Hey folks,
I got this email on a list serve, and I figured I would disseminate this query to as many people as possible. This sounds like a fascinating area of research that needs further development. I’m not sure if he needs participants for a study, references to organizations and activists, or general literature on the topic. Personally, I’m excited about this area of study because I have yet to see any thorough analysis of the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and disability. If you can help him you can send an email directly, if you have general points of suggestions for the general audience, please feel free to put them in the comments section.
From: A. Rahman Ford
I am searching for literature regarding race and disability. I seek to use such information to explore the intersection of disability and Black masculinity. Any information will be greatly appreciated.
I think the query has hit the right places, because I saw it last week on a disability listserv and much more organized and informed people than me did have suggestions. So some responses should be coming for A. Rahman Ford.
Rachel, I can dig up the listserv bibliographic responses for you if you like. I think they’re in my email files somewhere.
Beyond that: There’s a book on my “to-read” pile called Reading Resistance that appears to tackle the intersection of race and disability in education. I’ve only browsed the intro, and it’ll be a while before I read the book in full, but I think it explores how young boys of color, for one, are so often labelled as learning disabled or developmentally disabled for some clearly racist reasons. Again, it’ll probably be late spring before I get to the book, but I was thinking of passing it off when done to another feminist who might read it more knowledgeably from the angle of race — I thought it might make for interesting discussion somewhere online.
Blue said, “I think it explores how young boys of color, for one, are so often labelled as learning disabled or developmentally disabled for some clearly racist reasons.”
I’ve seen that literature, but not the book. Please let me know when you are done. I’d also like to take a look at the info. that people provided on the list serve. It is interesting that there is a set of research on Blacks and intellectual disabilities (in particular learning disabilities which seems to dovetail with biological notions of Black intellectual inferiority). On the other hand, physical disabilities–I don’t know if I have read anything. I’ve also seen a ton “health disparities” literature, which obviously doesn’t use a disability framework at all, and I may have read a few pieces here and there about disabled Black veterans.
So I guess this person has a really good dissertation topic….I wonder who his/her advisor is. If he or she continues uses the intersectional model focusing on race, gender, and disability the job opportunities will also cross disciplines.
The race and disability area is an opne frontier for whoever is willing to go there. I had a brief discussion with a sociologist who studies autism, and I asked him about race and autism. He didn’t know much, but if you look at the autism literature and the pop culture presentations almost all you hear about is white male children. I hope he gets the info. he needs.
They did a study here on Latino kids and how many of them were diagnosed as developmently disabled when they were ESL. I think a local sociologist or educational psychologist conducted it. I’ve heard of similar studies done with Black kids in terms of being tracted into special educational classes.
I had an experience once when I worked in a fast food place. I was the only White on the shift. All the cooks were Latino. We had a slow fryer meaning that it took longer to cook hashbrowns so I finally got an order of them up and took them to three sheriff deputies sitting at a table, all White and pretty young. I apologized for their food being slow and one of them without missing a beat, said “well, that’s what they get for hiring the handicapped”. He and the other two laughed. That was my first offensive joke I heard from an officer so I was kind of shocked.
I assumed it was racial because of the race of the cooks and of the history of the deputies in general and their attitudes about Latinos which were put on public display during a televised beating of undocumented immigrants after a pursuit in 1996. I didn’t react to them but I sent a letter off to the training academy explaining what happened and asking them what they were teaching them. I don’t know why I picked the academy to contact, but they never sent any response back. But I think you also have to examine that it’s an insult against the disabled too, by these deputies and it took me a while longer to do that.
I guess I saw it as a joke that was derogatory to both Latinos and those who are disabled. But there is also this assumption which may or may not be true that the Latinos may or may have been insulted to be called that because they knew it was meant that way and because of feelings that there’s in society about the disabled because ableism probably crosses racial lines. I didn’t tell them about the joke.
It’s not the first time I saw this attitude in law enforcement. A group of men of color who were promoted were called “Jerry’s kids” which was the first name of the chief at the time but an obvious play on Jerry Lewis and his work with fundraising and it was meant in a derogatory way. The men of color were insulted, perhaps because they knew it was meant to be an insult because it was a name used by White male sergeants who were jealous of their success but at the same time, ableist attitudes of the men of color may have contributed to that feeling of being insulted as well. It’s hard to know for sure unless you talk with them and they tell you about how they viewed it. But ableism is a pretty strong belief in law enforcement I think, though it’s not always as obvious as perceptions on race.
Check the story of BLACK men who survived internment in the US during the World Wars due to conscientious nonconscriptee-ness.
The Fall 2006 issue of the journal MELUS is directly related to race and disability, but it concentrates more on race and disability in conjunction with literature.
Thanks, shaniq.
I passed it on to the girlfriend. She deals with african american mentally handicapped folks all the time.
I would talk to Leroy Moore a Black disability activist and writer. Also, Mouth magazine might have some resources.
http://www.leroymoore.com/
http://www.mouthmag.com/