These critiques of the word disability help us make sense of why Black health activist work often did not include in its politics disability as a clearly defined or politicized identity and rather made their spaces inclusive of disability broadly but not based in disability.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The words disability and disabled have been criticized for how they have been over defined through the lens of whiteness, wealth, and rights-based political movements. Jasbir Puar poses that we should use the term debility to specifically note those who are denied access to the label of disability and a small amount of resources provided to those who are recognized by our legal and medical systems as disabled are often those whose body-minds have been purposefully eroded by the violence of capitalism, racism, colonialism, and oppression. 

Critique of the words Disability and Disabled

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

Learn Before

Related