Imagine That America Had Its Consciousness Raised

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

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 Ivins' 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.

Did He Do the Right Thing?

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

This is the first of what are intended to be a series of examples of disability discrimination. The society which openly defames certain types of disability, as in the example from a national magazine at the top of this post, encourages shame. This "normal" society conditions the stigmatized to believe that they are in fact worse than other people and have no right to defend themselves.

This example, in which the person targeted did something to counteract the discrimination, may be atypical in that sense:

"Bill" is in his high school PE volleyball class. He experiences very little bullying as such in this school; on the other hand he sometimes overhears himself referred to as "doink-doink" and "bose-nose."
As he is about to serve, someone yells, "Serve the ball, doink-doink." Bill pauses and says, "What's my name?"
The heckler smirks.
Bill looks at the heckler and says, "What's my name?"
"Bill."
And Bill serves the ball.

Notes:

This could have turned out badly for "Bill." The other players could have piled on; for example, "Shut up and serve."
Or they could have expressed disapproval of the prejudiced heckler; for example, "Knock it off, Art."
Or the other players may have been giving Bill the chance to show that he could handle the situation.

How about the PE teacher? He was a public employee. He acted, or didn't act, in the name of the people of the school district. Would it have been better if he had said, "Art, see me in my office after the game"?

The above example shows characteristic elements of disability discrimination.

1. A member of the stigmatized disabled.
2. A malicious targeter.
3. A person (teacher, host, leader, officer, etc.) in some sense responsible for public order.
4. Bystanders, audience, witnesses.

It is probably evident that No. 2 is not uninvolved. But what about the rest?
Suppose that "Bill," instead of being the only disabled person in the game, was the only racial minority in the game; and that Art had used the n-word? If this had been a race discrimination incident rather than a disability discrimination incident, would we think it was OK for the teacher and the bystanders to stand by and do nothing?

Qui tacet contire videtur. He who stands by remains silent is seen to consent.

Disability Discrimination Is a Social Problem Which Can Be Cured the Way Jim Crow Was Cured

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

They have chosen [violence] even when it was merely likely to promote their social standing. - Heather Horn

A human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only. - James Agee

The stigmatized person is outside of society, and this means that nothing works anymore.

It is as if the Civil Rights Revolution never happened.

The point of the Civil Rights Act, . . . was to smash that [Jim Crow] social system. - Matthew Yglesias

What follows are observations, interspersed with comments (treated as "anonymous" even when they aren't) found on other weblogs:

Heather Horn - Most humans, [Sönke] Neitzel and [Harald] Welzer suggest, are capable of brutality: it's just a question of what the social setting they are put in encourages. ...
They have chosen [violence] even when it was merely likely to promote their social standing. ...
[Neitzel and Welzer's book] Soldaten argues that German soldiers were not in fact different types of humans than we are. They weren't "bad for society" because they were insufficiently human, in other words; they became bad for humanity because of the society they were living in.

Sarah Marie Love commented on the comments to her post: Hi guys, thnaks for all your great comments. Sorry I havn't replied to you all. I gave up writing my blog after serious depression, but hope to carry it on now I'm recovering. Writing is such a big deal for me, especially when I am feeling inspired and in need of an outlet. I hope you are all well and everything is going your way in life. Never give up on life or feel intimidated by other people, after all they are the ones with the problem, not you.

Bob Wright: I think that, though we're not naturally racist, we're naturally "groupist." Evolution seems to have inclined us to readily define whole groups of people as the enemy, after which we can find their suffering, even death, very easy to countenance and even facilitate.
But when it comes to defining this enemy--defining the "out group"--people are very flexible. The out group can be defined by its language, its religion, its skin color, its jersey color. (And jersey color can trump skin color--just watch a brawl between one racially integrated sports team and another.) It all depends on which group we consider (rightly or wrongly) in some sense threatening to our interests.

[The first of several comments from Sarah Marie Love's post above] Anonymous - Hi Sarah just read your amazing article on your life. I was born with a cleft lip and palate and so my mother gave me away because she didn't know how to take care of me. But I was adopted by a great family when I was not even a few months old. And they took the time to get me a good doctor to fix my cleft lip and i had to undergo many surgical producers growing up. I was constantly tease time and time again in elementary school. I would cry many nights and talk to my mother about why god made me like this. And my mother would always tell me that god has a reason for everything. So i wish you the best and everything. 

Joe Fassler - James Agee's great depression essay: "And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea."

Anonymous - i am 14 years old and i was born with a cleft lip (i know it's palate, but my friends call it lip for short). contrary to karen, i was never bullied, and i have never had any problems. i currently have a very pretty girlfriend named lauren. we forget about it and we joke around with it also, im always open to discussion about it any time. have thoughts fill up their heads "dont be embarrased, dont be afraid". its ok, we are humans too, and if you know how to take jokes and hard comments, you can have fun with your life. :) and <3 to all those young children with cleft lips out there. 

