The Full Story of Helen Keller | The History You Didn't Learn | TIME
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores the multifaceted life of Helen Keller, challenging the simplified narrative often taught in schools. It delves into her activism for disability rights, women's rights, racial justice, and workers' rights, as well as her early but later disavowed support for eugenics. The script also highlights the importance of understanding her full story to appreciate the broader contributions of disabled Americans to history.
Takeaways
- 📖 Helen Keller is known for her image on the Alabama State quarter, symbolizing the 'spirit of courage' through her depiction reading a braille book.
- 👧 The common narrative of Helen Keller often focuses on her early life and her overcoming of disabilities, which can overshadow her later achievements and activism.
- 🗣️ Haben Girma, a disability rights lawyer who is also deaf-blind, emphasizes that Helen Keller's story is often told by others, not by Keller herself, which can lead to a skewed perspective.
- 💪 Helen Keller was an advocate for various social causes, including women's rights, racial equality, and workers' rights, showing her as an agent of change rather than just an overcomer of personal adversity.
- 🏭 Keller was particularly passionate about workers' rights, recognizing the exploitation and dangers faced by workers during the period of rapid industrialization.
- 📚 She was well-read in socialist literature, corresponded with notable socialists of her time, and was involved with organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
- 🆘 Helen Keller was a co-founder of the ACLU, demonstrating her commitment to civil liberties, which is a part of her legacy often not highlighted in common narratives.
- 👁️🗨️ Despite her significant contributions to disability rights, Keller had a complex relationship with the disability community, as she was sometimes asked to stop discussing other social issues and focus solely on blindness.
- 🚫 There is a critique of Helen Keller's early support for eugenics, a stance she later moved away from, showing that perspectives and beliefs can evolve over time.
- 🌟 The script calls for a more comprehensive understanding of Helen Keller's life and work, acknowledging her as more than just an inspirational figure for overcoming personal disability.
Q & A
What is the significance of Helen Keller's image on the Alabama State quarter?
-Helen Keller's image on the Alabama State quarter represents her as a symbol of courage and determination, as she is depicted reading a braille book.
How does the script challenge the common narrative about Helen Keller?
-The script challenges the common narrative by highlighting that Helen Keller was more than just a child who overcame her disabilities; she was a lifelong activist who advocated for women, people of color, workers' rights, and disability rights.
What role did Haben Girma play in the script, and why is her perspective important?
-Haben Girma, a disability rights lawyer who is also deaf-blind, provides a personal perspective on Helen Keller's story, emphasizing the importance of understanding Keller's life from her own words and actions, rather than just the simplified version often taught.
What is the critique of how Helen Keller's story is commonly presented?
-The critique is that Helen Keller's story is often reduced to her early life and her overcoming of disabilities, ignoring her later life as an activist for various social causes, which leads to a misunderstanding of her full contributions to society.
How did Helen Keller's advocacy extend beyond disability rights?
-Helen Keller was an advocate for women's rights, racial justice, and workers' rights. She was involved with organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World and co-founded the ACLU, showing her commitment to a broader range of social issues.
What is the significance of the quote by Helen Keller from 1912 mentioned in the script?
-The quote 'I do not like the world as it is; so I am trying to make it a little more as I want it.' from 1912 signifies Helen Keller's proactive stance as an agent of change, rather than just a passive figure overcoming personal adversity.
What is the connection between Helen Keller's advocacy and her involvement with the American Foundation for the Blind?
-Helen Keller was a spokesperson and fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind, an organization focused on advocacy and education for the blind, from 1925 until her death in 1968.
How does the script address the criticism that Helen Keller was once a supporter of eugenics?
-The script acknowledges that Helen Keller did support eugenics early in her life, but it also points out that she later moved away from this position and would have been heartbroken to think her views were used to devalue any life.
What is the significance of the ADAPT protest and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mentioned in the script?
-The ADAPT protest, where activists crawled up the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building, was a pivotal moment leading to the passing of the ADA, which improved accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities, reflecting the ongoing struggle and achievements in disability rights.
How does the script suggest we should view Helen Keller's legacy?
-The script suggests that we should view Helen Keller's legacy as one of a complex individual who was not only a symbol of overcoming personal disability but also a significant advocate for social justice and equality across multiple fronts.
