Episode 16: Deaf Awareness & Entrepreneurship | “The Business Baddie”
In Episode 16, Caroline chats with Zusi Ine, a rising senior at Columbia studying Business Management and Political Science. Zusi is an entrepreneur and social media marketer who is also a dedicated advocate for Deaf awareness. Having discovered her deafness as a teenager, Zusi reveals how her relationship with the world has changed, as well as how she continues to works towards increasing accessibility in community spaces. She shares tips on how to balance your social media presence with authentic real-life connections, as well as how to turn your passion into something more. Tune in to be inspired by the Business Baddie!
Full Transcript
[Caroline] Hi everyone and welcome back to the Open Mic Podcast. My name is Caroline, I'm a rising senior at Columbia University, and I'm so excited to be hosting this series where we'll be talking about school and life and everything in between. Each episode will feature a new topic, and a different guest, and today and so excited to be introducing Zusi Ine. Zusi, thank you so much for being here today.
[Zusi] No problem. Thank you so much for having me. I'll just do a quick intro. My name is Zusi Ine, or Inegbeniki. I am a rising senior at Columbia University. I'm studying political science and business management. Beyond the world of school, I am a business and marketing fanatic obsessed with Black-owned businesses, so I do a lot of my work with like BLK foundation and other organizations that fund Black-owned businesses. I'm also a content creator on Instagram, Youtube, and the like. I make content about luxe minimalist fashion as well as Deaf awareness. So yeah, my tagline, I guess, my name, "The Business Baddie," kind of comes from my passion for fashion, for presentation and looking great, and my passion for business.
Apart from that, you know, Deaf awareness is a huge part of my identity, being a deaf Black woman, and having a pretty interesting story as to how I discovered my deafness. I made sure to kind of keep people informed about Deaf culture and and and the best ways to treat d/Deaf people in the world. So, yeah.
[Caroline] So Zusi and I have never met in person, but we kind of know each other through a mutual friend who is actually president of the American Sign Language club at Columbia, so he introduced me to Zusi and said that you'd be an amazing person to talk to you. So I'm just really glad that you're here, and I'm excited to dive into everything that you've done.
Do you want to kind of share a little bit about your experience with deafness? You said that your journey was a little bit, maybe like non-traditional, or maybe it was unique to yourself. So how did that come about?
[Zusi] Right. Um, so, I think it was 2000... it must have been 2008 when I first kind of started having these really weird dreams and and they were like pretty dark. They were pretty scary. And it was always just dreams of like
- Trigger Warning and Content Warning // trauma, drowning -
So it was always dreams of, like, drowning and near-death experiences, and I was like, "What is going on here?"
I was like, I was a kid and I was like, you know, I went from having nightmares about little, you know, teddy bears running around to these pretty graphic nightmares, and I kind of went to my mother and I said, "Hey, I'm having these weird dreams," and I would be in her room, like, six days out of the week, in the morning just weeping my eyes up because I couldn't stop having these dreams.
And I kept saying to her like, "I don't know what's going on here." My mom is very religious woman. So she kind of, she took a faith interpretation of it and she just, she just told me that you know, I should just not fear and I shouldn't you know stay strong, but for me it was like, "No, no, no, you're not understanding, like, this doesn't feel like a dream. This feels like a memory of sorts."
I got the sense that for many years she, she didn't want to tell me something or let on to something. So I went myself. Luckily, the NHS is free in the UK. So when myself at around 14-15 to the doctor and I was like "Hey, something's wrong with me, I don't know what it is. And I just need you to figure this out." And I was like, "I keep having these strange dreams, and I really need you to tell me if this has anything to do with these other problems I'm having." And he was like, "Yeah." We took a hearing test and I took a couple other tests and he was like, "You're deaf." And at the time, it made no sense to me because my understanding of d/Deaf people was people with total hearing loss, right, so people who couldn't just navigate the world as hearing people, and I just, it was really confusing to me, so you know, I went to my mom and I let her know all these things. I let her know the links between the dreams and stuff.