Summary

• Heather Horn suggested that most humans are capable of brutality if the social setting they are in encourages it. "They have chosen [violence] even when it was merely likely to promote their social standing."
• Sarah Marie Love mentions "serious depression" in passing and counsels: "Never give up on life or feel intimidated by other people, after all they are the ones with the problem, not you."
• Bob Wright suggests a social tendency to cast those not in our group as enemies: "Evolution seems to have inclined us to readily define whole groups of people as the enemy, after which we can find their suffering, even death, very easy to countenance and even facilitate."
• The first anonymous commenter said, "I was constantly tease time and time again in elementary school. I would cry many nights and talk to my mother about why god made me like this."
• James Agee had sharp words for "a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is."
• The second anonymous commenter counseled "'dont be embarrased, dont be afraid'. its ok, we are humans too, and if you know how to take jokes and hard comments, you can have fun with your life.

"I don't care if it harelips the Governor," above, describes an omnipresent social pathology that the "Governor," in this hypothetical case, can't get away from. To choose words from the preceding summary, he will be subject to "brutality," "violence" "intimida[tion]," "suffering," "teas[ing]," "cry many nights," "embarrass[ment]," "jokes," and "hard comments."

Worse, for the "Governor" a stigmatizing disability means what Goffman, above, calls a "spoiled identity." He is outside of society, and this means that nothing works anymore. For him, it is as if the Civil Rights Revolution never happened. Here in twenty-first century America, he is still in a Jim Crow situation.


In a recent article Matthew Yglesias describes the way an earlier pathological social system was "smashed":

But instead of voting, African-Americans were disenfranchised via a systematic campaign of terrorist violence. The same campaign that gave us the Jim Crow social system. The point of the Civil Rights Act, including its provisions regulating private businesses, was to smash that social system. And it succeeded. It succeeded enormously. The amazing thing about retrospective opposition to the Civil Rights Act is that we know that it worked. It didn't lead to social and economic cataclysm.

Sociologists and Psychologists on Disability Stigma

Another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor. - Molly Ivins, Time.com

Quotes from the body of the post:

the shame usually associated with a disability

their struggles to develop feelings of self-worth by rejecting the shame of social stigma

There's a very real and abiding pain that comes from knowing your childhood has damaged you in significant ways.

Those in power have the capacity to define the rules of goodness or propriety or morality—to decide or define values, good and evil.

We also learned that some of our (majority group) subjects identified these "rare" groups, minorities, as different or even dangerous. Dangerous groups need to be identified or distinguishable. Our subjects' responses suggested that minorities needed to be made distinctive so that their actions could be monitored. (Emphasis added.)

A minority is weak because they don't have the power to defend themselves

A majority is powerful because they have the law on their side

Joseph Burgo - Challenging the Anti-Shame Zeitgeist:

Andrew Solomon's powerful new book Far From the Tree is the most recent expression of this anti-shame zeitgeist. He details the often heroic efforts of parents to make sure their children don't suffer from the shame usually associated with a disability or sexual difference. He describes gay men and women, little people, deaf and blind people, transgendered individuals, and other groups who insist that their difference is not a disability or defect. Instead, they view their condition as an equal alternative to "normal," and nothing to be ashamed of. Solomon writes with passion and empathy about their struggles to develop feelings of self-worth by rejecting the shame of social stigma and embracing pride. . . .
I am not saying that people with disabilities ought to feel shame, or that I consider it a good thing that they do. I am saying that they inevitably will. It's more a biological kind of shame than a social one, arising from the awareness that typical, expectable development has gone awry. A secure, affluent society such as ours -- and devoted parents with the means to do so -- can marshal their resources to substantially mitigate that shame, but will never fully erase it. . . .
My profession promotes the use of cognitive-behavioral techniques and affirmations to combat shame. . . . There's a very real and abiding pain that comes from knowing your childhood has damaged you in significant ways. (Emphasis added.)

A note: It often seems as if "stigma" is prejudicial discrimination treated by sociologists as inevitable. Before the civil rights revolution, sociology texts often treated being black, Jewish, etc., as inevitably bearing stigma. Burgo is an example of this when he says "people with disabilities . . . inevitably will [feel shame]" above. As Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy wrote, "a brute fact does not dictate the proper human response to it. That is a matter of choice—constrained, to be sure, but a choice nonetheless."

It is worth considering "My profession promotes the use of cognitive-behavioral techniques and affirmations to combat shame." Those of us who are conditioned by the expectation that the disabled should be humble and apologetic could use practice in responding with dignity to disparaging remarks.

