I hate saying never, but it certainly can feel like it. I’ve informed a lot of people, many complete stangers I ended up starting conversations with, about what goes on.
The issue is ignorance. Disabled history is some of the most little known history. People still don’t know the disabled were the first group targeted by Nazi Germany, used as test subjects for future horrors under the T4 program, which was used to plan the final solution against jewish people. (Also, not saying we were the biggest victims of the holocaust. Just that it’s a important part of history that gets skimmed over. The importance of jewish discrimination was and is very prevalent, and their major end goal.) They don’t know about the Ugly Laws that lasted from the 1860s to the 1970s. The ADA was signed in 1990, only six years before I was born, and people don’t know about the bill right now Trump is trying to pass to loosen those laws. @marauders4evr posted about it, and I can’t find the post at the moment, but you can probably find it on her blog because I don’t know enough right now to talk about it.
The point is, ignorance is our number one problem. The disabled population makes up the largest minority group, but we also have the biggest accessibility problem when it comes to activism.
I think a future is possible where these things don’t have to happen, but it’s going to be hard. People might get hurt. But then again, we already are. Police brutality is higher among the disabled and mentally ill than any other group, even for blacks and latinos and LGBT. Heaven help those of us in more than one group.
That’s one reason I think disabled blogs on here are important. It’s a platform. People are only shown one side, and it’s hardly ever ours. Awareness and representation has to happen if things are to get better.
This turned into a ramble, but basically, I know how easy it is to be bitter and angry. We have a right to be angry. But we need to use that anger constructively, and I think a lot of us have a bad habit of getting stuck in that anger to the point where we also get stuck in pessimism and lose hope in people.
I’ve seen the bad humanity is capable of, but we’re capable of a lot of good as well. I think this is really important to remember. That’s one of the reasons I made this blog. I wanted to do something positive. Even though I’ve screwed up a bit on punctuality and dropped off a few times, every time someone sends a message to my inbox saying how happy they get seeing the headcanons, it makes it feel like I accomplished something, even if it’s small.
I’m rambling, but yeah. There’s a lot to be scared and angry about recently, but lets not give up just yet. We have a way to speak out in a way we’ve never been able to before in history. We have a way to speak to each other and share what we’ve gone through. That opens the door to a lot of good things, guys.
I don’t know. I think this is just a really important thing to remember and think about right now with so many bad things going on in the world. Discrimination is still a big thing we face, but we have to remember that hope isn’t just a fairy tale concept. I’m not saying don’t be angry. Or that people are all good. Just don’t let it hold you back. I almost fell into that at one point in my life, and it’s something I never want to do again. It’s not fun.
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