by matttbastard
Have been out of the loop, so this is largely a catch-up edition.  Anyone who has any recommendations (whether of their own work or someone elses) feel free to join in the orgy via comments.  As always, much love (and respect) to all….

Certainly, yes, having a person on a committee as a “representative” of a particular cultural group shouldn’t be used as an excuse to ignore the valid concerns of outsiders in that group.

Here’s another thing, though, and I’m not really sure how it fits in to the discussion — probably just as a spoke of a tangent. Having occasionally served as “token minority” (and also having seen other “token minorities” fail miserably at internal “education” — i.e. conducting inservices on “awareness” that dissolve into rehashings of stereotypes), I worry about the folks who *do* serve on committees as representatives of the target group becoming jaded and losing some of their effectiveness as advocates because they’re busy wrestling their own inner conflict. Meaning, facing what are often condescending attitudes on the inside (”Oh, honey, certainly we respect your input; it’s why we hired one of you! Hush now, and sit there and look exotic.” at the same time they’re getting grief from their peers on the outside. I imagine it’s pretty withering to be called a “house Negro” just by virtue of serving on a committee, especially when you’ve already got all sorts of guilt and prejudice going on — and *particularly* when having opinions that seem to resemble those of the majority doesn’t make you any less a member of your cultural group. Lest we forget: “You’re a ___ so your political views should be ____”, on either side of the fence, is offensive as hell.

Thank you.

All These Blues

I couldn’t figure out what to call it, then finally just named it after the song I was listening to…and how perfect was that?

((kisses and hugs)) and thanks for being so insightful!

If this is off-topic, I don’t want to be on. /Eddie Murphy in Coming To America.

WCD

there are DEFINITELY radical disabled folk organzing (ADAPT, FRIDA, Not Dead Yet, etc.) but as a whole our movement is very much tied to services and programs because we need these programs to live. examples of this are Centers for Independent Living (CILs), a place where disabled people can go and get peer support,information about community living, advocacy, etc. is federally funded. The purpose is to be an advocacy center but when they’re cutting your budget every year, what is it actually saying (and how much radical advocacy can you REALLY do?) There are tons of fabulous CILs but a lot of them are bureaucratic agencies run by nondisabled people (which is everything a CIL is NOT supposed to be.)

I guess a lot of this started because one of the first lenses of disability was the charity model and disability was addressed by non-profits. It’s hard to get away from that… plus the idea that disabled people share commonalities and should organize is still a radical notion itself because most people [including disabled people who internalize ableism] see disability as something that just “happens” to people, a burden to live with.

but yes, i can definitely hear you about being a “radical weirdo with interesting ideas” as people still don’t see disability pride, identity, and culture as even a priority but how can you organize if people are ashamed of themselves? how can you advocate if you are not connected to what you do? what really fuels your fire? that’s a big aspect of the service-oriented part of our community.

if this doesn’t sound like it makes sense, it’s because i hate these little comment boxes! i can’t see the words i write, argh.