Other Resources

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.

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

Sarah Nielsen on Cerebral Palsy Discrimination in a Progressive City

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.

The Social, and Disability Discrimination

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

Last September, Amy Webb wrote about the danger of posting pictures of one's child on the internet (friends had posted many pictures of their daughter "Kate" on Facebook):

It’s inevitable that our daughter will become a public figure, because we’re all public figures in this new digital age. I adore Kate’s parents, and they’re raising her to be an amazing young woman. But they’re essentially robbing her of a digital adulthood that’s free of bias and presupposition.

What's striking about this is the situation where normal ordinary people assume being made public in the social realm constitutes exposure to "bias and presupposition." Four centuries ago the imprisoned protagonist of "King Lear" characterized the social realm in terms of "Who's in, who's out." The social is not a friendly circle where everybody is included; instead, it is characterized by inclusion and exclusion.

The great sociologist Erving Goffman, above, said that stigma—such as the various disabilities discussed in this blog—spoils the stigmatized's identity. This is not one's identity as a citizen, where equality is betokened by the lowliest and poorest having the same number of votes as the richest and most prominent. This is social identity, where a transition from able to disabled, as Ms. Ivins suggests above, would involve a profound loss of status.

There is reason to be skeptical, then, of the implied valorization in such terms as "social safety net," "social concern," even "Social Security." (The SSA is not a social agency like, for example, the Boy Scouts. It is a public or Federal agency and as such, subject to non-discrimination expectations which the social Boy Scouts do not have to meet).

One might even say "social considered harmful" (echoing program design theorist Edsger Dijkstra's letter Go To ... Considered Harmful, published in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM). To be disabled is, in many ways, to be outside of society. This ought not to be so.

Civility, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Civil Rights of the Disabled

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

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

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

Those who leverage stigma against those who are different from themselves benefit from the advantage created: It denies others access to goods or status or dignity or respect or civil liberties they themselves covet. - The Stigmatized Disabled and the Silent Privilege of the Normal

Here’s the problem if you are a non-African American parent: how do you voice your concern with these issues without being viewed as a racist by some (though not all) black parents at the school? Is there an underlying cultural issue that makes it more likely that kids who are non-Catholic and who come to the school from outside the neighborhood will end up having discipline problems? ... How do I demand safety for my kids without being tarred with the ugly “racist” label? It really is a tight rope walk. - A Nation Defined by White Supremacy? Ctd

Because discriminatory conduct is usually uncivil conduct, Molly Ivins' "Governor," above, or any other disabled person, has a strong interest in civility. The recent controversy over Ta-Nehisi Coates' "A Nation Defined by White Supremacy?" series of articles is thus of special interest to the disabled because in these articles TNC seems to have discarded functional evaluation of culture—particularly middle class culture—for an ad hominem validation of uncivil subcultures.

In "Other People's Pathologies", TNC writes,

It’s very nice to talk about “middle-class values” when that describes your small, limited world. But when your grandmother lives in one hood and your coworkers live another, you generally need something more than “middle-class values.” You need to be bilingual.

TNC's cite of Yoni Applebaum in "Black Pathology Crowdsourced" clarifies what he means:

Culture of Poverty is a label attached to a wide array of behaviors. There are behaviors—physical assertiveness—well-suited to that environment that may tend to inhibit success elsewhere.

This misleading critique of the civil culture of Western civilization—characterized by notably successful and peaceful societies—is familiar from the turbulent years of the counterculture. As David Lehman noted in Signs of the Times, “In a Marxist model of knowledge, the superstructure—the tangible products of culture—camouflages and reinforces the hidden reality of class warfare.”

"Physical assertiveness," contrary to TNC's subtle misdirection, is to be deprecated not because it is thought to pertain to an underclass, but because it is dysfunctional. Valuable sectors of any society—women, children, for example—can scarcely compete where the criterion is physical advantage. That is why bullying is in disrepute.

