Schalk argues that in order to truly understand the extent of the BPP's Black Disability Politics we have to look at how the Panthers engaged with disability less explicitly, for instance in the case of the Oakland Community School. By looking at instances where disability is engaged with less explicitly we see how Black Disability Politics is often constructed alongside and interwoven with concerns regarding racism, classism, and misyogny. We also must interpret engagement with disability by Black cultural workers within the historical, racial, and cultural context.

Less Explicit Disability Rhetoric and the Black Panther Party

The Oakland Community School and Huggins' work is not normally presented in scholarship as being about disability. Yet this link becomes extremely evident when looking at the school's policies and Huggins' background. This is an example of how Black disability politics are often articulated and enacted in ways that do not use explicit disability rights rhetoric. This silence on disability is thought by Schalk to be caused by how those enacting Black disability politics understand disablement and disability and inherently tied to racism and classism so there is a lack of need to identify disability separately.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

- Huggins' Rhetoric on Blackness and Disability
- Scholarship around Huggins not addressing disability

Ericka Huggins' Work and Black Disability Politics

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

Black Disability Politics

There is often a tendency from Black communities to note the improper labeling  of Black kids as disabled to distance Blackness from disability. Huggins instead argues that yea Black kids are improperly labeled as disabled because of racism but also that disabled children deserve better education asssitance that is not mired by racism, ableism, and the practice of warehousing. 

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