And she was like, "Yeah, actually it wasn't a dream at all." I was like, "Excuse me?" She was like, "Yeah, and this was when I was like 15/16, 14/15/16. She was like, "Yeah, that was a memory, like this is what happened to you." And then she told me about this near-drowning incident I had when I was around four years old in in Houston, Texas, and this incident is what my doctors believe, of course, it's hard to kind of link these things, but it's what my doctors believed caused trauma to my ears and led to my otitis media. So I have what is called chronic otitis media.
So, yeah, so just kind of coming to this realization as a teenager, that there was a whole culture, world, and identity that I had no idea I had, but like, would solve all my problems. Right? So I just always had issues with communication, always had issues, just like going outside and there was this huge joke my family had because I would always be like, "What the hell are you guys talking about when you say the trees are swishing?" I was like, "They're not!"
It just all these jokes, made me realize, I just couldn't hear. It was a weird realization to come to. I always had an inclination, I had a feeling, but just to get that confirmed as a teenager, really created a huge shift in my life.
[Caroline] Right, yeah, thank you so much for sharing that too, Zusi, I know it must have been... I mean this was during your teenage years, right, so it must have been like a complete transformation in the way that you understood the world and your relationship with the world.
In preparation for the podcast I looked at your YouTube channel just to learn more about you, and I found this TED Talk that you did around the same time, I think. So was that before or after you went to the doctor to find out about your deafness?
[Zusi] That... it's... Finally, you've made that connection! No one has ever made that connection, and that was critical for me because I went through... when you do talks like that, and there are TEDx Talks, but this was a part of Ted Youth Day. So it was a little bigger than a TEDx Talk. It was pretty important and had some pretty big names.
So it was a huge event, and there were like six or seven months of speaker’s training, right, throughout that year, so that was around the time that I found out, and I found out while I was doing speaker's training.
So imagine finding out that some of your difficulties with speech are coming from your lack of hearing, and thinking, "Okay, I'm going through a whole training on how to speak. This would have been great to know, like, you know?"
It was like, imagine going through that process not knowing why had all these difficulties, and also honestly, insecurities. That was one of the first times that I had spoken on a large platform like that.
TED Talks tend to limit the amount of people that are in the room. Right? But that is streamed to millions of people. And I was so intimidated by that. So this was my first major platform, and I was just finding out that my speech impediments were the result of deafness, and I had to go through these this long speaker's training to figure it all out. So yeah, it just all kind of came like an avalanche at one time. And it was a lot, and I don't think that that kind of intimidated me, or deterred me from delivering my speech, it was something I'd always wanted to do.
So I just used it to help better inform me about some of the obstacles I faced.
[Caroline] Wow, that's actually incredible, and I was also going to ask about your preparation stage for being a TEDx speaker. I mean, not everyone gets to do that, and not everyone is brave enough, or like, has the confidence enough to do that. So I think like, having that event right in the middle of your speaker's training is just a testament to how you were able to overcome. and I watched your TEDx speech, and it was incredible! You were 15 years old, were you?
[Zusi] I was around 14-15. I believe, I keep getting the date wrong, but I think it was November of 2014.
It was around that time, either November 2014 or 2015, so I must have been 14, or 15.
[Caroline] Yeah, that's incredible, because I like listening to podcasts and like watching people speak, and you're such a great public speaker, so I really just want to say that.
[Zusi] Thank you, thank you. I've come a long way. I always say this, I've come a very long way.
I had an internship, last summer, and oh, it was terrible. There was a VP, and this is in a major back, right? The VP decides on his off day to look me up, so he looks me up and finds this speech right and then comes back and says this, in a call full of hundreds of VP from across the bank. For the next two weeks, I kept getting calls like, "I just watched your TED Talk, I just watched your TED Talk." And I was like, "What is going on?"