As part of this general theme Coates has been critiquing President Obama for calling for black parents to teach responsibility to their children. In Andrew Sullivan's blog The Dish, a bi-racial parent looks at both sides of the "assertiveness" and responsibility issues:

    It seems like the Dish posts on school suspensions and the argument between Coates and Chait regarding [it] are linked. Let me share an example.

    My kids go to a small Catholic school in the south suburbs of Chicago. I personally chose the school because it provided a solid Catholic education and it is diverse. Many of the schools in this area are all white or all black. I didn’t like either of those options for my kids. I grew up in a very diverse area and want my kids to experience the same thing.

    Unfortunately, discipline problems had progressively been on the rise before the principal resigned last summer. Also unfortunately, many of the kids who have been involved in these discipline problems are African American. They range from calling a teacher a bitch to bringing a knife to school to assaulting a much younger (and white) child in a bathroom.

    I’m bi-racial, so I have a kinda distinctive view of the dynamics within the community of the school, which unfortunately is often self segregating. I remember a school function where most white parents sat on one side of the gym while most black parents sat on the other. Since I hadn’t grown up around here and wasn’t used to such a thing, it was very jarring for me. I walk with comfort on both sides of the spectrum, but I would say most here don’t, for whatever reason. It has sometimes been very difficult to get black and white parents together for social events, such as fundraisers.

    The parents of students who live in the neighborhood of the school – which is upper-middle class to downright rich and mostly white – have been very disturbed by the recent discipline issues. There has been a call to be much harsher with punishment, and some want to make the school exclusively Catholic. But that really isn’t workable, because the school has suffered through enrollment declines in recent years due to the economy, and shutting some kids out would probably mean shutting down the school. Catholic schools all over the nation are shutting down in alarming numbers.

    Here’s the problem if you are a non-African American parent: how do you voice your concern with these issues without being viewed as a racist by some (though not all) black parents at the school? Is there an underlying cultural issue that makes it more likely that kids who are non-Catholic and who come to the school from outside the neighborhood will end up having discipline problems? I don’t know the answer, but it is worth thinking about. There are parents here who are racist, who revel in bringing up such issues behind closed doors at parties and such. But I’m not one of them. How do I demand safety for my kids without being tarred with the ugly “racist” label? It really is a tight rope walk.

    This is why I welcome the president making these speeches. He has a credibility that people like me can’t possibly have, despite the fact that I’m very active at the school with both ends of the spectrum. At some point, people like me who are not racist should be able to point out issues like discipline problems at school or poor service at business establishments on the merits without having to worry about the race issue hanging over our heads. I don’t see that happening in the near future. Maybe Barack Obama can help. He’s surely trying, which I appreciate. I voted for the man twice on issues that have nothing to do with this one, but I do like his personal responsibility stance on this.

    I’ve always been a fan of TNC and his writing, especially his historical perspectives. But it seems to me lately that he has fallen to the Jackson/Sharpton point of view, which I find disappointing. Racism is definitely everywhere. I’ve seen it personally, having a father who was DARK brown. I’ve seen it in my own neighborhood from people who I’m friendly with (and from BOTH races). Still, it would seem like blaming the plight of African Americans today solely on white supremacy would be like blaming WWI on one cause. There can be more than one cause.

Coates' position seems to be faux “realism.” The existence of brutish, criminal 'hoods or subcultures does not delegitimize civility or middle class ethics, it illustrates the need for them.

TNC once saw the founders as “reluctant slaveholders.” (In "Why We Fight" he wrote, "Jefferson's generation were, to some extent, reluctant slaveholders. (I shudder writing that.)") He now appears to claim, as one observer said, "that George Washington’s presidency means nothing more than his being a slaveholder."


In Very Hard Choices Spider Robinson wrote, “'The Constitution and Bill of Rights are among the most enlightened political documents the human race has produced so far, and its people are, so help me, some of the kindest who have yet walked the earth. . . . So far nobody's ever been as ashamed of their own racism as we are.'” Ta-Nehisi Coates pretends that one half of the picture does not exist. There are still white supremacists, but to assert over and over, as Coates is doing, that that defines our multiracial society, is to fail to give credit to the most important fact. What he characterizes as a supremacist nation listened to Martin Luther King, then passed the Omnibus Civil Rights Act. If this had not happened, it is unlikely that Coates would be, as his employer states, "a national correspondent at The Atlantic."

