Schalk recounts serving as a care bear - distributing food, water, and personal protective equipment - for actions led by the Black and Southeast Asian queer feminist activist organization Freedom Inc. 
Schalk notes that after increased police presence of the National Gaurd was deployed in Madison, WI there was an emphasis by Freedom Inc on creating ways to help that met individuals' access needs - for instance having individuals who could not participate in the protests instead listen to police scanners and monitor live stream feeds of the protest to alerts protesters to police movements, or seeing an opening of self-care practices with organizers including taking days for self-care, requesting buddies or people to drive them to protests. Schalk noted that while these actions of care were celebrated the word "disability" was rarely attached to them to explain or politicize these practices - in ways reminiscent of the Black Panther Party NBWHP and proof of the importance of naming Black disability politics to this day.

Black Disability Politics after the murder of George Floyd

Schalk uses the term "the uprisings" to discuss the spring through summer of 2020 when Madison, WI was facing the both the transfer of knowledge from disabled to non-disabled communities around the COVID-19 pandemic and the work of the Black Lives Matter movement and others in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

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

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

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