Outlines
📚 Helen Keller: Beyond the Braille Book
The script introduces Helen Keller as an icon often depicted reading a braille book, symbolizing courage on the Alabama State quarter. It acknowledges her as a courageous figure but points out that her representation is often simplified and devoid of controversy. The narrative challenges the one-dimensional portrayal by highlighting Keller's activism throughout her life, including her advocacy for women's rights, people of color, and disability rights. Despite being depicted as passive in her early life, her own words reveal her as an agent of change. The script also touches on the societal tendency to infantilize disabled adults, which affects their opportunities and respect in society. It emphasizes the need to look beyond Keller's childhood story to appreciate her extensive work as an activist, including her involvement with the Industrial Workers of the World, her correspondence with socialists, and her co-founding of the ACLU. Her dedication to the American Foundation for the Blind and her early stance against racism are also highlighted, showing her commitment to social justice beyond disability rights.
🔍 The Complex Legacy of Helen Keller
This section of the script delves into the complexities of Helen Keller's legacy, including her initial support for eugenics, a stance she later abandoned. It presents perspectives that acknowledge her growth and learning over time, suggesting that her early views were a product of her era. The script also addresses criticisms that focus on Keller's prominence as a narrative largely told by wealthy white people, neglecting the stories of more marginalized individuals with disabilities. It introduces Anita Cameron, a Black disabled lesbian activist, who challenges单一的以Keller为代表的残障人士叙事,并强调残障社群内部的多样性和交叉性。Cameron's activism, including her role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is highlighted as a pivotal moment in disability rights. The script concludes by emphasizing the ongoing struggle for disability rights and the importance of recognizing the contributions of a diverse range of disabled Americans to shared history.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Helen Keller
💡Disability Rights
💡Eugenics
💡Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
💡American Foundation for the Blind
💡NAACP
💡ACLU
💡The Miracle Worker
💡Deaf-blind
💡Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
💡Intersectionality
Highlights
Helen Keller's image on the Alabama State quarter represents her reading a braille book, symbolizing the 'spirit of courage'.
The common portrayal of Helen Keller as a courageous woman reading a book is a safe, non-controversial message.
Helen Keller's story, as told by sighted and hearing people, often omits her later life of activism and her complex personality.
Haben Girma, a disability rights lawyer who is also deaf-blind, emphasizes the importance of getting Helen Keller's story right from her own perspective.
Helen Keller is often seen as passive in her early life, but her own words reveal her as an agent of change.
Helen Keller advocated for women, people of color, and disability rights, which is not the focus of the dominant narrative about her.
Society's tendency to infantilize disabled adults, based on the portrayal of Keller as a child, can impact their opportunities and respect.
Helen Keller's long life of activism is often overlooked, with a focus on her early years.
Keller was passionate about workers' rights and was involved with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
She corresponded with socialists like Eugene Debs and helped co-found the ACLU, showing her commitment to collective good.
Helen Keller founded the American Foundation for the Blind, advocating for blindness education and advocacy.
As an early member of the NAACP, Keller condemned racism and lynching, showing her stance against racial injustice.
Critics point out Keller's past support for eugenics, but she later moved away from this position.
Anita Cameron, a Black disabled Lesbian activist, argues that Helen Keller's story is not representative of all disabled people, especially those with multiple intersections of marginalization.
The fight for disability rights, including the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is a milestone that Helen Keller's activism contributed to.
Helen Keller's work and activism should be more fully understood to appreciate the contributions of other disabled Americans to history.
Helen Keller's life and the causes she supported are important for understanding disability rights and should not be forgotten.
Helen Keller's complex legacy includes both her advocacy and the societal pressures that turned her into a symbol to never complain.
Transcripts
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller holding book.
GEORGINA KLEEGE: Helen Keller’s image is on the Alabama State quarter.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Alabama State quarter.
It's an image taken from a photograph of her reading a braille book.
And there’s a motto that says "spirit of courage."
In some sense, that you know you have a woman reading a book
DESCRIPTION: Professor Georgina Kleege speaking.
and that’s understood to represent courage.
DESCRIPTION: Image of a young Helen Keller.
And this is not to say that Helen Keller wasn’t a courageous person
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller reading.
but it’s kind of a safe message.
Without any sort of controversial overtones to it.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller typing.