And it's like, it's great because I'm so happy but I was also so embarrassed.
Since then, I've done so much training and work to better my speech, and if you watch my speech, it didn't get enough coverage, but it's called "Dreams and Machines" that I did at the British Library more recently. It's so much better, and I've done so much more training, but no one ever sees that stuff.
Yeah, no, we'll be sure to check it out if we can. Yeah, I'd be interested in listening. Do you think that that opportunity led to what you're doing now? You're really focused on social media and marketing, right, and entrepreneurship in general, right, because you're the Business Baddie. And so, how did that come about? Was that during college or maybe even before?
So that was much before. My mother's an amazing woman, she's also a very terrifying woman. From a very young age, she kind of, I'd say, my household was like a business boot camp. It was like, from a very young age, I think from seven, we were writing reports on an industry or field of our interest and and assessing the business landscape of that space.
It was the weirdest thing for a seven year old to be doing. But at that time, right, I was you know watching my little Hannah Montana and everything else. I was like, "I love fashion, like, this is what I want to do." I remember at that age, writing a report on the market share of Marc Jacobs, in the fashion industry, and it was the most random thing, and my mom was just like, "Talk about all of the businesses you're interested." And I wrote this long report about all of these fashion businesses.
I think that's, that's where it comes from, I think it comes from my mother's determination to make sure that we were business-minded people, and my love for fashion. And I just thought, "What is the best way to merge these two interests?" And that's what developed into my Instagram because I was like, you know, I want to talk about fashion, I want to talk about all these clothes I love wearing, but I also want to let people know, and this was a catchphrase I ran with originally but I since scratched... that you can be a "baddie with a brain." Like, you can be an Instagram baddie, right, and have this depiction of being online and whatnot, but also be driven and be smart and be independent, right? And and know what you're doing. So, I wanted to combine those two aspects of identity, and I just love doing it. So, I've done it since maybe I was 13 years old so come to this point now, it's just really been passion driving me through it.
[Caroline] That's awesome. And I'm curious too about... you're a very good marketer on social media, and I know that you also really value in-person relationships, based on again, the TED Talk from 2015.
So I'm wondering if that idea still holds, if there is a sort of conflict between the two, your online presence versus in person relationships, and how you reconcile that.
[Zusi] That's a huge one.
So, my huge thing with marketing that I tell every single one of my clients is, "You want to use social media and not let social media use you." And that's a huge thing, I got so much feedback from that speech and people were like, "Zusi, you telling people to step away from their phone?" And I was like, "No, for real!" Because it's a vital part of marketing. I think people don't understand that the separation between the real world and the digital world is hugely important in crafting your marketing strategy and crafting your brand identity. You want to be connecting to the real world, with a presence online. So for me, I don't see it as a tension at all, and I encourage people to use social media, to talk about your passions, talk about what you like doing daily. Talk about your business idea, and gain some traction, gain some sales from that, but also realize that at the end of the day it's a digital world. You close the phone, and there's a world out there that you can go outside, engage with people, talk with people. If your marketing strategy does not have a way for you to go and engage with other pioneers in your space in person, then there's a huge gap in your strategy.
So, I like to see it as a balance, and I, that's where I see that lack of tension happening, when you balance the two.
[Caroline] That's a really good answer. And I think that's something that maybe even non-marketers, just people who are using social media, maybe even just to stay connected or they're trying to gain followers, it's hard once you enter to know or appreciate the balance, or be able to get to that balance. You have to kind of identify that this is something that needs to be kind of, I don't know, balance, for lack of a better word, but just, yeah.
[Zusi] Yeah, 100%. I think everyday people like with myself, I had that journey when I was younger, and it was like, it almost becomes like a, an addiction to a drug.
It's like you, you get these dopamine releases from hundreds of people liking your photo at 13 years old, and you get hooked on that. You're like, "Oh, this must be some sort of validation of my worth." And just growing and realizing this is not at all what it is. You're just kind of using those numbers and stats to measure someone's engagement with the stuff you're interested in, that's kind of how I've grown to understand things.
