I've been lucky to get to spend the last few months learning along side Jacob. Jacob, who said it was okay for me to share his story with my community, is a disability rights activist who has Cerebral Palsy and Asperger Syndrome. Time and time again, Jacob put himself out there in our sessions, bringing the struggle of disabled folks into the conversation and naming when ableism* was happening in the space. Ableism shows up in movement in many ways, from if a space is wheelchair accessible and if it is set up in a way that is accessible for different bodies, to how the dialogue makes space for various ways of learning and expression of thoughts and feelings and incorporates the experience of people with various abilities. I feel super grateful to have Jacob in the program first and foremost because he's a fun person and awesome friend, and also because he's really challenged me to look critically at the ways that ableism shows up in myself, in the movement, and in the system.
Reflecting back on my last few years of organizing, I'm embarrassed to admit that I have not stopped to process how ableism plays out in the same ways I've analyzed other systems of oppression: how my being "able bodied" impacts everything from the way I get around, to my ability to get a job, to the ways I'm treated in social situations, to the way my body is seen as productive in society. There isn't really any part of the way I move through the world that is not impacted by me being able-bodied. For years, I worked with many disabled folks in Public Housing and did not bring that reality to the forefront of my work, often booking spaces that were not wheelchair accessible because they were free and convenient for others. I'm thankful to Jacob for pushing me to bring this reality more into my daily consciousness, but similarly to how Catalyst exist because white people should not rely on people of color to teach us about racism, able bodied people shouldn't always rely on people with disabilities to teach us about ableism. We need to teach ourselves too!
*Ableism: The normalization of able-bodied persons resulting in the privilege of perceived "normal ability" and the oppression and exclusion of people with disabilities at many levels of society. Normalized bodies are those that are considered in the planning and designing of society under capitalism, because those bodies are deemed profitable to those who rule capitalist society. Ableist thought leads to the planning and designing of communities in ways that deny access to people with disabilities and Deaf people. Ableism is also expressed through exclusive attitudes of non-disabled and hearing people.
As a result of the presence of this conversation in our weekly dialogue, the leadership team recommended that we self organize a workshop on disability justice to educate ourselves together. It was startling to learn that although the 25 of us in the program have been involved in movement work for a bit, I believe that no one except Jacob had attended a workshop before on disability justice. Myself and 4 others including Jacob stepped up to make this happen. I came into the planning assuming there was curriculum out there that we could adapt, or people who do these type of workshops all of the time that we could call on to come teach us. I was looking for an easy way out. But like most things in organizing, there's no easy way out, and instead, process is a part of the lesson.
We decided to prioritize learning how ableism played out in ourselves and in the movement and to understand a bit of history. Through research and through Jacob's networks, it became quickly evident that a workshop and timeline like we were looking for didn't exist, or at least not within our networks and internet searches. We designed our own curriculum built off of various resources we came upon and our own creativity. Three folks from the group did the extensive and hard research of putting together a 150 year time line of disability rights struggles. They found a lot of really atrocious pieces of history and also some beautiful stories of resistance that came out of the struggle. It was a lot of work, but Jacob kept us motivated by constantly reminding us that "this was groundbreaking!".
Some horrific insights from the timeline:
-1851: Prominent physician in Louisiana identified two mental disorders peculiar to slaves, one which caused them to run away and one which made them lazy.
-1867: Ugly laws made it illegal for people thought of as "ugly" to appear in public. People who broke this law were charged a penalty. This law was in place in some states up until 1971! 1971 people! Coincidentaly to my life, the first law passed in SF and the last state that withheld it was Illinois.
-1880s: Illegal for deaf people to be taught by hearing impaired teacher
-1890s: People with mental disabilities sent to asylums where they were often outside, naked and starving
-1927: Buck v. Bell Supreme Coutry decision ruled forced sterilization for people with disabilities not a violation of rights. Over 60,000 people sterilized without consent. It is said that Hitler was inspired by the Eugenics movement in the U.S. and brought it to Nazi Germany.
Some gems of resistance:
-1935: League of Physically Handicapped formed in NYC to protect discrimination against people with disabilities by federal relief program
-1955: Group of African American patients at the "negro insane" maximum security unti in a Texas hospital rebelled against inhumane conditions.
-1962: Independent Living Movement begins when Ed Roberts, the first severely disabled person to go to college, was forced to live in the hospital because that was the only accesible housing on campus. A group called the Rolling Quads formed and won accessible housing and a office providing support for disabled students.
-1970s: Queer disabled feminist artist and activist collective emerge in the bay!
-1972: Rolling Quads creates independent living center run for and by people with disabilities. Today, there's at least 1 in every state and 40 countries!
-1977: 28 day sit in to ensure implementation of section 504, which stated that people with disabilities cannot be denied benefits and that all buildings that get federal money must be accessible.
-1980s: Group called ADAPT chains themselves to buses to bring awareness to lack of access in transportation for disabled folks
-1990s: Americans with Disabilities Act signed in to law
-2000s: Disability Justice movement takes shape, pushing root causes of disability injustice to the forefront while also creating spaces for these conversations
-2009: Students at Berkeley win fight to get disability history taught in schools in state of California
-2010: Group of disability activists set up camp in middle of Berkeley for 3 months to protest budget cuts to disability services
I find these gems incredibly inspiring, and hope you do as well!
Again, like most things in Braden, I leave with more questions than answers. How can I incorporate disability justice into all of the work I do? How can I make my space more accessible? How do I ensure spaces are accessible when planning events? How do I continue to educate myself? How do I begin to deconstruct the ableism that lives within my body and the way I interact with people with disabilities? One thing is clear however - this is work that I must do.
Interested in facilitating a workshop about disability justice in your community? Let me know and I'll send you the curriculum as soon as its finalized. margot.seigle@gmail.com.
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