Because on balance this is not a white supremacist nation, Coates has the platform from which he claims, as he seems to, that we are always and only racists.

Imagine That America Had Its Consciousness Raised (Repost)

This is a repost from June 27, 2013.

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.

In the News: Disability Discrimination, Ctd

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

It seems to me that the character of Imperial Germany after 1878 can best be caught in the term "illiberal." [[I am using the term as the dictionary defines it: "Not befitting a free man . . . not generous in respect to the opinions, rights, or liberties of others; narrow-minded." The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1967)]] - Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism, p. xvii

In our earlier post In the News: Disability Discrimination we neglected to note that the author of one of the selections, Elliot Hannon, titled it "Disney No Longer Lets Disabled Kids Cut the Line for Rides Because Some People Have No Soul." The soulless were "Families, fully capable of waiting in line like everyone else, ... scamming their way to the front of the line by, wait for it, hiring disabled–or perhaps more appropriately "disabled”–tour guides."
The National Review describes soullessness which ignores moral wrong taking place in front of one: "the averted gaze and a smothering of empathy."

WXYZ reported:

A Michigan teacher is under fire after one of her autistic students got his head stuck in a chair.
Instead of helping, she recorded it and seemed to mock the boy while he was trapped.
Fifth grade teacher Nicole McVey is accused of taunting the 11-year-old at Oaktree Elementary School in Goodrich.
At one point on the tape, she even asks the boy if he wants to be tasered.

The New York Daily News reported the same incident:

Michigan fifth-grade teacher Nicole McVey used a cellphone to record a 10-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome who had gotten stuck in a chair at Oaktree Elementary School in Goodrich. The teacher and the school's principal seemingly teased the child and asked him if he wanted to be 'tasered' before the video was replayed in class and forwarded to other staff. ...

A Michigan teacher is under fire after she filmed herself and a school principal teasing a young autistic student who got stuck in a chair.
Nicole McVey is facing calls to quit Oaktree Elementary School, in Goodrich, after she stupidly recorded herself and boss Michael Ellis taunting the 10-year-old boy who has Asperger's syndrome.
The video shows the pupil struggling to free himself from the furniture.
In the background, fifth-grade teacher McVey is heard mocking the youngster before Ellis chips in and starts to do the same.

Comment: Teacher education curricula are supposed to be training those in the classroom to faithfully exercise the responsibilities of a public service profession. How do such heartless people escape their scrutiny?

The Christian Science Monitor  notes:

Disability rights advocates say harassment of disabled students goes underreported, along with even more extreme practices, such as secluding and isolating students. It indicates a troubling lack of knowledge on the part of some educators about how to handle the behaviors of students with special needs, they say. ...

“We don’t often see schools take that kind of action,” [Attorney Mark] McWilliams says about the swift moves [requested resignation] against the principal and the teacher. “They don’t do it lightly … [but] there should be a significant response to civil rights violations and mistreatment in schools.”

The Huffington Post reports:

Police officers in Southern California are under fire for allegations that they beat, shocked and arrested a deaf man who was trying to use sign language to communicate with them. ...

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, contains a harrowing account of what happened on the night in question. According to the complaint, Meister was retrieving his personal belongings from the back porch of a home from which he had just moved when he was approached by two police officers who had been alerted by neighbors about "suspicious" activity.

Meister began signing from the home's backyard, and the officers gestured for him to join them on the other side of the fence. Meister "trusted" that the officers could see he was deaf and began walking toward them, signing to tell them about how he had permission to retrieve his own belongings from a friends' house, says the suit. But as soon as Meister was at an arms' length, the officers grabbed Meister's wrists and spun him around to face the other way. Because arms, hands and facial expression are the primary means of communication in American Sign Language, Meister then pulled his hands away from the officers and hopped back over the fence, to give himself another chance to explain what he was doing at the home. That's when things got violent.