[Caroline] How do you build confidence in starting these businesses? I know, you said your mother was a huge influence, and I'm wondering, was there anything else like inside you? How did you know that this was something you really want it to do?
[Zusi] Yeah. Whenever I'm talking about business structuring with people. The first thing I say is, if your first objective is to make a profit, and that is your only objective, you're going to face some difficulties. If your objective is to turn your passion into a profit, then you're going to be successful. So for me it was, what am I passionate about, what is the problem, and how can I turn my passion and that problem into a profit? Because I loved all of those. I loved addressing the problem. I loved my passion for these things, but I also loved money and I'm, I'm not going to play.
You know when you come from a background that that is pretty turbulent, you're looking for stability, and for me I always was like, you know, I dream of starting a business and being really successful. And so for me, it was just being really passionate about specific things. Now, that's marketing. Originally that was like fashion and accessories. So I actually had a jewelry business when I was little younger, that did really well, but the team disbanded. So I decided to kind of shift my focus onto other things.
So I've always kind of been passionate about things, and thought, "How can I turn these passions into a profit?"
But I also want to say that I haven't always been confident about these things like, there have been many failed opportunities. And one thing I'm not ashamed to talk about is the failures. I ran a studio called Rouge Studio London, which is probably the biggest business I've controlled, and I believe I was the youngest female creative executive in the dance space, right? So I was leading the studio at like 17-18 years old, having meetings with like 40-50 year old men who looked at me like, "What is this kid doing like, how is she doing this?"
And for me, it was, it was really trial and error. It was really just figuring it out, knowing I loved dance. That's another huge part of my identity. I love dance, I love the performing arts, and that was a huge part of me, and I wanted to create opportunities for underserved communities, for Black creators, for Black dancers to be able to have a space that was affordable and had experts in the room.
So that's what I wanted to do, but that didn't necessarily pan out as I hoped. It became a far bigger undertaking than I could take on by myself.
So you know, I just kind of lead with passion and just take what comes. I'm a person of faith as well, so I leave it to God, and a lot of my life I've been afraid. But I've just kind of stuck to my passions and stuck to my will and tried my hardest.
[Caroline] Nice. I think it's awesome to that you're willing to reflect on things that maybe didn't turn out to be successes, if we define it that way. I think it's important because sometimes you learn the most from something that didn't work out, like, you know what needs to happen and the next steps in order to grow even bigger and better. So I think that's awesome.
[Zusi] Right. A hundred percent.
[Caroline] So I'm also wondering about how school is for you and how, how is Columbia and how is your major and all the classes.
[Zusi] Right, so I am now in the thick of finals, so anything I say shall not be held against me. Next semester when I turn into a fanatic and I'm like, "Oh I love Columbia," you know. I think right now it's difficult. Right now it's a challenge because I'm really going to drop Econ, it’s what I've told myself, I'm not, I don't think I can do Econ. And luckily, I got accepted into the Business Management special concentration with the Mendelson Center, so that's kind of a really unique opportunity where they select a few people a year to take schools with Columbia Business School, professors, etc.
So that this that's been huge for me. I've always wanted to do that from the day I got to Columbia.
So now I'm going to be taking some corporate accounting, I'm going to be taking some marketing classes, which is really fun and some other stuff and that's really aligned with my interests.
So I'm really excited to do that. And the political science of things, people are like, "Where does that come from?"
Because all of my other interests... it's like, why Poli Sci? And for me, it's because I've always actually been interested in politics.
I was a debater, like a competitive debater for most of my childhood. So I always did like the Model United Nations conferences, I always did, I did, European Youth Parliament, I did all of the big conferences, and I was really involved in learning about politics, and I just kind of used that to decide what I wanted to study. I wanted to study the political landscape because that had direct bearings on business, and I wanted to understand why it was that, you know, Black-owned businesses are underfunded, why it is that Black communities need Black-owned businesses to shape change.