It’s like Helen Keller worked hard and she got educated
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller in cap and gown.
and that’s all we need to know.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller throughout her life.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of disability rights activists.
TEXT: The History You Didn't Learn
TEXT: The Full Story of Helen Keller
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller as a child.
NARRATOR: Pretty much everyone learns about Helen Keller in school. From picture books to the movie the Miracle Worker.
DESCRIPTION: Scene from The Miracle Worker.
She's a staple in children’s education but we only
DESCRIPTION: Image of water pump.
learn about one aspect of a multifaceted and complicated person.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller.
HABEN GIRMA: The dominant story about Helen Keller is not by Helen Keller.
DESCRIPTION: Disability Rights Lawyer Haben Girma speaking.
It’s by sighted, hearing people putting forth Helen Keller’s story.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Haben Girma at the White House.
NARRATOR: Haben Girma is a disability rights lawyer who is also deaf-blind.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Haben Girma and her dog.
For Girma, getting Helen Keller's story right is personal.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Helen Keller as a child with her teacher.
HABEN GIRMA: The story focuses on her being six, seven years old and things happening
to her. People teaching her, people giving her water. She comes across as very passive but if you
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller.
learn about her life from her own words, you realize she was an agent of change.
TEXT: "I do not like the world as it is; so I am trying to make it a little more as I want it." — Helen Keller, 1912
She advocated for women, people of color.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller throughout her life.
Disability rights mattered to her but the dominant story doesn’t focus on that.
Since society only frames her as a little girl,
DESCRIPTION: Film stills from "The Miracle Worker."
a lot of people subconsciously learn to infantilize disabled adults.
DESCRIPTION: Haben Girma speaking.
That makes it difficult to get a job, to be treated with respect, to get good quality
education and healthcare.
DESCRIPTION: Artwork of Helen Keller and teacher.
That's not right.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller.
NARRATOR: Because we are so focused on Keller as a child, we often miss out on her long life of activism.
DESCRIPTION: Sascha Cohen speaking.
SASCHA COHEN: One of her passions was really the rights of workers and unionists.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of 20th century cities and factories.
The progressive era when she was working politically in different organizations was a period of rapid industrialization
there were these new conditions in which workers were subjected to heightened inequality and
even danger and risk physically.
DESCRIPTION: Newspaper reading "Accidents Cause Many Cases Of Blindness"
She pointed out that a lot of times people
went blind from accidents on the shop floor.
TEXT: will have their eyes torn by flying bits of steel
DESCRIPTION: Images of factory workers.
She saw this exploitation of employees by industrialists, factory owners, corporations.
And so she became involved with the IWW
DESCRIPTION: IWW advertisement.
the Industrial Workers of the World
DESCRIPTION: Image of the Industrial Workers of the World.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller reading.
She read Marx, she corresponded with Eugene Debs who
was the major socialist at the time
DESCRIPTION: Image of Eugene Debs and Ben Hanford.
and she helped cofound the ACLU
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller typing.
which we now sort of associate with freedom of speech.
She had a spirit of wanting to help the collective good, rather than individuals on their own.
DESCRIPTION: Images of Helen Keller and the American Foundation for the Blind.
GEORGINA KLEEGE: She found the American Foundation for the Blind, which is an advocacy and education
organization. She spent her life from 1925 onward as
a spokesperson, and as a fundraiser for that cause.
DESCRIPTION: Helen Selsdon speaking.
HELEN SELSDON: She was an early member of the NAACP.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Helen Keller.
She's condemned lynching. She condemns the racism perpetrated against African-Americans.
Many people like to think of them as opposed to racism today, it was not so typical to
be opposed to racism in 1916 if you were a privileged white woman. It just wasn't. And she was.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller.
HABEN GIRMA: People would often ask her, stop talking about
racism, and women’s rights. Just talk about the blind and inspire us about the blind.
She found that frustrating and continued to talk anyway.
DESCRIPTION: Helen Keller talking in front of large crowd.
DESCRIPTION: Georgina Kleege speaking.
GEORGINA KLEEGE: When we talk about oppression and prejudice, disability is always sort of off to one side.
But for Helen Keller, it was all of a piece.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller and confidants.
HABEN GIRMA: You can’t advocate for disability rights if you’re not also advocating for racial
justice and gender equality.
DESCRIPTION: Helen Keller receiving a pin at a ceremony.
