Interview participants discussed how they have experienced ableism and a lack of accessibility in other Black activist spaces, like chapters of Black Lives Matter. Interview participants note that part of the differences in ableism between chapters of not-explicitly-disability-focused organizations is often whether there is a Black disabled person in the organization's chapter actively pushing against ableism and for accessibility. Interviewees also reflected that when this push against ableism is implemented it doesn't just help disabled activists but also often makes movement work more physically sustainable for everyone. 

Ableism in Non-Disabled Activist Organizations

Multiple interview participants discussed how Black disability politics is paying attention to how systems of oppression are set up to exhaust people who are fighting them so there is an emphasis on building care webs and systems of care for individuals actively fighting these systems.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Schalk uses the  phrase Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis to describe  the work and political outlook offered by Black disabled cultural workers engaging in Black Disability Politics. Schalk identified some key tactics of Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis as:
1. Not just claiming Black disability identity and encouraging disability identification within Black communities but also going back and claiming Black disability history and highlighting and connecting organizing work to a history and legacy of Black disabled community organizing.
2. An understanding of intersectionality that places racism not being a more preeminent system of oppression than ableism, but instead understanding racism and ableism and intertwined and mutually constructing.
3. Engaging with and situating themselves as a part of the tradition of Black feminist politics, including pulling earlier Black feminist tactics like centering those who are most impacted by oppression.

Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Schalk notes that every participant she interviewed mentioned that in order to understand the contemporary needs and politics of Black disabled individuals you needed to history of Black disabled political actors. It was mentioned by multiple participants that often Black disabled histories are not told and when disability is present it is often erased from the life stories of Black disabled activists like Harriet Tubman, Brad Lomax, Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer. Understanding history was linked by interview participants to situating contemporary Black disabled political praxis in an activist legacy that allowed them to lay claim to power and leadership, and to learn from the past to create better policies and better change.

Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis and Disability Identification

Schalk notes that contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis tends to uphold an understanding of intersectionality that places racism not being a more preeminent system of oppression than ableism, but instead understanding racism and ableism and intertwined and mutually constructing. Schalk contrasts this understanding of intersectionality with understandings of the intersection of disability and race by the Black Panther Party or the NBWHP that looked at racism and ableism as two separate systems of oppression that compound when they affect the same person. 

Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis and Intersectionality 

Schalk notes that several interview participants noted that contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis for them including holding no person or community about critique, and that this includes no just white-led disability communities, and Black communities, but also beyond.

Community Responsibility and Contemporary Black Disability Political Praxis

Schalk notes that one value exposed by Black Disabled Cultural Workers - leadership and centering those most impacted by oppression, with the idea that centering those most impacted will in turn dismantle systems for everyone else- can actually be tracked back to a 1977 statement by the Black feminist Combahee River Collective. This Black feminist politic has become widespread with leadership of those most impacted being articulated in the ten principles of disability justice created by Sins Invalid. 

Working with a Tradition of Black Feminist Politics and Theorizing

Care Centered Activism

Schalk notes that similar to the Black Panther Party and National Black Women's Health Project that contemporary Black disability cultural workers similarly look at both micro and macro levels of change and is clear in noting that even micro level change that changes the world for just one person is still hugely significant work. 

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