Able Fragility Part One: Introduction
I hesitate to use these words to describe the phenomenon. It is there, it is so very similar and so very predictable in its responses. Yet, I do not want to co-opt or move attention away from the idea of White Fragility, which is finally getting some traction in white spaces and with white people, so that we are starting to see and learn how we have been harmful to Black People and People of Color, even when we have not been meaning to be. I'm open to other terms and ways to call what I'm writing about if people have them. So this post will go in several parts. It may take me a minute to get through writing each part of it. Also, I am so open other language ideas to describe it.
This first part will explain the why of this post. The second will describe White Fragility and its common manifestations in some more detail, as well as describe the cultural entrenchment of both ableism and racism and why these might involve similar responses when alluded to, and the third will break down a paraphrased conversation to demonstrate each of these components as they happened.
I need to be clear that though I will do my best to write as accurately as I can regarding Black People's and People of Color's experiences regarding racism and white fragility, being white myself, it is highly likely that I will write imperfectly and that I very well may get things very wrong. I am open to correction where I have misspoken or overstated things. Another important point, I am hoping to add to the power dynamics conversation by incorporating the term or the idea of White Fragility. I do not wish to contribute to co-opting or speaking over the very important conversations happening right now regarding white fragility and white people's need to be able to hear and sit with Black People's criticism surrounding racism and racist behaviors.
Confession: this will break down a conversation I recently had. Even when I saw the parallels between the responses and White Fragility, I hesitated to post this or to speak of this. Though I highly suspect the individual involved will never choose to see or read this (and that is okay, it is their choice) I want to be clear on several things in case they do. The first thing, is that there is nothing in the paraphrased responses that I am including, that I haven't heard from many people before over the years. It is not just this conversation, rather, its about the patterns that I have experienced so many times before. A google search of able-bodied fragility doesn't bring up many results, but clearly I am not the first to have thought of it or articulated it.
Second, I searched myself to make sure I wasn't choosing to be passive aggressive in posting this. Perhaps there are shades of that within this post, but it is more complex than that. Particularly after reading Marta Russell's "Capitalism and Disability" within our current political context, I do not have time, and people with disabilities don't have time to sit and wait until everything has cooled down.
Trump is floating Federal Medicaid and Disability support cuts, and as Dr. Kendi pointed out in "Stamped From the Beginning" Prejudice follows on the heels of discriminating policies as justification to relieve cognitive dissonance. Which means, however things are now, I don't have time to wait because they may well be about to get even worse.
If I can, with this blog and like the two people who actually read it (I see you and I appreciate you dearly!) contribute in any way to opening up people's thoughts, perceptions, and empathy towards Disabled People, and people on the borderline, as in not Disabled enough to qualify for financial aid, but too Disabled to be able to work normally, than that time needs to be now, whatever my motivations are.
This is getting dire. I am lucky. If I can't work full time, I should be able to work part-time at least. But not everyone with my condition and/or another condition andor disability can, and a statistic that should have us all reeling comes from the set of essays by Marta Russel mentioned previously, that though 70 percent or so of Disabled People of working age want to work, only about 30 percent or so of them actually are.
Let's think about that.
That statistic is not 70 percent of Disabled People who could do no work whatsoever physically because of their condition want to work. That statistic is 70 percent of people who could work with appropriate accommodations and cultural re-conceptions of work could work, but our neoliberal Capitalist system has very strong economic motivators to preclude them from doing so (the point of this series is different, so anyone wanting support for that argument can check out several of Russell's essays in the book "Capitalism and Disability" I will try to remember to insert a link to the book below).
And that's why this is so important. Disabled people who want to work need to be able to. People with Disabilities who can't work with their conditions or don't want to, need the support to be able to lead lives with as much freedom and dignity as anybody else.
Until this Able Fragility is dealt with, until we can have real conversations where the perspective of Disabled People are included as equal participants able to accurately describe and convey their experiences, no progress can be made.
I don't have time to wait, because this all has to change. Or even more people will die (again see the Russell or your daily news for history and current events surrounding Disabled People being targets whether it be in German genocidal history, American history, jails, or at the mercy of greedy pharmaceutical companies). To be fair, will I die? Probably not. At least, not from my condition or from lack of aid or medicine. Will this blog change much? Perhaps not. Perhaps no one will read it.
