In Defense of No New Jails: An Open Letter on Disability Justice to Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation
Image of six rainbow colored No New Jails screen prints. Art by Josh Josh MacPhee.
Last week, Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, released an article responding to community members who have been fighting for years to decarcerate NYC. Walker’s article supports a plan to construct more jails in NYC while refusing to commit to closing Rikers Island. In this article, Walker characterizes community members who are in opposition to this plan as “extremists” and suggests that they lack nuance.
As a collective of Black Disabled people, The Harriet Tubman Collective is acutely aware of the violence that the punishment system has inflicted upon our communities, past and present. We disavow any assertions that imply that the freedom fighters calling for the closure of Rikers without building new jails are as Walker terms it, “the enemy of progress”. We believe that they are the heroes of our generation and of those to come.
No New Jails NYC rallying cry, If they build them, they will fill them, is as true for jails as it is for nursing facilities, “state schools”, prisons, asylums, and any and all forms of institutions. Far too often, disability is criminalized. This is just one of countless reasons why Disabled people represent the largest “minority” population in jails and prisons, and precisely why anyone that purports to fight for disability justice should be working towards the horizon of abolition. Anything less will further disenfranchise disabled people and others.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of our people are locked away with little to no access to health care, education, language, visual/auditory stimulation, communication, and much more. Disabled prisoners are routinely segregated and tortured through the use of solitary confinement and through various forms of deprivation, even while housed in the “general population”. Those who survive incarceration, come home to an inaccessible social services infrastructure that provides almost no support. Many of them don’t make it far.
The plan that No New Jails has put forth is clear and attainable: shut down Rikers with no new jails taking its place.
The expansion of Rikers and construction of new jails would cost over $10 billion. Instead of building new jails, the community demands that those funds be invested into the community “to create safe, strong neighborhoods by addressing community needs.” These demands are central to achieving disability justice, racial justice and economic justice.
There is no humane way to strip people of their freedom, whether it’s through the use of jails, surveillance, or otherwise. Although the rhetoric of “reform” may seem attractive, there is no doubt that it will only result in the growth of the carceral state and loss of yet more life, liberty and humanity. Campaigns that seek to end mass incarceration by building new jails blatantly disregard the well-documented history of and research on carceral expansion.
An article published in the New York Daily News on November 26, 1972 titled: “Willowbrook: After Reform, What Then?”. 15 years prior to the closing of Willowbrook, the author argues that the proposed reforms to keep the institution open will not solve the issues longterm.
For example, not long ago, our elders fought to close Willowbrook State School. Progress was delayed by “reform” efforts that focused on the absence of a place to hold Disabled people captive. That energy should have been directed to building structures that ensured everyone could live and thrive freely in their communities. Decades after the closure of Willowbrook and similar institutions, structures that provide safety and freedom for disabled people have yet to materialize.
Or, take for example, the fact that New York City ships its students to the notorious Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Canton, MA. Students are taken there because New York City is not willing to create the support systems necessary to provide public education to all students. JRC is an institution that is well known for torturing Disabled children and adults. Upwards of 80% of the students at JRC are black or brown — with the institution intentionally targeting negatively racialized youth in low/no income communities. JRC even takes referrals directly from Rikers.
The connections between our struggles run deep. We are routinely and intentionally deprived of resources, then blamed for our suffering. We are then divided into groups to be categorized for cages. This will not change until the cages no longer exist.
The Harriet Tubman Collective stands in solidarity with No New Jails NYC and will sign onto their campaign in struggle for what we know our people deserve.
#BlackHistoryMonth: Disability History is Black History is American History
[Image Description: A graphic featuring a vintage brown photo of Harriet Tubman against a white background next to gray, black, and brown text that reads “disability history is black history is american history.” @blackbrownspoon]
Each year in February, America reflects on milestones and achievements in the Black community, as well as its role in shaping American history. Often left out of this discussion is the integral role that disability, healthcare, and the treatment of black bodies played in shaping Black history and American history as a whole. So please enjoy a timeline of #DisabledBlackHistory that shows some of the most well-known Black historical events-- and the influence of disabled POC and black bodies on those events.
(This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclaimer for more details.)
*TW/Note: These events may feature ableist/racist stereotypes or notably graphic/triggering depictions of abuse, mistreatment, or trauma of disabled POC. Feel free to read at your own risk.
1619-1808:
Slaves are legally transported from Africa to the Americas through the Middle Passage, the route slaves traders took across the Atlantic Ocean via slave ships. Captives were housed in tightly confined, unsanitary compartments in the ship, at times stacked onto each other. Physical and medical neglect and abuse were the norm, and as a rule captives were forced to release bodily fluids where they were seated, leading to the spread of infectious diseases. An estimated 15% of captives did not survive the journey, with a total of up to 2 million deaths as a result of the Middle Passage until the importing of slaves was outlawed in the US in 1808.
