The Targeted Minority that Got Left Out

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

First, tentative conclusions about the formal (omitted from civil rights) and informal (lax or hostile social standards) situation of the stigmatized disabled:

• Disability is not a protected class.
• Protected class sensitivity has largely substituted for the moral obligation to be just no matter who is being targeted.
• If a group isn't in a protected class then it is not necessary to worry about discriminating against its members; that is, Open Season on those (disadvantaged people who aren't a race or a gender) not covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Social standards (see Time Magazine's defamatory remark at the top of this article) have been substituted for the ethical standards of universal justice.
• The true significance of society's acceptance of the above Time Magazine remark isn't that is defamatory. It is that just about everybody understands that to be inflicted with the disability it refers to (or certain others) is to become a social outcast.
• For them, it is as if the civil rights revolution had never happened.

From About Dwarf Aware:

Here are some myths:
• Little people love poking fun at how they appear to others.
• Little people only date other little people.
• They must agree with being called a midget or treated as one because they are always on t.v. dressed up as funny characters.
• Dwarfs cannot handle themselves in the workplace; they scare clients away and are always absent. They need too much special equipment.

From a previous post about an article by a person with cerebral palsy:

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."

From "Maxwell," a person with a cleft palate:

He was renewing his driver's license when the state employee taking his picture said, "Cheese, whiskey, harelip."

He was attending a party in the home of his son and daughter-in-law, who are community college employees, when a guest who teaches at a community college started asking derogatory rhetorical questions about where he worked before retirement. The questions were such that other guests started backing away from the person the public college teacher was targeting. But none of the guests, most of whom were de facto state employees, objected to the teacher's discriminatory remarks, even when the teacher compared the disabled person to someone else they knew who was, in the teacher's words, "funny looking."

Not-in-a-protected class Open Season means that disabled people find themselves at risk of being publicly humiliated when they attend parties. In "Maxwell's" case, this meant that a party can prove unsafe even when it is comprised of two classes of people—his family, and employees of public institutions with strict anti-harassment policies—of whom one would expect better.

The above Dwarf Aware site lists facts which reveal prevalent derogatory expectations:

• Around 80% of babies born with dwarfism come from average stature parents.
• They are of the same intelligence as the more general public.
• They are surgeons, lawyers, teachers, athletes, artists, journalists, and almost every other profession you can think of.
• The unemployment rate is higher than any other able-bodied group of people.
• The “M” word, or “midget”, is offensive to most little people. It does not refer to any one type of dwarfism. It is just a bad word.
• My son has a disproportionate type of dwarfism, that means his upper arms and legs, for instance, are shorter than average. He is perfectly proportioned for who he is, but is not the same, proportion-wise as taller folks.
• Persons with Achondroplasia, (Achons), compare equally in intelligence, talent, and ability to get the job done.
• Achons have medical issues, but rarely ask for assistance. They do have the same life expectancy as anyone else.

Remedies suggested in earlier article Imagine That America Had Its Consciousness Raised:

Needed:

• A landmark disability discrimination civil rights case. ACLU, where are you? Ada.gov, where are you?
• Anti-defamation campaign (Time.com, take note!).
• A civil rights act for the disabled, since the disabled were omitted from the Civil Rights Act.
• A disability ombudsman in each state and each school district to which any adult, and any student, respectively, can go when disability discrimination occurs.
• The addition of specific disability harassment language to the existing anti-harassment guidelines.
• For Shame! campaign.  
• Ad showing a minority being bullied beside one showing disabled being bullied, saying one is just as wrong as the other.
• Spots showing celebrities saying “I'm against disability discrimination, are you?”
• Ad showing teacher rebuking student for slighting disabled classmate. 
• A speech by a national leader citing instances of disability discrimination and calling for change. 
• National leader describing incidents such as [Time Magazine's] remark as the product of irrational animus and calling for change. 
• Counseling for the disabled, to deal with the pressure to feel shame, guilt, social inadequacy, etc.
• Proactive response training, such as how to respond if someone says, “How nice you're in the choir—it must help with your speech.”
• The addition of ethical training to the training of physicians and other medical staff, to remind them that it is unprofessional to treat disability as a social sin rather than a morally neutral medical condition.
• Institutions (meeting places, organizations, "meet people like you" events, etc.) to counteract the social isolation of many disabled people.

Medical discrimination is a surprisingly widespread problem. Not only support personnel but physicians themselves, in many cases, do not treat stigmatizing disabilities as morally neutral medical conditions (which is what their professions require). They treat disability—particularly when resulting from birth condition—as a mark of shame. In such cases the disabled patient is treated as if he or she should feel guilty, and anticipate substandard medical care as all they can expect under the circumstances.

Example: The visibly disabled elderly patient who found that his new physician, without giving a reason or offering a substitute, refused to continue his sleep medication.