The ASL Deaf cultural history of "Minneapolis" and the ramifications it has for our community.

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Translation:

Hello, I'm Adrean. I live near Minneapolis. The ASL Deaf name "Minneapolis" has an interesting history.

Many years ago at the Deaf school in Faribault, students who grew up together would often go visit their friends. One such ASL Deaf friend lived where Minneapolis is today. His name became synonymous with the city, and today we have a major metropolis named after an ASL Deaf person.

I see so many people online saying that we should fingerspell city names. What they don't realize is that doing so erases the ASL Deaf past the location may have. As we saw with Minneapolis, we have an opportunity to show that we exist as a people and a community by naming places.

Some people say that names alone can be vague. I propose a system of compound words that will help clarify. We have "skyscrapers" for major cities, the regular word "city" for a city, say it once for "town," and a teeny tiny blip for a rural one-gas-station hamlet.

One significant thing to consider in this issue is how we all have accepted English names without questioning them. If I fingerspelled "Minneapolis" you would automatically know what it is, because you were taught that in school. We were taught geography. Likewise we know our ASL terminology because we share that with each other -- and we ought to *teach that in our schools*. This is language equality.

What are your thoughts?

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