NARRATOR: Critics of Helen Keller point to one notable exception in her advocacy for people with disabilities.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller typing.
She was once a supporter of eugenics, a now-reviled school of thought
that sought to improve human populations by breeding out certain traits, like for example certain disabilities.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller typing.
HELEN SELSDON: That's absolutely true. She did write about eugenics
DESCRIPTION: Helen Selsdon speaking.
and she was concerned that children with disabilities with severe disabilities
would not be able to function in society. I think it was part of that zeitgeist at the
time. I think it's very easy to take history out of context
very early on she moved away from that position.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Helen Keller typing.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller.
And I think she would herself be heartbroken
to think that she did not value every life because she absolutely did.
DESCRIPTION: Helen Keller with wheelchair users.
HABEN GIRMA: People need time to grow and learn.
We need to forgive people when they acknowledge they’ve made mistakes.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller looking out of the window.
DESCRIPTION: Image of Helen Keller at a radio station.
NARRATOR: Still, Helen Keller's prominence is another
reminder of how our American history often focuses on the stories of wealthy white people.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Helen Keller at event.
DESCRIPTION: Anita Cameron speaking.
ANITA CAMERON: I don't have a perspective on Helen Keller. She's just another, despite disabilities,
privileged white person.
DESCRIPTION: Images of Anita Cameron demonstrating.
I am a Black disabled Lesbian who happens
to be poor. You know, you want to talk about intersectionalities and marginalizations. I'm looking up from the bottom
DESCRIPTION: Images of Anita Cameron demonstrating.
and I'm just out here trying to not only fight for the rights of all disabled
but wanting to highlight even among disabled, there are those of us whose stories don't get told.
DESCRIPTION: Archival image of Anita Cameron demonstrating.
NARRATOR: Anita Cameron herself was part of history
in 1990 when she and several other activists from the disability rights group, ADAPT, crawled
up the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building to demand the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of activists crawling the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building chanting "Access now!"
DESCRIPTION: Images of ADAPT demonstration.
The law that now requires public buildings to have ramps and other accessibility features.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of crowd at ADAPT demonstration.
ANITA CAMERON: On a sunny hot morning, we gathered up to
do our crawl. And that was the only way that we could get there and we were trying to highlight
the fact that people with disabilities, we live in second-class citizenship.
We kind of went in stealth. It started out as a tour, and when we got into the Rotunda, we just took it over.
DESCRIPTION: Demonstrators shouting "ADA now!" inside the U.S. Capitol Building.
DESCRIPTION: Police officers approaching demonstrators.
When it all was said and done, 104 of us were arrested.
DESCRIPTION: Newspaper article reading "Officer Arrest 104 Disabled Protestors"
I was number 81.
DESCRIPTION: Images of demonstrators being arrested.
I was in the center of a knot of people who had chained ourselves together.
DESCRIPTION: Images from ADAPT protest.
The combination of a crawl and the takeover of the rotunda is what got the ADA passed so quickly
DESCRIPTION: Image of ADA being signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
DESCRIPTION: Image of ADAPT demonstrators.
NARRATOR: The fight for disability rights is far from over, but the ADA was a milestone achievement.
It completely changed the way people with disabilities lived
DESCRIPTION: Newspaper reading "Disabilities Act Forces Sweeping Transit Changes"
and recognized people with disabilities as people with civil rights. Helen Keller is certainly not the only disability
rights champion we should be learning about
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller and disability rights activists.
but learning about her work and her activism
more fully is a step towards understanding the contributions so many other disabled Americans
have made and continue to make to our shared history.
GEORGINA KLEEGE: She was born in 1880, and she died in 1968 and it was a very long life.
DESCRIPTION: Footage of Helen Keller listening to music, her hand on singer's face.
HELEN KELLER: That was beautiful!
DESCRIPTION: Montage footage of Helen Keller.
So I think when we forget about the causes that she supported it does damage to our understanding
about disability.
DESCRIPTION: Montage of images of Helen Keller.
HABEN GIRMA: Some people have a complicated relationship with Helen Keller, because she’s been forced
on us a role model to never complain, which is not true. She complained when it
was the right thing to do.
DESCRIPTION: Images of disability rights activists.
'Cause sometimes when things are wrong, you have to complain
to create change.
DESCRIPTION: End credits.
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