Being socially educated is not bad. Being respectful of other cultures is not bad. And I agree that often times people respond to kind, socially conscious people by insulting their “wokeness”. Being a progressive in deep red Kentucky makes me very familiar with that insult.

However, there is a difference between advocacy and aggression. It is fine to encourage people to learn about other cultures as they learn the language, but it’s not fine to shame them for only learning the language. Many of your comments are initially very hostile, including your comments towards me, and I guarantee that no person you replied to moved one step closer towards your opinion.

I also think you should be slower to declare the feelings of a group you don’t belong to. You and I are both not deaf, our experiences are incomplete and our knowledge fundamentally limited. So making declarations about how only deaf people can teach ASL and getting offended on behalf of a group you don’t belong to is a sort of savior complex that can inadvertently infantilize members of that group.

Again, I don’t think your intentions are bad and I hope you take some of what I’ve said into consideration.