black spaces and being Black in disabled spaces and even how we both identify as aliens sometimes. All necessary conversations to have right? I certainly think so. So I hopped on a call with Thomas and here it is:
B: So let's let's start with podcasting because you know, we We Vibe on that podcasting tip, and I want to know more about how you started what your podcasts are and how you use audio to educate people about issues related to The Blind Community.
T: I wanted to start a podcast, but I didn't know what I wanted to really talk about. I knew I wanted to produce but I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I started making stories that I thought people would want to hear that had to do with blindness. At first, I was like, you know, I don't think I always want to stick with blindness. I know I can do any type of story right but in disability and in blindness it touches everything, right? Because it's just a part of the human condition is the part of what we experience. So I got more comfortable with the idea of doing that and that sort of became my podcast so I started by me just sharing the pieces of what I was doing for this organization called Gatewave and then I started also telling my own experience because I was doing some things while I was traveling around and all this also, you know, I should tell talk about some of these things that I'm experiencing. And so that's what it is now. It's stories and profiles of compelling people impacted by all degrees of blindness as well as my personal Journey Adjusting to being blind. So that's what it's all about.
Audio was something I was interested in I guess as a teenager, you know growing up in the 80s like that and in the 70s with hip-hop emerging and all. I had dreams of being a DJ and MC. I was a tabletop MC, you know, and I was the beat maker the lunch room and all that, right? (laughs)
Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but then, you know growing up especially back then there was no idea that something like that would be able to be a career. I think I came back to audio when I lost my sight. So I got involved with advocacy organization and started sort of disseminating information via audio instead of saying well, you know what I can use audio to capture a bunch of these moments. So I was really really getting into it both for the advocacy and and also for my personal my personal life and just kind of playing around with and really seeing what I could do and enjoy it. I was really using audio both in my personal life to capture the moments with my kids as well as I started to see what hey I could I could use this to pass information within the organization that I was affiliated with which was the Pennsylvania Council of the blind.
Blind folks were doing podcasting in a sense for like years passing around audio cassettes, you know what I'm saying? So that that's really people don't even think about it, but that's really sort of an early early intro into of podcasting. I just really got into it. I just really got into the whole the aspect of writing, you know, um, because that's the way I like to tell my stories. I like to really kind of write them in advance and plot it out and I just kept kept doing it.
B: I mean, you've got that that kind of like hip-hop Spirit right? Like always about the culture and always about like for us, you know for Us by us and I love that spirit because that's what drives me too.
T: When when I lost my sight I was fortunate, because I had some people, I met some people, I met one person in particular and he and I got to bond over this loss. He was already a little more experienced with vision loss than I was. It was just on that level we could share. We were two black men very similar. He had two daughters, older than mine right? He moved out here to the Poconos area, and so it was like we had so much in common and it was just like really important to both of our adjustments.
I don't think most people who have an acquired disability are going to be ready. I don't think so. And I don't think it's like, you know, I don't feel any Shame about that or anything like that and I don't think we should. The same way it's like, you know, there are so many people who now, you know, some people who have spoken to some people on my show to like like, you know, they were born with a disability and really, you know, try to either hide it or just felt some type of way about it and then they came to learn and to me my lesson from that.
It's not like it's a right or wrong. Like it's the way in terms of how they feel because a person's you know, how they feel is never about right or wrong, but it's like it's almost expected because you know, this is what you're taught in the society, you know what I mean? And so so if that's if how else are you going to feel, unless you have a foot in that world and you're educated. I didn't even know the word the term:
ableism
I never heard that term until after I lost my sight. Yeah, I even years after that. It wasn't until I started to really do research On my own and start to read about disability that I came across that term.
B: I had never heard that term before I became disabled either. Yeah, because I think that were programmed to not know, you know, we're programmed to just overlook it because it's seen as something negative.
T: It's not about the person being disabled us about Society disabling, right?
Because it's about the society not giving these opportunity, Society not making it accessible, society is what restricts not the person's disability. Initially you know it was that whole person first thing. I was always okay with the word blind, but I probably didn't put it in front of anything else, right? So I wouldn't be a blind man. I was going to be a man who was blind.
I'm okay with someone saying a blind man because my definition changed. I know their definition didn't change. Society's definition is still that same way that I looked at it back in a day, you know, they only sees me as being blind. And I know that's the case, that that is the case, the way most people in society look at me right? But I'm okay because I know that the blind part is just referring to the fact that I don't see. And there's no doubt about it, (laughs) I do not!
