Remembering Intersectionality this Black History Month
This Black History Month (and beyond), we want to take the chance to amplify the voices of Black disabled people in our community. The intersection of race and disability identity is an important one for many people with lived experience. As with all discussions of intersectionality, it is important to note that understanding the experiences of people who are both Black and disabled is not as simple as adding up those individual identities. There are concerns that fall in the intersection of these two identities that neither Black non-disabled people nor White disabled individuals experience.
As Johnnie Lacy, a social justice pioneer and a founding member of the Center for Independent Living said: “It has been problematic for blacks to identify with disability. My classmates would have had to accept my disability within the same intellectual framework as my blackness–that of an oppressed minority opposite. I believe that African Americans see disability in the same way that everybody else sees it–worthless, mindless–without realizing that this is the same attitude held by others toward African Americans. This belief in effect cancels out the black identity they share with a disabled black person, both socially and culturally, because the disability experience is not viewed in the same context as if one were only black, and not disabled. Because of this myopic view, I as a black disabled person could not share in the intellectual dialogue viewed as exclusive. I could be one or the other but not both."
We encourage you to read the articles listed below to learn more about this intersectional identity directly from people with lived experience.
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