You know, after all these years I've seen it happen again and again and again in the cultural deaf community. For some reason or another you get a group of people who would target certain deaf individuals because he or she has gained a bit of recognizance for his or her successful efforts. That negative exercise is called "Crab Theory."
The definition of "Crab Theory" is described in a report called “Review of Deaf Mental Health Services in British Columbia” by Linda D. Hill, Ph.D.and Patricia Nelson, MA.
Why Crab Theory? Had the person not been successful in his or her efforts while gaining more name recognition in the public, better fund raising efforts or more public support then this whole effort to discredit the successful person would not have happened in the first place. That tells you one thing and that's they are practicing Crab Theory by putting out stories and unfounded and unsupported damaging claims against the successful deaf person without any shred of proof. No links to sources or videos that would have captured what he or she has said or done. Just stories. As far as I'm concerned they're fictional stories. Just because somebody shared that story does not make it true. Petty stories make for a petty person.
It's funny how some people in the deaf community behave like that. Here you have an opportunity for the deaf community to help a deaf person become successful by recognizing his or her hard work and successes while climbing the ladder to his or her goal. People do have the right to not support a person. However, there's a difference between saying that you do not want to support the person versus writing a 4 or 5 page public rant on a website of something that happened 10 or 15 years ago what the person supposedly said or done with an obvious goal to make sure the person would fail. Doing so makes the Crab Theory practitioner look petty and little.
Which ones are living in the past and have grudges or hate vs people looking to the future in the hope that this deaf person will succeed while supporting him or her in such a positive manner that would benefit the deaf community once the person reaches his or her goal?
Crab Theory. That need to stop. People need to stop acting childish by focusing so much on the past of unfounded accusations with no shred of proof. People over time do change into something better. Past is past. No one is perfect. Unless you are perfect in life in everyway then I suppose you would have the right to judge people. But you're not perfect. Might as well step down from that soap box of hate. Now is the time to focus on the present for a better future.
The definition of "Crab Theory" is described in a report called “Review of Deaf Mental Health Services in British Columbia” by Linda D. Hill, Ph.D.and Patricia Nelson, MA.
The tendency of members of an oppressed group to use criticism, pressure, gossip, and in-fighting against group members who appear to be too successful or who appear to be becoming too much like the members of the dominant group.(pg 41).A better definition seen in Wikipedia is more accurate on what has been happening lately:
The analogy in human behavior is that members of a group will attempt to "pull down" (negate or diminish the importance of) any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of envy,[4] conspiracy or competitive feelings.The funny thing is that whenever one is accused of "Crab Theory" the person will provide the usual response proclaiming it's really about a person's "character" as a justification to heap scorn, hate, half truths and lies instead of applauding and supporting a deaf person's hard work in his or her rise to success. Often they'll tell stories of year's past as anecdotal evidences without any shred of proof with the intention of targeting the successful individual to fail in his or her quest. That's the number one motive and that is to get the person to fail. Other methods would be to use a series of negative comments in quotes that was supposedly said by the so-called "guilty person" as if they're solid proof that he or she actually said those things. Of course, all without offering any links to the actual source of those comments. Their motive is to drag the rising star down at all cost. Sometimes you have people who pretend to be neutral about the whole thing yet continues to heap negative comments. Those are examples of Crab Theory.
Why Crab Theory? Had the person not been successful in his or her efforts while gaining more name recognition in the public, better fund raising efforts or more public support then this whole effort to discredit the successful person would not have happened in the first place. That tells you one thing and that's they are practicing Crab Theory by putting out stories and unfounded and unsupported damaging claims against the successful deaf person without any shred of proof. No links to sources or videos that would have captured what he or she has said or done. Just stories. As far as I'm concerned they're fictional stories. Just because somebody shared that story does not make it true. Petty stories make for a petty person.
It's funny how some people in the deaf community behave like that. Here you have an opportunity for the deaf community to help a deaf person become successful by recognizing his or her hard work and successes while climbing the ladder to his or her goal. People do have the right to not support a person. However, there's a difference between saying that you do not want to support the person versus writing a 4 or 5 page public rant on a website of something that happened 10 or 15 years ago what the person supposedly said or done with an obvious goal to make sure the person would fail. Doing so makes the Crab Theory practitioner look petty and little.
Which ones are living in the past and have grudges or hate vs people looking to the future in the hope that this deaf person will succeed while supporting him or her in such a positive manner that would benefit the deaf community once the person reaches his or her goal?
Crab Theory. That need to stop. People need to stop acting childish by focusing so much on the past of unfounded accusations with no shred of proof. People over time do change into something better. Past is past. No one is perfect. Unless you are perfect in life in everyway then I suppose you would have the right to judge people. But you're not perfect. Might as well step down from that soap box of hate. Now is the time to focus on the present for a better future.