Any time one group of people is considered biologically or psychologically inferior to another group of people, and unequal treatment or oppression is justified on that basis, you’re dealing with ableism. | Any time you deal with eugenics, you’re dealing with ableism. Whether you’re dealing with “pure” eugenics aimed at disabled people in particular, or the more common situation where it’s intermingled with race, class, ethnicity, criminality, and other real and purported traits. You’re probably used to hearing of eugenics in terms of racism, classism, or anti-Semitism, but eugenics originated in ideas about disabled people and those ideas were then applied to all these other groups. | Any time you deal with medicalization (including psychiatric medicalization), you’re dealing with ableism. | Any time people are compared on the basis of what they can and cannot do, and that comparison is used as the basis for viewing or treating them differently, particularly in a bad way, you’re dealing with ableism. | Any time you’re dealing with “scientific” proof that a group of people is inferior to another, there’s a really good chance you’re dealing with ableism. If the “science” is couched explicitly in terms of medicine, biology, or psychology, it’s almost definitely ableism. So basically, if you hear that your oppression is justified on “scientific” grounds, perk your ears up for ableism, you’ll probably find it. | Pretty much any time you’re dealing with a situation where one sort of person is given access to part or all of a society, and another sort of person is barred from that access, and it’s justified on the grounds of ability in some manner, it’s ableism. | Any time your oppression is framed in terms of people like you being sick or having a medical problem for some kind, there’s ableism involved.
Mel Baggs (b. 1980 - d. 11 April, 2020) “There is Ableism somewhere at the heart of your oppression, no matter what your oppression might be.” [Written for “Blogging Against Disablism Day,” 1 May, 2016]
I’m posting this here, in part, as insurance, in case hir blog gets taken down, after hir death. There’s no guarantee that this blog will be long-lived either, but the more people who see these critical ideas, the more likely they are to live on.
