“Stupid” Is an Ableist Slur: Breaking Down Our Defenses and Liberating Our Words From Ableist Language August 28, 2018 by Mihran Nersesyan 2 Comments During the course of 2016 I saw more ableist slurs tossed around than ever before. From casual conversation to mass media broadcasts, people are referring to one another in the most dehumanizing ways possible - and throwing disabled people under the bus in the process. I feel exhausted because it seems like no one is above it. Some of the most consistent advocates I know … [Read more...]
No, I’m Not “Wheelchair-Bound” August 22, 2018 by Gabe Moses 1 Comment I know a guy who says that when people ask him how long he’s been in a wheelchair, he’s starts responding, “Since I got up this morning.” Sometimes, when I feel especially bold or especially frustrated, I borrow it. Despite the fact that my wheelchair and I have a special bond, to the point where I often actually do consider it a part of my body – or at least an extension of it … [Read more...]
Dear Younger Self: Reflections on Being 25, Disabled, and Learning To Love Yourself August 20, 2018 by Karin Hitselberger, Guest Writer Leave a Comment This article originally appeared in the blog Claiming Crip and is reprinted by permission. Dear 15-year-old Karin, I can’t believe I’m 25! I’m not going to lie, when I was your age I never thought I would make it here, and I definitely never thought I might actually like myself (gasp!). Don’t get me wrong, I still have bad days. There are still some things I wish I could … [Read more...]
We Are Everywhere: Creating a World That Loves Disabled Folks August 3, 2018 by Gabe Moses Leave a Comment As we begin the conversations about decolonization – dismantling the influence of capitalist-imperialist colonizers who have forced assimilation of marginalized people and erased cultural narratives outside the dominant one for centuries – there is one group we often forget to mention: the minority that “anyone can become a part of, any time.” Disabled folks. Every other … [Read more...]
How A “Special” Dance Class Helped Me Find My Beauty July 15, 2018 by Cara Liebowitz Leave a Comment Confession time: even though I shout disability pride and loving your body from the rooftops to anyone who cares to listen, I still have a certain amount of hatred for my legs. I have cerebral palsy, which means my legs have a particular golf-club-like quality to them. Long, rigid legs end in an ankle that doesn’t really move and a foot that resembles a plank of wood. My toes … [Read more...]
Independence Is an Ableist Myth: Unlocking the Power of Community in Healing July 4, 2018 by Dom Chatterjee 1 Comment Most of us live in cities or small towns, where we are clearly interconnected. Yet people are still pushed to live separately, travel separately, eat separately, and even heal separately. Society elevates the idea of self-sufficiency without recognizing that independence is an impossible ideal. Reaching for this unattainable goal of total independence harms all of us – and most … [Read more...]
6 Ways Your Social Justice Activism Might Be Ableist May 20, 2018 by Carolyn Zaikowski, Guest Writer 1 Comment This article was originally published on EverydayFeminism.com and is republished with permission. Incredibly, some leftist activists still fail to recognize ableism as a social justice issue. But from the 200,000 disabled people murdered during the Holocaust, to the ugly legacies of eugenics and prison-like institutions for the disabled, to the2016 attack against disabled … [Read more...]
When You Can’t Name What’s Wrong: 4 Ways to Love Yourself Through an Undiagnosed Illness May 10, 2018 by Gabe Moses Leave a Comment The other day, a friend of mine who has, like me, been making the rounds of doctors and navigating the choppy waters of diagnostic testing for several years, finally received a diagnosis. This was a happy moment. After the long struggle for her pain to be seen and understood, she was given a name and a treatment plan, and as her friend I was happy for her. But as a fellow sick … [Read more...]
6 Reasons I Struggle More With My Chronic Illness Than Being Fat (And How I Still Love This Body) May 2, 2018 by Katie Tastrom Leave a Comment Generally, when people are talking about loving their bodies they are talking about things like fat and body image. I have been lucky to have not ever been too bothered by being fat. (That is a super simplification of a lot of privilege and fatphobia and decades of complicated feelings, but it’s also relatively accurate). However, I have had a lot of struggles around … [Read more...]
Some of Us Cannot Wait & See: 5 Thoughts on Undoing Ableism & Isolation In Your Community Spaces April 23, 2018 by Kay Ulanday Barrett , Guest Writer Leave a Comment In the east coast, I’ve noticed the urgent need for a long-awaited shift in radical and queer spaces. People who are SDQTPOC (Sick & Disabled Queer Trans People of Color) and SDC (Sick, Disabled, & with Chronic pain) have been continuously fighting to disrupt able-bodied political space for quite some time. Simultaneously, SDQTPOC face various degrees of ableism that … [Read more...]
5 Ways Ableism Looks in Queer Spaces April 11, 2018 by Nik Moreno, Guest Writer Leave a Comment This article was originally published on Wear Your Voice and is republished with permission. “Ableism shapes attitudes… and systems that ultimately dehumanize… [and] criminalize people whose bodies don’t fit into socially constructed notions of what constitutes a ”normal” human being.”-Edward Ndopu and Darnell L. Moore As queer folks with … [Read more...]
Why Disabled Communities Matter April 9, 2018 by Gabe Moses Leave a Comment When I was a kid, being around other disabled kids was a given. In my school district, there was one special education classroom for all of the grades. A few kids would come and go throughout the day, but most were there, with our own two teachers and our own specially designed class equipment, all day. I left for band and P.E., then came back to spend the rest of the … [Read more...]
How Loving My Wheelchair is Radical Self Love April 4, 2018 by Gabe Moses Leave a Comment I love my wheelchair. I know this is a radical statement, in this society we live in, where celebrities pose in wheelchairs for photo shoots to symbolize “feeling trapped”; where able-bodied people “raise awareness” about how awful it is to be disabled by spending a day in a wheelchair; where a character on my favorite TV show spent a whole season in one after an … [Read more...]
What Disability Bigotry Looks Like March 27, 2018 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg 3 Comments Ten years ago, if you'd ask me whether disability bigotry existed, I would have given you a blank stare and blurted out, "Disability bigotry? What the hell is that?" Then I was diagnosed with the disabilities I'd had all my life, and so much made sense. I finally understood how my body worked, and that knowledge was life-changing. But more than that, I finally understood the … [Read more...]
I am NOT an Afterthought: The Dangers of Everyday Ableism in Our Transportation Systems March 24, 2018 by Taylor Carmen Leave a Comment I, like many members of the disabled community, do not drive. This makes it a common story to rely on other forms of transportation to get to everything from jobs, doctor appointments, social gatherings and basically the movements that make up any full life. I’ve always been rather uncomfortable with the idea of public transportation for entirely unrelated reasons. I have no … [Read more...]
15 Common Phrases That Are Way More Ableist Than You May Realize February 15, 2018 by Creigh Farinas, Guest Writer and Caley Farinas, Guest Writer Leave a Comment This article originally appeared in EverydayFeminism.com and is reprinted by permission. When I was in middle school, my family started going to an autism support group. Well, I say “family,” but in reality, my sister Creigh was going for her high school volunteer hours and kept dragging my mother and me along. Creigh seemed to think that, because she was my sibling and I’m … [Read more...]
