Comments about Article from Seattleite with Cerebral Palsy Reveal Prevailing Attitudes

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