B: (laughs) A lot of people will say your disability is not something that exists right? Like oh, I don't see you as disabled! But yo I use a cane like I'm obviously disabled! and when people try to downplay it, it's almost like they're saying we don't see your disability. So we don't see that part of you. We are trying to actually actively not see that part of you.
I think every kind of decision that people make, especially white people, make around people disabled people of color is political, right? And I think it's also impacted by like what you said before, Society disabling us. It's really hard to combat that and it's hard to come to a different place understanding about it just because it's the ways that people, You know stereotype us and you know, I'm just really fascinated to hear that your journey has changed and so many different parts over the years.
T: Yeah. It's been a like, you know, it's so much think there's so many things that I think as we get older we have to unlearn right? I give people a pass because I don't think they know. Now if I tell you and you do it again. Well, see now we got a problem.
B: Yes.
T: I already told you and now you specifically don't care. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to take a person now. You don't want me to play in the sandbox with you. You want me to go over there to that other one or just stay in my corner? And I don't like that. That's that's not cool. So I will give people a pass but I do think we're we're on learning so much and it's in all aspects of life. Like I'm guilty of a lot of things. Things that I shouldn't have done, you know, I'm saying? I still got em, you know every now and then, you know, my daughter will be like that's toxic masculinity coming from you and I'm like, you know what? You're probably right. (laughs) I'm like you right, You right, you checked me on that, I appreciate it. But at least I'm open, I'm open to it and I know that I have to grow.
B: So here's my favorite part of the interview. I'll let your ears be the judge, but it felt very afrofuturistic to talk to him about this subject. Listen in as we talk about feeling like aliens!
So here's a question for you: When I was on your show, You asked me what it meant to be an alien. I believe that we're all aliens in some way because we have so much experience and culture and like struggle behind us that we're able to survive anything. We're more than human. So I want to know more about what you feel is alien about you and in a good way, I guess, in terms of being a black disabled person?
T: So I think when I heard that when I heard you talk about that. Yeah, I definitely identify with it. It was just the the difference in terms of the idea of alien and and the traditional quote-unquote idea of an alien from outer space, right so we know nothing about them.
Number one. Okay. So let's say we, let's say we start with the premise that yes, they exist right, (chuckles) you know if people just start start there, but we know nothing about what their lives mean. We know what we how we interpreted right? We know how we might you know, imagine it to be but we don't know what it truly is and that to me is like a definition about how people look at disability.
They know nothing about, so people assume that my life is a certain way and those things were evident very early on in my blindness. You know, I Remember I asked where the bathroom was at this location and a family member, not immediate family, was like, oh I think asked my wife or somebody else I was with or something like that. "Do I need to take him, does he need help?" and I'm like bro. I just asked you where it was I ain't ask you for none of that and why are you not talking to me? So it was like what the hell do you think my life is like because I can't see? Like you you know me like, what does that mean that you're gonna help me? Like, I don't even want to go into what that could mean! (laughs)
It's those things that make me feel like well, what the heck like what do I look like now? Like do I look that different? I do feel like an alien sometime because that's the way people treat me. Now the dope thing about it that I guess I can say is is, you know aliens a lot of times when we do think, We say we do think like yo, they got some they got some crazy UFO science! (laughs) It's like Oh, Oh, like what do they have? Oh! (laughs)
And I think sometimes, I think yes, I do feel like I got some crazy UFO science, you know, because because of that whole idea of adaptations and that way of thinking. And I feel like yeah, I got a little something more than and you don't know about it, it's my secret, I guess because you don't really want to know about it. Because you want to keep thinking, you know, your nonsense about disability, about blindness. So I'll guess I'll just hold on to my secret, but if somebody want to know I'm more than willing to talk to them about it and share it.
B: This is where things get real already on the topic of being marginalized by how we choose to identify. We've already got our UFO science, but now here's our conversation about how we are marginalized by something we cannot choose our skin color.
Here's where we discuss what it's like to be in disabled spaces as Black people and what it's like in the opposite situation being disabled while in communion with our people.
B: Do you feel as though when you're in blind spaces, like you're in blind Community? Do you feel like you have to maybe separate your Blackness out or when you're in Black community? Do you feel like you often have to separate your blindness out? Because that's been my experience like when I'm in the disabled community, you know at times I feel like I have to be one or the other. So I want to know if you have the same experience.