I needed to understand the landscape to build, but, yeah, I'm super passionate about all of that. So the business side of things and politics side of things.
It is challenging and it is tricky. It's a high, its' a heavy courseload to take on, especially with trying to work with foundations and other non-profits.
But, you know, as I say, like, it's passion that drives me and I will always make time and figure it out when I'm passionate about something.
[Caroline] Right, I'm also wondering, two majors, possibly two majors and a special concentration, two businesses, your social media, how are you managing all of this and do you have time to maybe engage in any clubs on campus or other fun hobbies?
[Zusi] Right. So, people, people genuinely think I'm not being honest when I say this. These are my hobbies. These are the things like when someone's like, "You know what, I want to go skating on the weekend." I'm like, "You know what, I want to research Black-owned businesses in the real estate space."
People were like, "What?" It's like, "Why?"
I just, it's just what I love to do. I just genuinely love to learn about these things and talk about these things with people.
So yeah, my nonprofit involvement, my businesses, those are all passions of mine. So I just, I have fun. It's a break from writing 25 page papers for me. That is my form, like my outlet.
I also have other outlets. I am involved on campus with Columbia's Black Pre-professional Society. I was formerly the Social Chair of Columbia's African Students Association, and I'm involved in other campus organizations, such as the ASL club in different ways. So I try my hardest to do a little bit of everything, but do everything I'm passionate about, so that it isn't too daunting for me. As I said, business boot camp. My mom was really strict tiger mom, and she didn't let anything slide. So, I believe a lot of it is down to discipline, right?
I try to wake up extremely early, I try to kind of stay focused on what I have to do. Pretty intense productivity schedules if you saw all my planners, like my maps, you would think I was insane.
But it's like, I tried my hardest to like, stay on top of things and stay action-oriented and goal-oriented, and that's kind of how I try to keep balance, but it is difficult and there are some nights when I get, you know, four hours sleeps, but it's like, for me, all of it is really worth it.
[Caroline] Yeah, I definitely agree. I think it is the discipline, probably, like growing up and being used to kind of setting these goals for yourself, and then meeting them or trying to meet them, and then setting new goals along the way. I think that's really important and I like that you, I don't know, I mean, you enjoy what you do, which is the most important thing. I think, if people don't, then it is considered work, but then if you do then it's a hobby, but also a part of your work, right?
[Zusi] Right, right, a hundred percent.
[Caroline] Did you start learning American Sign Language at 15 or 14?
[Zusi] Yeah, this is the thing. This is the thing. I'm really involved in ASL because I don't know American Sign Language.
So, um, for me, obviously, with like a lot of my life being around the world... so I was in Lagos for some time. Lagos, Nigeria. I was in Abuja, Nigeria for some time. I was in London, of course, and then I was in Houston, and I was in a bunch of places.
So I never really got the opportunity to learn one sign language, so it was always shifting, whether it was from... I think Nigeria is predominantly NSL, which is Nigerian Sign Language, and American Sign Language which is kind of what's taught in some of the nonprofit spaces. So it was shifting from American Sign Language, Nigerian Sign Language, British Sign Language, American Sign Language... so I never got the opportunity.
And of course, realizing at only 15, all of these things, I never really got the opportunity to learn, honestly. And I came to Columbia and thought, "Columbia must have an ASL class." Like, it’s Columbia, come on, and discovered that there were no classes. So I initially started a campaign myself, and I was going to like, bring Sign to CU, was my idea.
And then I met with one of my friends Blake and he was like, actually, there's a club on campus already doing that. So maybe you guys could join forces and try and get sign language to Columbia.