Read more: “Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage” by Sowande M. Mustakeem
1600’s-1800’s:
“The Dozens” is a well-known, rich tradition within the African American community in which participants playfully (or not so much) drag not only each other, but often their moms with a series of incisive, targeted jokes. Less well known about the tradition is its roots during slavery, as it was often used by slaves to judge and devalue other slaves on the basis of their flaws-- frequently of their apparent disabilities. According to Krip Hop Nation, “The name itself [“The Dozens”] refers to the sale of slaves who had been overworked, were disabled, or beaten-down – their physical (and often mental) conditions affected their value and they were sold by the dozen, which was considered by slaves, the lowest position within the community.” The game was played as an “outlet of aggression” for slaves who could not yet fight or prevent their oppression or the discarding of slaves on an ableist basis, but could instead encourage each other to develop a thick skin emotionally in the meantime.
Read more: Yo Mama! New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes From Urban Black America by Onwuchekwa Jemie
Mid-1600’s:
Colonies develop “Slaves Codes” that, for the first time, codify that slavery will happen on the basis of skin color alone. Previously, indentured servants and slaves were of every race. Once Slave Codes limited slavery solely to African Americans, physicians and academics became instrumental in the medicalization of slavery and pathologization of blackness to justify continuing slavery.
Read more: Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement by Kimberle Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, and K. Thomas
Late-1700’s:
Physician Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Surgeon General of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, theorizes a disease known as “negritude”, which he considered a form of congenital leprosy, to explain dark skin tones, which could be treated with aggressive rubbing of the skin.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Mid-1800’s:
Physician Samuel Cartwright theorizes diseases to explain disobedient or rebellious slaves. “Drapetomania” is a curable mental illness in which slaves develop the desire to run away from their masters and obtain freedom, which is treated by keeping slaves “well-fed and clothed” and “not overworked”. “Dysaethesia Aethiopica”, or “rascality” in layman’s terms, is another mental illness marked by a “difficult [...] mind and sensibility” that are “apt to do much mischief” and “slight their work” whose root cause is “negro liberty”, which is curable via whippings and abuse.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Early-to-Mid-1800’s:
Slavery ends in the North, and continues in the South, sparking the Abolitionist Movement. The Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses owned by freed African Americans and White allies from the South leading into the Northern US and Canada, is established to allow slaves to escape often by foot. The most well-known “conductor” of the Railroad was Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave woman who developed a traumatic brain injury and consequently epilepsy and narcolepsy while enslaved and eventually facilitated the freedom of more than 70 slaves.
Read more: Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History by Milton C. Sernett
Mid-1800’s:
While growing medical literature distinguishes blackness as a syndrome and Black people as a separate species, physicians simultaneously primarily use slaves for experimentation of new procedures and treatments to generalize for use in mainstream white populations. J. Marion Sims, known as the father of modern gynecology, created the speculum and a procedure to repair post-childbirth vaginal fistulas by buying and experimenting on slaves. Despite being available in 1845, Sims did not use anesthesia on his black female subjects because Black people were believed to experience less pain from injury. This has long been debunked.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Mid 1800’s-Early 1900’s:
Traveling vaudeville and circus acts are the leading form of entertainment in the US. Many vaudeville acts prominently feature minstrelsy or “blackface”, the act of White (and eventually some Black) actors painting their skin to take on a caricatured, deliberately mocking impression of African Americans. The first popular blackface act was “Jumping Jim Crow” in the 1820’s, said to be inspired by the dance of a physically disabled slave by the same name. Travelling circus acts prominently feature “freakshows” featuring performers displaying their rare conditions and disabilities, including dwarfism, albinism, and other conditions. African Americans were frequently used in these acts. Sarah Baartman, known as the “Hottentot Venus” was put on display due to having an exaggeratedly large bottom due to a condition called steatopygia.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
1861-1865:
The Civil War is fought, and won by the North following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which eventually led to the freedom of slaves starting on June 19th, 1865 (otherwise celebrated as Juneteenth). Black soldiers were an integral part of the Union’s victory, with more than 15 soldier earning a Medal of Honor after the war. Those who fought in the war are also the first African Americans to receive federal disability pensions for veterans.