But at least I will have tried. At least I will not have stayed silent or allowed my voice to stay silent.
But here's the thing, I don't just want myself and other Disabled People to survive. Though, make no mistake, what I just wrote the history of PWD's makes it very clear that survival is definitely in peril too for many of us.
I want us to really live. I hope you can see the difference.
If this series angers you, I hope you can forgive me. Or at least, feel safe enough to open up a dialogue and let me know.
Capitalism and Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell Edited by Kieth Rosenthal
This first part will explain the why of this post. The second will describe White Fragility and its common manifestations in some more detail, as well as describe the cultural entrenchment of both ableism and racism and why these might involve similar responses when alluded to, and the third will break down a paraphrased conversation to demonstrate each of these components as they happened.
Confession: this will break down a conversation I recently had. Even when I saw the parallels between the responses and White Fragility, I hesitated to post this or to speak of this. Though I highly suspect the individual involved will never choose to see or read this (and that is okay, it is their choice) I want to be clear on several things in case they do. The first thing, is that there is nothing in the paraphrased responses that I am including, that I haven't heard from many people before over the years. It is not just this conversation, rather, its about the patterns that I have experienced so many times before. A google search of able-bodied fragility doesn't bring up many results, but clearly I am not the first to have thought of it or articulated it.
Second, I searched myself to make sure I wasn't choosing to be passive aggressive in posting this. Perhaps there are shades of that within this post, but it is more complex than that. Particularly after reading Marta Russell's "Capitalism and Disability" within our current political context, I do not have time, and people with disabilities don't have time to sit and wait until everything has cooled down.
Trump is floating Federal Medicaid and Disability support cuts, and as Dr. Kendi pointed out in "Stamped From the Beginning" Prejudice follows on the heels of discriminating policies as justification to relieve cognitive dissonance. Which means, however things are now, I don't have time to wait because they may well be about to get even worse.
If I can, with this blog and like the two people who actually read it (I see you and I appreciate you dearly!) contribute in any way to opening up people's thoughts, perceptions, and empathy towards Disabled People, and people on the borderline, as in not Disabled enough to qualify for financial aid, but too Disabled to be able to work normally, than that time needs to be now, whatever my motivations are.
This is getting dire. I am lucky. If I can't work full time, I should be able to work part-time at least. But not everyone with my condition and/or another condition andor disability can, and a statistic that should have us all reeling comes from the set of essays by Marta Russel mentioned previously, that though 70 percent or so of Disabled People of working age want to work, only about 30 percent or so of them actually are.
Let's think about that.
That statistic is not 70 percent of Disabled People who could do no work whatsoever physically because of their condition want to work. That statistic is 70 percent of people who could work with appropriate accommodations and cultural re-conceptions of work could work, but our neoliberal Capitalist system has very strong economic motivators to preclude them from doing so (the point of this series is different, so anyone wanting support for that argument can check out several of Russell's essays in the book "Capitalism and Disability" I will try to remember to insert a link to the book below).
And that's why this is so important. Disabled people who want to work need to be able to. People with Disabilities who can't work with their conditions or don't want to, need the support to be able to lead lives with as much freedom and dignity as anybody else.
Until this Able Fragility is dealt with, until we can have real conversations where the perspective of Disabled People are included as equal participants able to accurately describe and convey their experiences, no progress can be made.
I don't have time to wait, because this all has to change. Or even more people will die (again see the Russell or your daily news for history and current events surrounding Disabled People being targets whether it be in German genocidal history, American history, jails, or at the mercy of greedy pharmaceutical companies). To be fair, will I die? Probably not. At least, not from my condition or from lack of aid or medicine. Will this blog change much? Perhaps not. Perhaps no one will read it.
But at least I will have tried. At least I will not have stayed silent or allowed my voice to stay silent.
But here's the thing, I don't just want myself and other Disabled People to survive. Though, make no mistake, what I just wrote the history of PWD's makes it very clear that survival is definitely in peril too for many of us.
I want us to really live. I hope you can see the difference.
If this series angers you, I hope you can forgive me. Or at least, feel safe enough to open up a dialogue and let me know.
Capitalism and Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell Edited by Kieth Rosenthal
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