And so that's currently what we're doing, we're currently trying to work. It's a committee called the Committee United Against Audism. And we're currently trying to work to, you know, get sign language recognized as a language by Columbia, offer classes in the College, in Barnard, and more, and be able to fulfill the language requirement with it, so that's kind of how I've gotten to work with the sign language club. It's not at all, because I know anything about sign language I'm really bad at learning languages, actually. But yeah I am currently really trying to learn BSL and ASL through my sister, my sister, ironically my youngest sister speaks on that. So she's trying to teach me as well. Yeah, I'm just trying to learn. It's difficult. Yeah.
[Caroline] Awesome. Is your little sister hearing?
[Zusi] Yes, she is. It's the biggest… my household is just the funniest thing. She is, but I think just kind of seeing the progression of my life, and just also having her own interest. We volunteer in the motherless babies home in Nigeria, and there are lots of d/Deaf kids there.
So seeing that my sister's always been really passionate about sign language and accessible learning and communication. And so she learned herself. She's a really bright kid.
So she just kind of taught herself and so she's been trying to teach everyone else, but we're just all old heads who are having some difficulties learning.
[Caroline] Yeah, that's awesome and kudos to her, kudos to your sister.
When you were on person. Not "on person," sorry, when you were "in person," how did classes work that way, before Zoom?
[Zusi] So this is a huge aspect of accommodation, is the bias aspect. I would be ignorant, if not to recognize that I was already going to face difficulties, (1) because I was a woman at an Ivy League school, (2) because I was a Black woman at an Ivy League school, (3) because I was a Black woman on financial aid at an Ivy League school, then (4) because I was Deaf.
And I was like, how am I about to circumvent these plethora of issues, and I was like, "This is gonna be really difficult for me." So my first couple years, if I'm being honest, I deliberately didn't get accommodations. I did go to ODS at the start of my freshman year, and then they started asking me some questions and and I kind of got a sense of how things were going to pan out. And I said, "No, I'm gonna try this out for maybe a year and see how I will fare, without accommodations."
And in-person accommodations look like, possibly having a device that essentially takes in sound and can caption lessons for you. It looks like note-taking. It looks like a bunch of other things. So, it was possible to get accommodations at that time. But I didn't want to, because I didn't want a professor... because you have to do this, I didn't want a professor to see my name, which is already an obviously African name, and there's tons of research about the biases that come with that. And then, also see that I'm a student with disabilities.
And I was like, "I really don't want to be perceived as less intelligent, or less able, because of my disability." So I decided that I would have to navigate my first year with a lot of difficulty, and I did. I ended up incompleting my first year, because I was facing so many difficulties, and I just, I wasn't, I didn't have the accommodations I needed.
So I had to kind of just decide that I was going to apply for ODS accommodations, and also it is an application, it isn't something they just give out. So I had to get all the materials and stuff for that all from the UK, my doctors and specialists in the UK. So I had to do that and it wasn't until the start of my junior year that I was able to kind of get that all together, and get ODS accommodations.
[Caroline] I just, I really admire, like how you have overcome and just like... prospered, is that a word?
[Zusi] Yeah, thank you, thank you, yeah.
[Caroline] So going back to before, I know you mentioned that... when we were talking about American Sign Language, you mentioned that you were really good at lip reading, and just thinking about what is happening now with COVID-19, and mask wearing I'm wondering how that has affected the d/Deaf community.
[Zusi] Right, I had a really, really amazing opportunity to be able to speak with the BBC about this. So that's the British Broadcasting... Broadcasting Network? I'm like, "What does the 'C' stand for?"
So yeah, it's just the BBC, a news outlet, basically. And I interviewed with them about this. I think a huge thing for me is less the mask wearing, and more that mask-wearing with all the other conditions. So, if I can't read lips right, like normally I depend on being close to people, right, one because my mic on my... of course, this is a podcast, so people can't... my mic is behind. Right, it's like basically behind your ear.
So I need to be close to be able to catch that sound, to be able to to hear people properly through my hearing aid. And if I need to turn something up and turn the volume up all of that is contingent on the mic picking up the sound.