The suit claims that police pushed Meister up against the wall, put him in a choke hold and then kneed him twice in the abdomen. One officer then punched him in the face repeatedly, while another officer shot Meister with Taser darts. Once he was on the ground, says the suit, officers kicked and elbowed Meister repeatedly while another officer shocked him a second time with the Taser. After a second choke hold and third Taser shock, Meister was finally unconscious and officers handcuffed and arrested him.

Although the Hawthorne PD initially arrested Meister for assaulting police officers, the charges were eventually dismissed.

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes:

I was talking to Eric J. Miller, a law professor at Loyola Law School, for a magazine piece the other day. He made the point that ... providing correct information ... helps us understand what ideal policy might look like -- even if we don't get there:

The political sphere is where you engage with your humanity. You have not merely a right, you have an obligation to participate, to make sure the people, as a whole, are able to make good decisions, and pass good laws and treat you as a human. And if one group subjugates another, if it says 'You can talk about anything you want, except everything that matters to you,' then you are not a full member of the polity.

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

If you struggle with disability prejudice against autism, deafness, cleft palate, developmental disability, or other conditions, "you can talk [with your friends] about anything you want, except everything that matters to you." That is one of the ways normal decent society keeps you in your place.

The Stigmatized Disabled and the Silent Privilege of the Normal

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

Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul - Walt Whitman, Preface to first edition of Leaves of Grass

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

It seems to me that the character of Imperial Germany after 1878 can best be caught in the term "illiberal." [[I am using the term as the dictionary defines it: "Not befitting a free man . . . not generous in respect to the opinions, rights, or liberties of others; narrow-minded." The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1967)]] - Fritz Stern, The Failure of Illiberalism, p. xvii

Those who leverage stigma against those who are different from themselves benefit from the advantage created: It denies others access to goods or status or dignity or respect or civil liberties they themselves covet. - (Vide Infra)

Philip Guo recently wrote, in Silent Privilege: As an Asian male computer science major, everyone gave me the benefit of the doubt:

No one ever said to me, “Well, you only got into MIT because you're an Asian boy.” ... Instead of facing implicit bias or stereotype threat, I had the privilege of implicit endorsement. ...

Although I started off as a complete novice (like everyone once was), I never faced any micro-inequities that impeded my intellectual growth. ... And nobody ever got in the way of my learning—not even inadvertently—probably because I looked like the sort of person who would be good at such things. ...

In contrast, ask any computer science major who isn't from a majority demographic (i.e., white or Asian male), and I guarantee that he or she has encountered discouraging comments such as “You know, not everyone is cut out for computer science.” They probably still remember the words and actions that have hurt the most, even though those making the remarks often aren't trying to harm.

For example, one of my good friends took the Intro to Java course during freshman year and enjoyed it. She wanted to get better at Java GUI programming, so she got a summer research assistantship at the MIT Media Lab. However, instead of letting her build the GUI (like the job ad described), the supervisor assigned her the mind-numbing task of hand-transcribing audio clips all summer long. He assigned a new male student to build the GUI application. And it wasn't like that student was a programming prodigy—he was also a freshman with the same amount of (limited) experience that she had. The other student spent the summer getting better at GUI programming while she just grinded away mindlessly transcribing audio. As a result, she grew resentful and shied away from learning more CS.

He quotes Mary Rowe:

What makes micro-inequities particularly problematic is that they consist in micro-messages that are hard to recognize for victims, bystanders and perpetrators alike. When victims of micro-inequities do recognize the micro-messages … it is exceedingly hard to explain to others why these small behaviors can be a huge problem.

Or Andrew Sullivan in The Betrayal of Vets with PTSD:

Take a moment, if you have one, to read this wrenching, deeply moving and enraging testimony from one Marine veteran with a Purple Heart who returned home and became immobilized by post-traumatic stress. ... 

He swallowed a bottle of pills, and then somehow reached back to life and vomited them back up. What makes this story more than distressing is that part of what compounded his PTSD was the mockery and contempt of other service-members toward his condition. It was viewed as weakness not illness, even for a Purple Heart recipient:

I wondered if asking for help for my post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury was the smartest decision – after all, it had ended my career.