T: Yeah, I feel like the communities the way you described them. I think that they they would prefer that I think both both of those. So if I'm in a blind event that actually probably doesn't have a lot of black people. I think they would prefer that I don't, you know, bring up anything that is uh, too Black. (laughs) Too strong? (laughs)
And yes around Black folks, around people of color in general, I think they would prefer and even not even people of color, around able-bodied people, right? Yeah, like they would prefer that I don't bring up anything disability-related. Like there's never really a response. I think that people, able-bodied people hear the word disability whatever it is and you can go into specific ones. It doesn't matter. I think their first reaction is number one. That's not me if they have no disability have no connection to it. That's not me. You know, there's a fear of it, right? Yeah. I think that that occurs right they have that and so they don't they don't go there just like nah that's that's not for me, right? Anything about disability... It's not for me. But like I think that's what like even when my podcast like I'm you know, I might tell people hey, you should check it out like I'll Put it on. Let's say I'll put on my Facebook. Yeah, and it's only the people who have connection with me or they might have a relationship to disability. But other folks like I think that's for them, and that's not for me. But meanwhile, there are all of these connections, they are all these lessons, life lessons, human lessons that that folks could be getting that do start with disability, but they don't end there.
B: They do start with disability, but they don't end there. That's such a powerful statement. I wanted to go back to the ideas that we were talking about in terms of space and tolerance versus inclusion. What if you're with community that you think will be accepting of you, yet. You find out that they're just as weird about your disability as the rest of the world. What would you do? would you call them out or would you accept it for what it is? Thomas once had to ask himself versions of these very questions, but he had a particularly bold way of dealing with them.
T: I was invited to a party by friend. It was their party. They invited me went to the party. I swear, I felt like they sat me in this corner and was basically like, you know, you stay here. because you know, it was like like and yeah, there are things that I could have done. But again, I was new to blindness. I wasn't that comfortable yet in really, you know being forward thinking about learning the space so I can navigate it and stuff like that. Right? So I kind of went there thinking that it was going to be that safe space where if I need to find this or you know, people going to help me do this or get me that what you know, I'm going to be involved. I'm going to be in the group. I swear, I felt that they sat me in this corner. And and that was it and you know, I was with my wife but it was like, you know, we're just going to check up on y'all, you know, they say it but that was that was what they did. It was like I was just in this corner and I remember just being and just you know, so me and my wife we hangin', we doing what we doing, but then it was like:
Let's leave. Let's leave. Yeah, you know, yeah, and that was from that was from a friend.
You know what I'm saying? and that hurt that really hurt and I swear I'm like I won't go to another party. Now, you know, we never had but I don't even feel comfortable where I could have that conversation with that person because I have it. I'm just like, you know, I'm just going to make the choice. I'm not gonna put myself in that situation or if I did, I probably be, you know what I'll probably be extra blind wit' it. Like I'ma walk all around that place, my cane gonna be out! You know (imitates the sound of a cane: ta-ta-ta-ta-ta) I'm walking all around! Like no, I'm not sitting down. I'm not collapsing my cane. It's just I'm just gonna be extra blind with it. That's what I mean by that but it's like, you know, I'm saying just just like comfortable like if that's how you know, don't put me in the corner. But like why should I hide like, why are you hiding me? You know? you invited me here. Why did you invite me, If you wanna hide me?
I think the reaction sometimes from other Black people about my disability, um, I find it interesting because I can't (sighs exasperatedly) like I would think more Black people would be comfortable, but I don't know why I would think that. you know what I mean? I would think that would be a safer space for me when I'm amongst my people but it doesn't necessarily work out that way all the time and not that it not that I get anything extra like any extra negativity, but maybe it's just that. Maybe that hurts a little bit more when it comes from the thing and and you know in a way it's like I don't know about your experience, But when mine I find it more challenging dealing with family than I do with strangers. I would think it would be a more comfortable environment, but it doesn't always necessarily work out that way.
B: (BREAK) So here's a clip of Thomas talking to his older daughter Rihanna about her experience with his blindness.
(The "Reid My Mind Radio" theme song fades in and out of the track. Thomas's voice fades in.)
T: I asked both of my daughters to give some advice to a little girl who is experiencing what they did as a child; of a parent who becomes blind.
Rihanna: People just don't know stuff. They're trying to learn because they never seen it before. I don't even mean a blind person. I can be anything, I stare at things. Sometimes you might stare at things.
Thomas: No, I don't. (they both laugh)
R: Everybody stares.
T.: What do you think the difference is between a normal stare and a stare that becomes intrusive?
R: (loudly) when you stare too long!