So if I am not only having to be around mask wearers, and I can't lip read, and I also have to maintain a... I'm trying to translate this into American... six feet distance... then it's difficult. And then on top of that, like, the shields that you have often at counters and cafes and and things like that.
So it's like, it's not just the mask wearing, but it's also all the other things that are making it difficult. Another thing that I was actually going to make a Instagram video about this, is like if I put on my hearing aid right and then I put on a mask, a lot of masks, rub on that area.
So they rub on where the mic is, and disrupt the hearing. Right, so it's like, all of these things going on at once, it's almost impossible to communicate with people effectively.
A lot of my life and this, like a lot of people don't understand this enough, is a lot of my life, I live in anxiety because... an actual anxiety because I'm trying to understand what people are saying, and I'm like, I can't get what this person is saying, but I can't say, "Excuse me," one more time. I can't ask them to, you know, repeat themselves one more time. I can't, you know, embarrass myself by not being able to communicate with you. So a lot of my life, I spend guessing... you know that moment when someone says a joke and you didn't hear the joke but you just laugh anyway and you're like, "Haha, yeah, yeah." You know, I live that every day.
Like, people need to recognize that because that is such a challenging state to be in. It's like you not only have to just guess, take cues, and be processing at really fast paces, it gets mentally exhausting, like you just don't want to go outside because you don't want to have to communicate with people.
One thing that I always laugh about and people who know me laugh about is how often have both of my Air Pods in. Of course, that's not how it works. So obviously, a lot of d/Deaf people don't use Air Pods.
So it's like, I just have both of them in, not because I'm listening to anything, but more because that's a signal to people that like, "Hey, don't come and talk to me, because I can't hear you."
And that's the only way people understand that like because they're thinking, "Oh, that person's listening to music. I won't talk to them because they won't be able to hear me."
When I put my Air Pods in, I feel like people won't come up to me and that way, I can... I call it like an invisible cloak, I can be invisible and go around and people won't speak to me, but like that is one of the things that you have to do because you're like, you're terrified.
You're like, "I don't want to have to get into these awkward scenarios with people, and like, just embarrass myself and all these things." So it gets very isolating because you end up just staying inside and, and of course with, with the pandemic being mostly like staying inside. It's a double isolating factor because not only are you staying inside to avoid getting sick, but you're also staying inside because you just don't want to go outside and have to navigate all these difficulties.
Finally, a lot of d/Deaf people also are immunocompromised. This is because a lot of the d/Deaf community is older, and a lot of older people and the old demographic has more underlying health conditions overlapping with deafness.
So beyond that, there are d/Deaf people, d/Deaf young people, who have health conditions. So, this time is just a really scary and difficult time to be able to just communicate with people, to go outside and have some semblance of normality, especially in a world that doesn't accommodate for d/Deaf people already.
[Caroline] Are there any, I guess, pieces of advice or pieces of... just things in life that have helped you to cope during this time?
[Zusi] Right, to cope, I think, communicating is a huge one. Because I started just like telling people straight up, like when, when conditions aren't favorable to me. So if I'm in a class and the teacher hasn't turned on the captioning. I communicate. I say, "My captioning isn't on, conditions aren't right, if these conditions aren't right, I won't be attending class."
Even with friends, that's a difficult one, because a lot of my friends knew me before I was 15 years old. And a lot of them don't understand my new exploration of deafness. They're like, I can't wrap my head around you being deaf. They can't understand that because I've communicated with them for most of my childhood. So for a lot of them it's like literally teaching them what deafness means. Teaching them that you know, "Deaf" with a capital D is different from "deaf" with a lowercase d. And not everyone has total hearing loss and all these other things.
So yeah, it's just about communicating and about saying, and one huge thing is also taking some time and just understanding that the world, especially in these conditions, is exhausting, right? And just taking some time to do what you enjoy and taking some meditation time or taking some time by yourself, and just taking space from everything without cutting off the world, is also a healthy thing to do.