Read more: Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War by Margaret Humphreys
Late 1800’s:
Following the abolishment of the 13th Amendment and of slavery, all Southern States eventually passed “Black Codes” and “Jim Crow Laws” to segregate and restrict the rights of former slaves and their descendants during Reconstruction. This leads to segregations of most major institutions and facilities, including hospitals, schools, and facilities for people with disabilities. Black physicians build their careers during this time via segregated hospitals, nursing and medical schools, medical journals and-- in response to the whites-only American Medical Association at the time-- establishing the National Medical Association specifically for African Americans.
Read more: Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew
1880’s-1920’s:
Booker T. Washington establishes the Tuskegee institute, which initially teaches nursing and eventually established the first Veterans Hospital for African Americans. He also founded “National Negro Health Week” in the 1920’s to spotlight unaddressed health disparities in the African American community. It spotlights diseases prevalent in the Black community, particularly syphilis and tuberculosis. At the time, African Americans are believed to be predisposed to these diseases due to genetics. Germ Theory later emerges in the 1930’s that reveals that both diseases are infectious. Their prevalence in Black communities is later explained by segregation and poverty concentrating and restricting African Americans to living under unsanitary conditions in low-income communities.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Early 1900’s:
The field of “Eugenics” is created and mainstreamed in the United States via the American Eugenics Society. The eugenics movement, which originally promoted selective breeding for exceptionally positive traits in affluent communities, eventually focused on eliminating negative traits across society. Eugenicists lobbied for legislation in many states to forcibly sterilize groups with high rates of “undesirable” traits, primarily in poor, disabled, and minority communities. The US Supreme Court upheld the practice in the case Buck vs. Bell in 1927. This resulted in the forced sterilization of over 64,000 people (a low estimate) in the United States alone. The rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and the Holocaust eventually led the movement to lose power by the 1940s, but the practice of involuntary sterilization continued until the mid-1970s, and laws are not codified explicitly banning it until as late as the 2000s.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
1930’s-1940’s:
Hitler assumes power, begins the Third Reich, and eventually begins the Holocaust by segregating, interning, and engaging in genocide of Jewish people, other ethnic minorities, and disabled people across Germany and Western Europe, triggering World War II. Hitler cites American eugenics and sterilization laws as his inspiration for ethnic cleansing and segregation. Over 100,000 African Americans fight in World War II, under segregated conditions. The victory of the US in World War II is thought to be one of the catalysts of the Civil Rights movement and ending of segregation in the US.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
Mid 1930-1970’s:
The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male”, also known as the Tuskegee Experiments, is initiated by the United States Public Health Service in the 1930s. Contrary to the popular misconception, the study did not infect any African American participants with syphilis. However, a small, predominantly African American community in Alabama was targeted for its high rate of syphilis infections before treatment existed. The goal of the study was to gain an understanding of the long-term effects of syphilis and to discover a potential treatment. Very early into the study, penicillin was discovered as a treatment for syphilis and other bacterial infections and mainstreamed quickly into medical practice around the country. Up to 600 Black participants in the study, however, were left untreated for syphilis during the course of the decades-long study. Many participants were never offered treatment, not formally diagnosed with syphilis but told they had “bad blood”, enticed into continuing treatment in the participating hospital with free healthcare, and given placebos and experimental treatments in place of penicillin. The study was later stopped and abandoned due to these unethical practices, and revealed to the public in the 1970’s with led to lawsuits and congressional hearings. A number of medical studies followed a similar practice of withholding treatment during this era, which disproportionately targeted Black civilians and prisoners in the US.
Read more: Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
1950′s:
A number of advances in the medical field and science emerge starting in the post-World War era, among them the discovery of the Polio Vaccine in the 1950′s, advances in cancer treatment, and by the end of the 20th century the study of the human genome. A little-known fact about each of these discoveries is that they are in part thanks to a black woman named Henrietta Lacks. Lacks died in 1951 of a rare form of cancer that produced the first known “immortal cells” that would reproduce outside of the human body indefinitely. Her cancerous tissue, now known as “HeLa cells”, have since been used by researchers to develop treatments and cures of many diseases. Her contribution to medicine is controversial, however, because her tissue was taken without her consent and her family initially was neither made aware of, nor as of today compensated for, the medical discoveries her tissue facilitated.
