Ella Mae Lentz's Narrative on Crab Theory

I viewed Ella Mae's narration upon revisiting the ever-popular saying "crab theory" on Joey Baer's vblog, and I must say her narration was thought-provoking! I never quite thought of crab theory in that way. I am very well familiar with crab theory having grown up in deaf community, being a child of parents who were active in deaf clubs and had a parent who was deaf club president for several terms. I had witnessed this phenomena a lot, and not just during my childhood, but also at Gallaudet and as an Deaf adult in a social gathering in a deaf community. I also see it at the school where I sub teach presently. I taught at 2 different schools for the deaf and I also observed this at play as well. I am well-schooled in the philosophy of Crab Theory, but Ella Mae unscrambled all that. At the end of her narration, I thought to myself, "So, it is up to US to tip over the pail."

As it MAY be, it was not exactly our fault we were tossed in the pail. We all do what come to us naturally - wanting to get out of the pail FIRST. All of us want liberation. All of us want full access. All of us want equality. All of us want to be part of the society. Within the confinement of the pail, we had to fight others to achieve these, just like the crabs in real life do. We are doing what come naturally. Survival of the fittest. Whoever get out will survive. For the Deaf, getting out means surviving the larger world of the Hearing.

That is a natural thing to do, but it was not a natural thing to be tossed in the pail. It is not a natural thing to live in a confined environment. It is not a natural thing to feel trapped. It is not a natural thing to feel loss of freedom. What did they expect? They ought to have expected backlash. They should have expected us to fight for our freedom. Freedom to be a full member of the society.

Crab Theory is somewhat similar to Ella Mae's another narration on Colonization. Colonization is about controlling a group of people or a country to the full extent where the natives become dependent upon them. That was what happened to us. Crabs in the pail depend on their captors to feed them and keep them alive. They are at mercy of their captors just as the colonized victims are.

What surprised me is many of us don't even see it. Where have we been?? We have been pulling legs off other crabs - too busy to step back and think. Too busy working towards that rim of freedom. Too busy trying to survive. Hey - we don't need to work at any of that. All we need to do is work TOGETHER and tip over that damn pail. That's all we all need to do. Everything else will come together once we free ourselves.

To view Ella Mae Lentz's Crab Theory Revisited, log on at:

joeybaer.com

Please visit! You will be amazed when you view the clip! I was and I brought it up at a birthday party and we all got deep into it! And I brought it up again at my Think Tank monthly meeting and we had a good discussion on this topic!