the left has an ableism problem

I am an abled-bodied person studying ability independently.

[studyingability]

An Introduction:

I drove 6 hours for a Bernie Sanders rally in Iowa. My disabled friends were met by ableism in the crowd, and lack of accommodations by staffers. In the lens of my week, having witnessed the @/coffeespoonie (twitter) debate, where an uber driver was fired for not following ADA guidelines for a wheelchair bound woman, and her service dog, and having read Susan Wendell’s “The Social Construct of Disability”, the second chapter of The Rejected Body, my view of ability was drastically altered. I believe that our society should exist as if able-bodied people, particularly men, were the exception to the rule, not the perceived norm. For example, a ramp would not harm anyone, whereas stairs hinder people in wheelchairs, people with chronic pain, elderly people, etc. I also believe that to change the societal perception of ability, the masses must be educated. 

What I hope to do with this blog is make sense of possibly complex academia, disseminate what I learn, and encourage others to learn more, and become better allies to people of all abilities, and disability rights activists. 

My ask box and submission box is open.

[studyingability]

this article is a perfect, more succinct way of putting my thoughts of coffeespoonie and the left in order. 

[studyingability]

A bright spot in Iowa

https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-satellite-for-disabilities/?utm_content=buffer5efd5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter_organic

[studyingability]

Baynton, “Disability and the Justification of Inequality”

This paper concerns itself with the historical view of disability and its study. Traditionally, at least in western cultures, “disability” was used to keep people with disabilities unequal in society. It was also used to keep people of color and women unequal, in the same framework: “lack of ability” as compared to able-bodied white men. Disabled people are marginalized, but this paper argues that disability has been used to marginalize people of color and women as well. This brings to mind intersectionality, which will be another post. 

Normality, as earlier inspected, is drawn from the empirical belief of progress during the Enlightenment. The “below-average” was what became marginalized--particularly in ability, and race--as “abnormal signified subnormal” (20). 

This sub-normal belief system directly harmed many disabled people (and played into racist ideas).

-Deaf children were forced to cease studying sign language in favor of making them appear “normal”.

-Down Syndrome was originally considered Mongolism (to be addressed later)

-Disabled people were often placed in side shows as “freak, curiosities, and oddities” (to be addressed later). 

Racism and Ableism are so intertwined, disabled people, “defectives” and “primitives” which in doing further research, was found to be the Igorot tribe of the Philippines, were displayed together as “Living Exhibits” in the 1904 World Fair in Louisiana. Disability was used to justify slavery, perpetuating the belief that black people were of lower intelligence, and lower quality physicality. 

This paper goes deep into the disturbing past of black people being marginalized by perceived disability stemming exclusively by race. 

Women were also marginalized by disability, particularly “emotional”/mental disability during the Suffrage movements. 

This rhetoric was used against different ethnicities as the entered the USA, including Jewish and Southern European immigrants.

What it comes down to, in disability studies, is that no one denies that disability was used to marginalized black people and women, and immigrants, but no one looks at the cultural framework which allowed disability to be a trait to be marginalized against (25). 

People with disabilities have a history all of their own, and it is worth studying. 

[studyingability]

Upcoming posts:

-language and ability

-how to access scholarly work on disability studies

-Linton’s 1998 book, Claiming Disability 

-https://proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=47864&site=ehost-live&scope=site&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_131

[studyingability]

Normality, Power, and Culture (Davis, Lennard J.)

The introductory chapter in his book, The Disability Studies Reader, returns to the “norm”.  It follows the history of normalcy, and leads into Eugenics, the movement of eradicated humans demeaned as “abnormal”, such as the deaf and blind, mentally disabled, and physically disabled. This ideology was pioneered by Galton, who coined the term in 1883. This was not a fascist belief, like it is now considered, but widespread among predominately white countries. Eugenics grouped together the people perceived as “undesirable”, mentioning disabled people, the poor, and criminals in the same breath.  People with mental disabilities or “low intelligence” were particularly harmed by this belief system. 

Other interesting points: Disability is rarely mentioned in literature, and even more rarely centered.

[studyingability]

An Introduction:

I drove 6 hours for a Bernie Sanders rally in Iowa. My disabled friends were met by ableism in the crowd, and lack of accommodations by staffers. In the lens of my week, having witnessed the @/coffeespoonie (twitter) debate, where an uber driver was fired for not following ADA guidelines for a wheelchair bound woman, and her service dog, and having read Susan Wendell’s “The Social Construct of Disability”, the second chapter of The Rejected Body, my view of ability was drastically altered. I believe that our society should exist as if able-bodied people, particularly men, were the exception to the rule, not the perceived norm. For example, a ramp would not harm anyone, whereas stairs hinder people in wheelchairs, people with chronic pain, elderly people, etc. I also believe that to change the societal perception of ability, the masses must be educated. 

What I hope to do with this blog is make sense of possibly complex academia, disseminate what I learn, and encourage others to learn more, and become better allies to people of all abilities, and disability rights activists. 

My ask box and submission box is open.