- Sign language interpreter Justina Miles was highly-celebrated for her presence at this year's Super Bowl.
- Her contributions as a Black sign language interpreter highlight the history of the Black ASL.
On Super Bowl Sunday, more than one winner walked away from the anticipated match-up.
Within the Fenty frenzy, social media could not stop raving about Justina Miles, the energetic sign language interpreter featured during Rihanna's halftime performance and Sheryl Lee Ralph's rendition of "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
—Saint Hoax (@SaintHoax) February 13, 2023
—Geeks of Color (@GeeksOfColor) February 13, 2023
Celebrated as the first Black Deaf woman to perform at the Superbowl, Miles' interpretation amplifies the work of translating music into American Sign Language. Tweets immediately poured in by the hundreds in support of the 20-year-old nursing student and Deaflympic track silver medalist.
"I value the opportunity to make it possible for all Deaf people to enjoy these songs, and not have them miss out on the full Super Bowl experience," Miles told CNBC.
Sign language interpreters often go viral for their interpretations of music. Holly Maniatty, another famed sign language interpreter, has also gone viral in recent years, rapping alongside the likes of Waka Flocka Flame, Eminem, and Wu-Tang Clan at music festivals.
Maniatty talked to Longreads in 2017 about how ASL is "so deeply tied with American cultural experience."
The history of American Sign Language, however, cannot be told without also speaking about segregated education systems, and the emergence of Black American Sign Language.
Segregated schools
Prior to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, the separate school systems applied to the few schools for the Deaf in the country. One of the oldest institutions, the American School for the Deaf, opened in 1817 and did not accept Black students until 1952. The first school in the South, amongst few options, was the North Carolina State School for the Colored Deaf in 1869. Until the 1970s, some schools for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing were still segregated, particularly in southern states.
With over a century of separation in education, a new dialect of American Sign Language emerged from Black southern communities. Known as both Black Sign Variation and Black American Sign Language, this dialect is noted for its different vocabulary, which often borrows from African American Vernacular English (AVE), and for relying more on double-handed gestures, which involves more physical signing space.
When Black students were finally admitted to historically exclusive institutions, the variations in dialects became so prevalent, they didn't understand non-Black signers.
Preserving the dialect
Carolyn McCaskill, Director of the Center on Black Studies at Gallaudet University, recalled her experience not understanding instructors at her newly integrated school in 1968 Alabama. In order to succeed in the classroom, Black students had to learn these new signs in school but revert back to familiar ways at home, developing a type of "code-switching" many Black students learn in spoken languages as well.
This format of the educational system very quickly put Black ASL at the margins, deeming it a "non-standard" format of signing communication. To combat the decades of linguistic erasure, the Center on Black Studies launched the Black ASL Project to analyze the preservation of the dialect and published "The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL," a textbook and accompanying 10-part video series that contains extensive history on the dialect.
Black signers have also taken to social media, where they lead vocabulary lessons for Black ASL variations. Nakia Smith, who has garnered over 400,000 followers on Tiktok, gained popularity by explaining the history and significance of Black ASL. Like Smith, Super Bowl interpreter Justina Miles first came into the Internet's spotlight performing a signed rendition of rapper Lil Kim's "Crush On You" on Twitter.
"To really bring that empowerment to millions of Black Deaf people all over the country who've never really seen that before," Miles said. "I feel that is truly lifting every voice, even my voice."