The way my leaders had treated me tore me up on the inside, and their words haunted me. They had convinced me that I was not a Marine in pain, but someone looking for free benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. At work, at home, in bed, all I could think about was how my career in the corps had ended in such a terrible, tasteless fashion, with my peers and leaders turning their backs on me because I had enrolled in treatment.

When he checked himself in to a mental health facility – the VA turned him down because he had two days left before he retired! – he was treated horribly. I don’t know about you, but this kind of story rips my heart out. It must not happen to anyone. The military has to make much more of an effort to destigmatize those psychologically traumatized by a war so intense for so many it has understandably altered them for ever. There is hope. But not if there is stigma.

Philip Guo does not put his observations in terms of stigma, but both these cases reflect the invisibility of those stigmatized by discriminatory foregone conclusions which linger in "normal" society; in the case of aspirants to programming positions, the comparative stigma of those who are not white or Asian males; in the case of those who have not been traumatized in service to their country, everybody who does not suffer from PTSD. In the case of the topic of this blog, the stigmatized disabled, discriminatory social foregone conclusions result in the situation described in a previous post, Reduced Life Chances. In each case, those who leverage stigma against those who are different from themselves benefit from the advantage created: It denies others access to goods or status or dignity or respect or civil liberties they themselves covet.

Followup: Courts and the Civil Rights of the Disabled

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

Here is the article which followed the previous article, In Retrospect: The Supreme Court and The Disabled:

There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities.

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity - Erving Goffman

The previous article,  In Retrospect: The Supreme Court and The Disabled, was about judicially interpreting away the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It should be noted that the ADA is not a civil rights act. It refers only to barriers to the employability of people who can be productive members of society if reasonable accommodations are made in the workplace. The ADA does not even address such workplace civil rights matters as defamation of character or harassment. It says nothing about co-workers who attempt to degrade and intimidate employees who have, or are thought to have, a disability.

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."

Disabled people are a targeted minority. We call them retards, harelips, and spastics; and we abuse little people, those with Downs Syndrome, the developmentally disabled, bipolar people, and many others.

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. For example, note the following passage:

A drawn-out impeachment process is our worst option: another six months of Monica, have mercy; I don't care if it harelips the Governor.

This is from an article by the supposedly liberal columnist Molly Ivins, which appeared in the print edition of Time and has been on www.time.com for over a decade. It is obviously defamatory, and it seems to be clear evidence of a double standard. After all, would Time have printed it if the late Ms. Ivins had used the n-word rather than the h-word?

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.

Protected Class and the Courts:
Would the court system of a liberal society, sidestepping universal justice, treat "protected class" as a term at law? One has only to read the news:

Publication: The Spokesman Review - Publish date: March 2, 1996
A state judge supports an earlier court ruling giving Spokane restaurants the right to refuse service to Hells Angels wearing their club insignia.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly, in a written ruling released Friday, says members of the biker gang aren't a "protected class" under state or federal discrimination laws.

And more recently in Illinois:

Plaintiffs Gary Kohlman and Allen Roberts are members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.*fn1 They contend that the Mayor of Midlothian (defendant Thomas Murawski), Midlothian's Police Chief (defendant Vince Schavone), and a Midlothian police officer (defendant Hal Kaufman) ordered restaurants and bars in Midlothian to refuse to serve the plaintiffs because of their membership in the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and/or their wearing of Hells Angels insignia and logos. ...
Because no suspect class is at issue, the plaintiffs must allege that:
(1) they are members of a protected class; (2) who are otherwise similarly situated to members of an unprotected class; (3) who were treated differently from members of the unprotected class; (4) based on the defendants' discriminatory intent. 

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.

(*) Addendum 11/20/13 - Ta-Nehisi Coates recently observed:

“Faggot,” like most slurs, is a word used to remove a group from the protections of society.

 (As in the slur deployed by the late Molly Ivins in the quote from Time.com at the beginning of this post.)