All the regular things. Let's say your father has like a guide dog. You looking, looking at the guide dog you like? Okay. This is interesting. This is new. Well, maybe I'll Google this and then you stop staring but when you're just staring at a person, if you literally turn the tables, that would make you uncomfortable. Stop doing that. You have every right to take it personally, but don't don't let it hurt you because you have to understand that it's all on the person and not your father or your mother who lost her sight. And that's a really big thing to learn and I knew that when I was younger, but I did not know how to communicate that to you Dad because sometimes I feel like you thought you did say that that I was embarrassed by you but I wasn't, I was just annoyed by people.
That's literally been me since day one. I don't like when people stare at anybody. Let me go to all white places like the diner and I will get bad that people stare and people wasn't starin' because you were blind, people starin' because we were Black and that makes me mad! But I'm not embarrassed, I'm serious. I'm not embarrassed to be Black. You know what I mean? I'm just like that gets on my nerves! So people are so intrusive. I can be quiet and shy but I do have a very strong opinion on almost everything in life. So I sometimes want to communicate that opinion to these people like stop looking. Like you want to learn more YouTube. Like there's literally the whole entire internet for you to learn or if you want to learn more, come talk to him. Like ask him some questions that are not expensive. You know what I mean? Like if you really truly have a problem then really staring you could go up there and talk to them say like hey if you guys can come up to my father or my mother, but if you're not going to ask questions, stop staring because you got a phone.
T: ...got a phone as in...
R: ...you can Google it, there's computers. If you don't have a computer, there's a local library, like, come on!
(END OF BREAK)
B: Welcome back! I hope you appreciated that little clip of Thomas'S show "A Celebration of Living and Loving Blind". That last part always cracks me up!
B: Adaptation is just so I think, it's so unique because people are programmed to just do what they're told right? In society. But we decide ourselves that no, we're gonna do things our way because it's easier for us doing it our way instead of trying to fit in your box. Right? So like imagine if the world was optimized for blind people. What would that look like?
T: Okay. So before the iPhone came out and I had people had to spend more money than the phone itself to to get a screen reader on their phone. So there were some available but the screen reader software itself cost a couple hundred dollars right when you look at a computer on a Windows machine the the screen reader.
At a time that was when there was only like one or two available. They were way more expensive, it's like a thousand dollars for just the screen reader. Okay. So what Apple did is that they built in right in so they made using a smartphone a more accessible experience. So we can just pick up the phone. I don't have to go somewhere special. I don't have to go to one little section of the store. I'll have to go to I like to come in through the back door.
You know what I'm saying? I don't have to do that just to get what I need. I can come in the front door. I can go to the same thing that everybody else is looking at pick it up off the shelf (imitating the sound of a touchpad) boop-boop-boop, and now it works for me. That's what the world would look like. Like I could, I could access material. It wouldn't be, just you know, if I want to go to a restaurant and you know, I can't read the menu? I gotta ask somebody to read the menu for me? There should be alternatives. I could go in say and it's the oh, you know, we got Wi-Fi just boom boom jump on our website and we have the menu there. That's fine or yeah, we turned on voiceover for you and they just hand me the menu like it would just be an accessible place right?
That tactile that ability to touch and to feel something gives you so much information. I'm talking about using that cane and having that cane touch the wall and still you can kind of orient yourself to the world. Now to sighted people and I understand this, It doesn't look pretty because to sighted people it looks as though when that cane is making contact with something right, especially if you're like in a building, and you're walking. You know you hitting and you tap on the wall, right? Okay. So now some people are like, oh wait, you're about to knock into something, you're about to bump into something. Right? Well, no, I know because I just tapped it. I know it's there. So now I know how to adjust or whatever I need to do.
B: Here's my last question for you. Since the show is called Power Not Pity right?
T: Power power power power!
B: (laughs) I usually ask people at the end like yo, what's your power? What's your disabled power? What is the thing that gives you the most agency in your disability?
T: I think I think it is that ability to adapt, you know. For the last 15 years. It's such a part of how I think. You couldn't stop me. You see what I'm sayin? You couldn't stop me just because I couldn't get around. There's other ways and that's because adaptation. And that to me is a superpower, so I don't know what that makes me, but I'll take it. You know I'm saying?
B: It makes you Thomas Reid!
T: If you make it out of here without disability in your life. I think it's a part that you miss, because it teaches you something about yourself and other people. And now I know people going to be like, oh this brother's crazy like, you know, (laughs) but I really I really do feel that and I wouldn't have said that before.
But I really do feel that now.
Outtake:
T: I got to meet Bri!!!!
(Together Bri and Thomas chant: Power Power Power not Pity Pity Pity! Laughter erupts from the both of them)