[Caroline] Would you mind elaborating a little bit about, your mentioning the different, the capital D versus lowercase d?
[Zusi] Right, yeah, so I often have difficulty communicating this property so I made sure to bring out all of my resources from nonprofits I work with.
So Deaf with a capital D is not only representing Deaf culture, but it's also representing Deaf people who've been Deaf for most of their lives or most of their learning years. So, yeah, I think that's an important distinction and then deaf with a lowercase d, I guess refers to the larger hard-of-hearing community, and people possibly who identify as Deaf with a capital D. So it can be tricky to identify what exactly, someone calls themself.
And it's also important to ask. So if someone... one huge one is I actually have no issue with the term "hearing-impaired" personally for myself, I don't mind being called to that, as long as that person doesn't have any underlying biases against d/Deaf people, like they don't think that d/Deaf people are impaired persons, but understand that it's just impaired hearing. I have no issue with that, but a lot of d/Deaf people do, and consider that an antiquated and disrespectful term. So understanding that you just can't run around calling d/Deaf people, hard-of-hearing people, whatever you choose but you have to ask. And then they will tell you and they will explain to you why it is.
For me, because I identify with the Deaf culture and consider myself a member of the Deaf culture, I will often use capital letter D. Most of the time, I'll use lowercase d because I have to recognize the differences between myself and those who had the opportunity to learn sign language from a young age and and that kind of causing difficulties in their learning, and English being a second language. And then Hard-of-hearing, I think I've vaguely talked about that. Hard-of-hearing is often like... there are degrees of hearing loss, so there's like mild, moderate, severe, profound, and hard-of-hearing usually refers to people who have mild to severe hearing loss, and then deafness comes about with the range of severe to profound and beyond.
So, I think that is just a pretty intricate clarification. But, most of time just like asking. And people will tell you what they identify as. Yeah.
[Caroline] I have taken some ASL classes in, when I was in high school. My instructor was Deaf and so like the people around were d/Deaf as well. And people are like very nice and very open to explaining their culture to you as long as you're respectful of it so I think not being hesitant to ask, I think that's important too.
[Zusi] Right. A hundred percent.
[Caroline] Is there anything, if we go back on campus for next year, is there anything you haven't done that you want to do, or is there any favorite campus tradition that you want to share?
[Zusi] Oh wow, that's a great, that's a great question, um, anything I haven't done that I want to do. Um, oh wow, I'm like really involved on campus. I feel like I've done everything I wanted to do. I think anything else would just be like being with my Columbia friends again. And like going to different places in New York.
The privileges of being in New York City are great, so just being able to go with my friends... I really want to go to the Museum of Ice Cream with my friends. So like going with my friends the Museum of Ice Cream or like, or like the Spy Museum or things like that. I'm really excited to do those things.
In terms of Columbia traditions, I am obsessed with seafood. I am super obsessed with seafood. So Surf and Turf has always been my favorite Columbia tradition. And Surf and Turf, for anyone who doesn't know, is when Columbia has a giant table of seafood and steak and all these foods, and I just love it.
I don't stop eating on the day of Surf and Turf, so to think that Surf and Turf was changed this year was the saddest thing for me. So hopefully next year, it can be outside again but obviously still safe and in a way that people can experience it while social distancing and whatnot and most people will be vaccinated, hopefully. So yeah, I need Surf and Turf back.
[Caroline] Awesome. So I think that's a great note to end on, a great and happy note to end on. And thank you Zusi for coming on and sharing your journey and your experiences, and it was great to talk to you.
[Zusi] Great, thank you so much. I appreciate being on this and I look forward to sharing this with people.
[Caroline] Awesome. And if you are watching this, to our audience, on YouTube, as a video podcast, then make sure to hit the thumbs up and subscribe and comment down below what you'd like to see next. And if you're listening to this on any other podcast streaming platform, then make sure to give it a like and follow as well. And thank you again for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye!