Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman
There's
case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against
race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding
disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons
A disability discrimination attorney suggested the Independence Chick blog as a resource for the readers of The Politics of Cleft Palate. As an example of the value of publications written from first-hand knowledge of disability in the United States today, see her post, Your Christmas Bonus: A List of Thought-Provoking Books from the Independence Zone! which includes:
Why I Burned my Book and Other Essays on Disability (nonfiction, author Paul Longmore, adults only)–Paul Longmore gives readers food for thought in this collection of disability-related essays on topics such as why the ADA was not the benchmark movement some thought it was, disability stereotypes in film and other media, and the criminally low expectations of people with disabilities in society.
and
Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve, and the Case Against Disability Rights (nonfiction, author Mary Johnson, adults only)–A landmark book exploring the truth behind the ADA, the case against disability rights, the case for disability rights, and the fact that our society, though “enlightened” in many other ways, consistently still fails to see disability as deserving of real civil rights legislation and attitudes.
The Introduction to The Politics of Cleft Palate, last June, agreed with Independence Chick on the ADA:
The Google search site:ada.gov civil rights
turns up references referring to the act as a civil rights act (and you
will also find "affirmative action" on ada.gov). The ADA is no such
thing. The ADA has done good work concerning accommodations for the
disabled in the workplace and in public transit; but neither it, nor any
other element of our decent society has done anything about defamatory
remarks (again, note the passage from a national magazine which begins this post), or about the inescapable climate of discrimination.
Independence Chick also discusses an issue explored in this weblog, the inability "to see disability as deserving of real civil rights legislation and attitudes."
Our treatment began with the "case law" note near the top of this post, which refers to the following news item:
An Ohio man faces one month of jail time for teasing and taunting a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy after a video of the incident went viral.
On Nov. 27, Judge John A. Poulos of the Canton Municipal Court sentenced 43-year-old William Bailey to 29 days in jail. ...
William Bailey "was dragging his leg and patting his arm across his chest to pick his son Joseph up," said [Tricia] Knight. "I asked him to please stop doing this. 'My daughter can see you.' He then told his son to walk like the R-word."
We continued, in Courts and the Civil Rights of the Disabled, suggesting that the ad hoc mechanism of "protected class" left out the disabled:
Above,
we saw that William Bailey publicly humiliated a defenseless little
girl, because she has cerebral palsy. He felt safe in doing so, with
reason: This sort of thing happens all the time. After all, the nation's
premiere news magazine defamed another group of disabled people, in
print, and the nation has tacitly accepted this. It is as if, for the
disabled, the civil rights revolution never happened.
How can this be? After all, justice–in this case, the freedom from marginalization and disenfranchisement–is, by definition, universal. As Martin Luther King said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Perhaps the reason is that our civil rights revolution apparently was not implemented, as King thought it would be, as justice–which
is universal–but as protected class, which is obviously not universal.
(King did not dream that his children would be in a protected class. He
said I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character.) We–even
the infamous William Bailey–know that there are certain kinds of things
you don't say about those we call "minorities." That sense–can
we call it a sense of right and wrong?–obviously did not kick in where a
little girl with cerebral palsy was concerned, and it did not kick in
in the case of Molly Ivins' supposed earthy humor regarding a birth
defect.
Independence Chick in turn references the site Disability is Natural, whose resource list includes:
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com is hosted by Craig Phillips, "a traumatic/acquired brain injury survivor, with a message of encouragement, motivation, empowerment, and hope."
www.sarahstup.com is hosted by an accomplished teen writer and artist who has autism.
Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman
There's
case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against
race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding
disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons
In the previous post, Sarah Nielsen on Cerebral Palsy Discrimination in a Progressive City, we discussed an article in "The Stranger" by Sarah Nielsen, a newcomer to Seattle who has cerebral palsy. Many of the early comments tend to corroborate the central issue revealed by the article: as contrasted with discrimination against minorities covered by the Civil Rights Act, in many cases disability discrimination is still practiced openly. The double standard present in the late Molly Ivins's remark above (would time.com have published it if she'd used the n-word instead of the h-word?) showed up in the early comments. [The names of the critical commenters--except for the two pulled for "trolling"--are in Ms. Nielsen's article. We here refer to them as "anonymous."]
Many of those who quickly object to minority discrimination deny disability discrimination even as it is happening right in front of them. As commenter jacalope observes "The prevailing attitude seems to be that":
1. My disability isn't real
2. My disability is my own fault
3. If I tried harder I could just get over it
4. I'd magically get over it if I only tried my new acquaintance's latest diet/supplement/acupuncturist/exercise regimen
Why are these discriminatory attitudes alive and well in what Sarah Nielsen called a "progressive city?" Because, since the civil rights revolution, discrimination against minorities is subject to punishment under the laws. Social attitudes followed. "No colored need apply" notices were replaced by affirmative action. Society got the message. No one would think of telling a person of color, who described a discriminatory incident or attitude, to "just get over it."
Who is covered and who isn't covered sends a message. There's no affirmative action for cerebral palsy, for cleft palate, for little people, or for all those who are born different (unless the difference is race or gender). "There's nothing out there regarding
disabilities," said Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons, above. That is, there has apparently never been a landmark civil rights case regarding a disabled person.
Again, society got the message. anonymous:
So you reject:
empathy
normal Seattle passive-aggressiveness
an obviously crazy homeless person
someone who mistakenly talks to your boyfriend instead of you
a mother who was caught in a sudden confrontation
Honey, those are all things we all deal with. It's called the real world.
In Internalized Discrimination: You're Not Supposed to SAY That, we wrote:
"Normal,"
"decent" society tacitly admits that the disability cohort are a
targeted minority (as in the quote by the late "liberal" columnist Ms.
Ivins which begins this post), but has failed to provide the civil
rights remedies enacted for other persecuted groups. "There's
case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against
race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding
disabilities." - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons
The just-world hypothesis works, in part, by blaming the stigmatized disabled for the pervasive social targeting which marginalizes and disenfranchises them. "A
familiar experience of our people is the case where our family,
friends, or co-workers imply that we should have done better,
considering our background; and completely ignore the crucial fact of
our lives: Discriminatory social attitudes reduce our "life chances." It
is considered divisive and socially unacceptable to speak out about our
situation, even though people like Ms. Ivins can allude to our second-class citizen status in full confidence that this is readily understood by their readership.
We
who write this remember that most of our lives we ourselves kept
silent. And there is an internal struggle against convention every time
we [speak out as Sarah Nielsen did].
Concerning denial and silence, in the article under discussion Sarah Nielsen wrote, "It was something I hid from, something I denied, and it was relatively easy to do so, because a lot of people seemed to notice other things about me before they noticed that."
As commenter Someone_nice observes:
Some of these comments are just proving your point. Sarah, keep your chin up. Many of us out here applaud your honesty.
Commenter clashfan adds:
Exploding at a homeless man? He started screaming first, and she was scared for her and her boyfriend's safety. I'd be angry, too, if someone accosted me like that. Her reaction was appropriate.
But the negative comments reveal that our liberated society has an underside which is seldom talked about. There is a substantial subclass for which it is as if the civil rights revolution never happened. They are not protected, and the following commenters felt free to make degrading accusations in print: In the following, commenter anonymous punishes Ms. Nielsen for speaking out about discrimination by accusing her of greed and egotism:
Yeah, kind of an odd little mishmash of interactions. It sounds like more people in Seattle are acknowledging your disability than you are used to from other places you've lived. I'd tend to agree with #9 that these all seem like things you'd be able to deal with at 30 years old. You want some real Seattle attitude? I think you're just using your disability as an excuse to write an article. Probably even had plans for an entire memoir before the bookstore clerk shot that down.
Another demeans her writing skills with a series of non sequiturs:
I am disappointed in this piece, as it promises, but does not deliver. First, we are teased with:
"I'm from New Orleans, where anything goes..."
Then: "...but nearly every time I step out of the house, some weird shit goes down..."
If a person tells me they are from a place where "anything goes", and then proceeds to tell me about some "weird shit" that has gone down, I am expecting...really WEIRD SHIT. Like: "holy CRAP I can't believe what I am hearing!"
What was the weird shit? This: "Then she looked at me with sad eyes. 'But cerebral palsy is a reality, too.' "
No. That is not weird shit. That is just an awkward social encounter.
"Its Like You've Never Seen Someone With Subpar Social Skills."
For the record, I'm impressed by what Sarah Nielsen accomplished with this article. It is not that easy to write about these matters. She did it with grace and style:
@33 -- Awww, thank you!!
Really appreciate your support, and what you said about the memoir made me smile.
As for New Yorkers, it doesn't actually surprise me. A lot of my closest are East Coasters, and while they might seem a little abrupt on the surface, the kindness at the core is very real.
Thanks again, for reading and for sharing your thoughts! - SarahMN
Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman
There's
case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against
race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding
disabilities. - Assistant City Prosecutor Jennifer Fitsimmons
The April 30, '14 issue of "The Stranger" includes "It's Like You've Never Seen Someone with Cerebral Palsy Before" by Sarah Nielsen.
She begins:
I was born with cerebral palsy, and though I'm 30 years old, I didn't really accept that until I moved to Seattle last June. It was something I hid from, something I denied, and it was relatively easy to do so, because a lot of people seemed to notice other things about me before they noticed that. ... In Seattle, though, a lot of people seem to be a little unnerved by my disability, ... But I was caught entirely off guard by this sudden understanding that being alive in the only body I've got apparently makes some people uncomfortable in 2014, in one of America's most progressive cities. I moved here for books, coffee, writing, nature, food, even rain—not a daily crusade.
Ms. Nielsen contrasts other cities:
I'm from New Orleans, where anything goes, and I spent a long stretch in New Mexico, where anything goes but less flamboyantly so. The other side of my family is from the Midwest, where nobody really focuses on bodies one way or the other. Even when I walked around for long stretches in fitness-obsessed San Francisco, no one flinched at me or explained me away from their kids.
It would be good to know what others from these areas have to say about tolerance in those places. In A Dissenter's Notes, it is argued that a difference between progressives and liberals is that progressives are generally influenced by social standards, while liberals are influenced by more universal standards of justice. To the extent that disability seems to offend social standards of conforming appearance, progressives may indeed react in the way that Sarah Nielsen describes. While progressives are careful to avoid offending members of a protected class, the exclusion of disability in general from the list of protected groups can leave the disabled unprotected from disability discrimination by progressives.
As Sarah Nielsen concludes her article:
To accept someone is to listen to them. In Seattle, I've felt dismissed as confrontational, or been outright ignored, when I've tried to correct strangers' assumptions about myself. I would love to feel listened to, and to know that the questions I get come from curiosity, not fear.