Psychology Professor William D. Crano's The Rules of Influence argues:

Those in power have the capacity to define the rules of goodness or propriety or morality—to decide or define values, good and evil. . . . Although the distinctions we've considered so far—number, power, and power's capacity to define virtue or morality—have been used in theories designed to distinguish majorities from minorities, they might not be distinctions that people actually use when thinking about these kinds of groups. How can we tell? We asked them. (Pages 36-37)

We'll try to ignore, for the time being, the amoral sociologism of "power defines morality" (a euphemism for "might makes right") and look at some of the answers Dr. Crano published:

A minority is an exploited group because they are singled out for unequal treatment, which is a negative thing. (Page 38)
A minority is usually misunderstood because people don't know the discrimination they have to deal with, which is a negative thing. (Page 39)

Crano comments on these responses:

The most frequent . . . descriptions used reflected power or status, and number. . . . However, distinctiveness . . . also entered in, as did personal or demographic features. . . . An interesting distinction related to power . . . had to do with whether the group was a target of other people's actions or the initiator of actions. Majorities initiate action; minorities are on the receiving end. . . .
We also learned that some of our (majority group) subjects identified these "rare" groups, minorities, as different or even dangerous. Dangerous groups need to be identified or distinguishable. Our subjects' responses suggested that minorities needed to be made distinctive so that their actions could be monitored. (Pages 39-40)

Further passages in The Rules of Influence which seem to equate power with virtue:

A minority is weak because they don't have the power to defend themselves, which is a negative thing. (Page 40)
A majority is able to do great things because it has the resources to get things done which is a positive thing. (Page 41)
A majority is powerful because they have the law on their side, which is a positive thing. (Page 41)

There's not a lot to be said about this at the moment, except: Politically, all are created equal. Socially, it's more a matter of King Lear's "who's in, who's out."

It could also be noted that both Ph.Ds quoted exhibited a certain fatalism, and perhaps a tendency to intellectualize away the ethical problem posed by a discriminatory society. Our society aspires to liberty and justice for all. It doesn't have to continue the discrimination implied by Molly Ivins' remark at the beginning of this post.

Introduction: Social Attitudes and the Disability Cohort

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

 Because of the sensitive nature of this weblog, it is published under a pen name: John M. Halberg. While the primary focus will be as the blog title suggests, this blog is about all of us who bear stigma because we are physically different—little people (Google "dwarf tossing"), those we call retards, those we call spastics, those we label with the h-word, as the late Ms. Ivins does above, and others—who are, as her folksy phrase implies, pervasively targeted in our society. These pages are about the civil rights of this Disability Cohort. This weblog seeks to document the current "I don't care" climate of disability discrimination, and to propose solutions.

A Google search for "cleft palate blog" shows posts mainly about children, and advice to parents of children with this birth condition. These are valuable and needed, but there is an absence of material about the civil rights of these children when they grow up, about the current social attitudes towards those with clefts, and about the rest of the Disability Cohort. What follows are initial observations, interspersed with comments (treated as "anonymous" even when they aren't) found on other weblogs:

People with cleft palates bear two stigmas: the stigma of disability; and the stigma of birth condition, which is considered guilt by many. An example of the latter from the 1st Century: Paraphrasing John 9:2, "Master, did this man sin . . . that he was born thus?"

Anonymous - This is sweet i have a cleft lip and palate also and i had an amazing doctor i am 18 and not many people can tell i was born with it :) the only thing i would like to warn your is when he goes to school he may get made fun of cause i did a lot eventually it will stop once the kids mature but some remarks can be hurtful i was never angry abt being born with this i actually like being different in this way....my little brother has it and i am giving him advice all the time about the bullying espeacially.

Our society, in part with the aid of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is respectful with certain other types of disabilities. A couple years ago I used public transport in such European cities as Berlin, Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam. There was virtually no wheelchair accommodation. Characteristically, when I saw someone in a wheelchair, someone was along to help. Here, we wait patiently while a bus loads someone in a wheelchair (as decent people should). It is socially unacceptable to stare (again, as it should be). As with AIDS, an ethical public relations campaign has largely removed the stigma from these disabilities. It can be done.