Read more: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
1950’s-1970’s:
The Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education finds “separate, but equal” segregated facilities unconstitutional and inherently unequal, which slowly leads to the integration of schools, hospitals, and other public facilities. This win eventually sparks the Civil Rights Movement and victories such as the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act in the 1960’s. Among prominent leaders in the movement is Fannie Lou Hamer, who helped organize the Freedom Summer in Mississippi to register Black residents to vote. Fannie Lou Hamer is a survivor of an involuntary hysterectomy, which occurred without her knowledge during a procedure for chronic kidney disease and was a result of forced sterilization laws that targeted Black women and were popular in the South. Another prominent group was the Black Panther Party who, while advocating for Black power, also provided for local Black communities with free healthcare clinics and food pantries. Bradley Lomax, a Black Panther with Multiple Sclerosis, helped to organize the occupation of regional offices of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) for disability rights, knowns are the “504 Sit-ins” that led to the addition of Section 504 of the American Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Read more: Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson
1980’s:
The HIV/AIDS epidemic begins in the early 1980s. It’s first clinically observed in gay communities and receives the name “gay-related immune deficiency” (GRID) until it’s observed in non-LGBTQ communities and receives the name AIDS in 1982. The disease eventually gets the reputation of affecting “the 4-H Club”-- primarily attacking 1) heroine and intravenous (IV/needle) drug users, 2) hemophiliacs and chronically ill patients who give and receive blood in medical settings, 3) homosexuals and the LGBTQ community, and 4) Haitians and poor Black communities in the US and, eventually, globally. The United States government was slow to fund research for AIDS through much of the 1980’s, and one of the Reagan Administration’s first references to the disease was to propose a travel ban on immigrants and tourists with the disease in 1987. While treatment and prevention methods eventually cut infection and mortality rates for HIV, both cisgender and transgender women of color are disproportionately infected and die from AIDS.
Read more: And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
1990′s:
Disability rights advocacy leads to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The ADA ensures the right to “reasonable accommodation” for people with disabilities in public spaces in the US. The ADA is the basis on which Olmstead vs. L.C. and E.W. is decided, which allows people with disabilities to be able to live in their communities rather than be put in nursing homes and other institutions. One of the plaintiffs in the case is Louis Curtis (L.C.), a black woman with a developmental disability.
Read more: Americans with Disabilities: Exploring Implications of the Law for Individuals and Institutions by Leslie Francis and Anita Silva
2010’s:
A series of highly publicized, viral extra-judicial killings of unarmed African Americans by police and white civilians in the news and social media sparks the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, which advocates accountability for police brutality and discriminatory treatment of Black people by American institutions. Several of the most high-profile victims of the BLM movement, such as Eric Garner, Keith Lamont Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Deborah Banner, and Laquan McDonald had some form of disability, medical or mental condition. Disabled and deaf people are disproportionately targeted by police brutality due to police hyper-reliance on “compliance” by those facing arrest.
Read more: Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada by L. Ben-Moshe, C. Chapman, A. Carey
You can find many of these milestones and more events in Black Disability History at the online Museum of Disability History.
Were they any major milestones in Black History that were missed? Please reach out to add it to the list!
There are a lot of reasons I wasn't able to march today, all of which boil down to disability. And I know most of the marches are over. But here's my solidarity selfie anyway. #WomensMarch #DisabilitySolidarity #WomensMarchOnWashington2017 #ImDisabledAndIVote #ThisPussyGrabsBack #LoveTrumpsHate
Catch up on the latest news on healthcare, illness and disability for people of color with the weekly Black and Brown Spoons Digest: https://paper.li/blackbrownspoon/1526195273 Also check out The Black & Brown Spoons: Social Action Digest for a collection of crowdfund campaigns, petitions, and other ways to get involved from around the web here: http://snip.ly/1gn0xp (via Twitter)
Today I'm excited to launch two ways to connect with other #SpooniesofColor. The first is our new FB group (https://facebook.com/groups/1061232377385916)! The second: now that there are more faces on the hashtags on IG, with your permission I'll add your IG posts to my IG Story so followers will get alerts about your post! My hope is that both will encourage discussion, support, virtual meetups, and sharing of resources between like-minded folks.
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Please note the group's for adults 18+ and the goal is for this to be safe space for Disabled POC. The group is closed, i.e. no one can see who's in it or any posts until they're approved as a member, for precisely that reason. I'll refer you to public comments made by able-bodied people on #DisabledPoCDay for more reasons why the group's private.
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P.S. New members of the group will get a 25% discount in the Black & Brown Spoons shop from now until March 31st!
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Find more news about chronic illness, healthcare, and disability for people of color from around the web at the Black and Brown Spoons Digest on Paper.Li: http://snip.ly/p7f4gk Follow us for resources and more at https://blackandbrownspoons.tumblr.com
Find more news about chronic illness, healthcare, and disability for people of color from around the web at the Black and Brown Spoons Digest on Paper.Li: http://snip.ly/p7f4gk Follow us for resources and more at https://blackandbrownspoons.tumblr.com
Find more news about chronic illness, healthcare, and disability for people of color from around the web at the Black and Brown Spoons Digest on Paper.Li: http://snip.ly/p7f4gk Follow us for resources and more at https://blackandbrownspoons.tumblr.com