The attitude revealed by the Time.com passage which begins this post endangers the mental health of the stigmatized disabled. A courageous artist, Sarah Marie Love, posted:

Being born and growing up with a deformity isn’t easy, as people can use this as an excuse to be a bully. Name calling was a huge problem for me at school, and this made me weary of those around me in all social issues. The most hurtful comment I received was whilst I was having dinner at my Secondary school. A very stupid boy in a year above me called me Bubba. He was a character in the film Forest Gump whose bottom lip stuck out far due to having “big gums.” I hated people commenting on the way I looked. As far as I am concerned it was no ones business and one day I wouldn’t have that intrusive lip, but reminding me of this didn’t take away the hurt I felt inside. Also, people (including adults) thought they had right to remind me every day that my lip stuck out. Walking past down the street or in the school corridor I would often see people pushing their lip out in a way to make fun of me.
When the new cleft unit opened at Guys Hospital I began to see the unit’s psychotherapist. I found her a great help, as I also suffered from General Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It isn’t clear if dealing with the bullying and constant treatment was the course of my mental health problems, but I learned that research has showed that a higher percentage of children with harelip and cleft palate are more likely to than those who don’t. (Emphasis added.)

Some of the comments, including the following, are in response to Ms. Love's post:

Anonymous - Hi Sarah! Just read your amazing article on your life with a cleft lip and palate. You sound amazingly self confident and well adjusted and I am happy for you. My son was also born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and is beautiful. He however despises the appearance of his lip which is protruding somewhat and his upper lip is scarred. He is an introvert and a very sensitive child. I wish him all the happiness and God"s blessings in life, but need help to build his self confidence and to equip him with tools to cope in the outside world. He seems to be scared to go to the "big" school and I am not sure whether I should hold him back for another year to protect him against bullies.
I t seems as if there will never be enough a mother can do to help a child who experience him/herself as different. What do you suggest?

A reciprocity principle: If a remark or an action or an attitude would be seen as discriminatory if directed toward a minority, it is discriminatory for us. We have exactly the same civil rights, even if the justice system does not act as if we do.

Anonymous - to Toetie. hi my name is Kiranmai but people call me Karen.. i was born with a cleft and lip pallet also. i am know 14 years old and going to turn 15 soon. this is my story. before when i was just lilttle kid i didn't think i was different or anything there some school who have kids that bully and there some that most r okay with. i wasn't bullied until i got to middle school. but there was little problems in 5th grade. i didn't relize i was born with this condition as soon i as began to grow up and i then notice mt face was different then other. no matter what you do even if u send ur son to school there is no chance that he will not get bullied. i am stilling being bullied i come home cry and sometimes my parents see and ask me y. everyone stares at me they all make fun of me once they look at my face they all say UHHGGG!!! theres no way to stop that.. i even feel like sucide. everyone child who is born with a condition like this or other that is part of out will be bullied. theres is no chance he will not. some day he has to face throuh but he will have nice friends who will care for him like i have they always say don't think of other they just dont get what im going throuh. best of luck for him. im about to get my surgery this dec. i will be 15 then.. so i hope u understood no matter if u held him back once he go bak he will still be the one to be stared and bullied..the teachers and concerls just gives the kids warning but sometime their there to help but most of all year there not.

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. Just look at the anguish in the above comments.

Anonymous - hi sarah. i read your article. I have a cleft lip palate, sometimes it feels torture for the rest of my life. but life must go on. :) even i've undergone 3major operations still have speech problem. :) but its okey.. i love my life now. well i should. :) i will link u on my blog hope ull do the same. thanks sarah. :)

I'll conclude with quotes from Courts and the Civil Rights of the Disabled (also cited above):

In this context, note a recent 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." ...

The next day Knight posted the video on her Facebook page while [Knight's mother-in-law, Marie] Prince uploaded the video they called "Bus Stop Ignorance" to YouTube. Within days, the video went viral. ...

"I think when we look at cases, there's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But when there's nothing out there regarding disabilities, it took me a little bit longer to come to a decision." ...

As for whether this case presents a new precedent in Ohio is another debate.

"I don't know if it sets a precedent so much maybe as it begins a conversation between people," said [Jennifer] Fitzsimmons [the chief assistant city prosecutor for this case]. "I think conversation starts progress, and I think if it can bring something else to light, it would be good." ...

We have had a civil rights revolution, embodied in the Omnibus Civil Rights Act of 1964. But note what Prosecutor Fitzsimmons said about the treatment of a little girl with cerebral palsy just a day or two ago: There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities. The Civil Rights Act has made such "commenting and gesturing" unacceptable when it applies to those we call minorities, that is, those of a different race or ethnicity.

However, we have a double standard concerning discrimination against the disabled. We treat them as having stigma. ...

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. ...

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the first Justice Harlan wrote:

Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.  In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

Yet we have among us people we see every day, who are members of a targeted minority, but are not, as Prosecutor Fitzsimmons' comment reveals, in a protected class (there do not seem to be civil rights cases regarding them). That should not make a difference in how we treat the disabled. But it does: The most horrifying aspect of Molly Ivins' offhand remark is that everybody understands it. If it was possible to "harelip" the governor, it is understood that person would be outside the protections and considerations we afford those of "normal" identity.