disability and social justice/dei

[0bleak]

How come disability _rarely_, _if ever_, gets mentioned in the modern social justice/dei movement?
Compared to virtually EVERY other demographic, depending on your disability / constellation of disabilities / comorbidities you might have a MUCH harder time than any other demographic taken on its own.
One theory I have for why disability gets nowhere even a tiny bit NEAR the amount of attention in the current social justice/DEI movement is that it is something than can affect men - or even worse, cishet white men!
The whole movement might collapse in on itself when it realizes that things are more complicated than just race/sex/gender - or things that are based mostly on visual appearances.
I guess empathy can only go so far.

"And on the more insulting end, you would get, “Oh, we’re really busy with race and gender, we don’t have time for disability.”

The Inevitable Foundation: No DEI without Disability - ABILITY Magazine

“There is no diversity, equity & inclusion without disability” a phrase now illuminated across multiple city billboards. ABILITY Magazine’s George Kaplan sits down with the masterminds behind the bright and bold ad campaign and co-founders of the Inevitable Foundation, Richie Siegel and Marisa...

abilitymagazine.com

Take, for example, this Resident Advisor page about diversity and inclusion:

Resident Advisor ⟋ RA

ra.co

A lot of talk about race and gender, but disability only gets mentioned ONCE - and it's not even something they wrote, but is only even there because they quote the UK Equality Act 2010.

 

[version]

The generous answer would be because there are more people the stuff about race and gender applies to than the stuff about disability.

 

[luka]

version hates disableds

 

[droid]

it is absolutely true that disability is a blind spot for some people on the left, the ongoing covid clusterfuck is amble evidence of that.

But, ive been on DEI committees. I cant speak for the UK, but here, in my field at least, disability is constantly highlighted, its usually the core concern in fact.

 

[droid]

And clearly accommodations for the disabled are not gonna be a prime concern of the clubbing community, lol, what a terrible example to pick.

 

[luka]

i think versions attitude towards them is appaling

 

[version]

RA have started asking people who do a mix for them to talk about a political cause that's important to them. Awful stuff. They ask them general questions and questions about the mix then hit them with "What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?". Luke calls them Resident Evil.

 

[0bleak]

They're not talking about clubbing accomodations on the RA page, Droid, so I don't see how it's a terrible example to pick especially when RA is known to the wider electronic music community to be the most about social justice/dei than any other electronic music platform.

 

[Murphy]

massively complex issues

got my research bones on psych condition cohorts, long term addiction among hiv demographics and access to care

labyrinthine systems but deliberately so, anything to reduce the £ burden on local/central govt

duty of care, employment rights, performative medicalisation systems which are just an HR extension, housing, transport, PIP, meds and pharma, property and building access, charity sector crumbling, funding cuts, social care soaking up agency, it’s barely scratching the surface

Britain is a fuckin disgrace on this front, our council is bankrupt as an example so everything is cut

any law is only as solid as the funding it takes to underpin such statutes, @thirdform might drop some knowledge about accessing buildings, law and visual impairment and @craner knows from c.a.b how integrating local services maps onto policy/law

intriguing topic from diverse angles, hope Dissensus engages

 

[droid]

They're not talking about clubbing accomodations on the RA page, Droid, so I don't see how it's a terrible example to pick especially when RA is known to the wider electronic music community to be the most about social justice/dei than any other electronic music platform.

It's still, essentially an offshoot of clubbing, obsessed with image, appearance, fashion. When was the last time you saw a wheelchair in a nightclub?

In the real world DEI is about giving people equal access to essential services; food, education, healthcare, public facilities, and increasing representation and social inclusion. there is clearly a long way to go in many areas, but here at least there is good legislative underpinning, and anyone I know who's heavily involved in DEI is very aware of disability issues.

 

[Murphy]

Edit

Eg we have clients who qualify for PIP but fuck the application off because it’s degrading detailing eg amputations, incontinence, more young people

things are especially bleak if you’re renting or claiming hb and you get a 40% increase leaving acute lurch for next abode

what you see in Philadelphia now could be here in 5 years and disabled always disproportionately affected by homelessness

 

[0bleak]

It's still, essentially an offshoot of clubbing, obsessed with image, appearance, fashion. When was the last time you saw a wheelchair in a nightclub?

In the real world DEI is about giving people equal access to essential services; food, education, healthcare, public facilities, and increasing representation and social inclusion. there is clearly a long way to go in many areas, but here at least there is good legislative underpinning, and anyone I know who's heavily involved in DEI is very aware of disability issues.

There are also intellectual disabilities. So the chances might be high that people have often seen disabled people in a club without even knowing it - which goes back to my point about how the current social justice/dei seems to be focused on mostly what people can see about people.
Or that article where I quoted i my first post with people's experiences where they were told things like "And on the more insulting end, you would get, “Oh, we’re really busy with race and gender, we don’t have time for disability.”

 

[0bleak]

I think modern social justice/DEI has failed.

What convinced me of that is that, a few weeks ago, I was watching Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" and I posted the following on Facebook "You know things are out of control when someone mentions that the death gap between men and women has continued to increase with men dying on average 6 years before women, and the audience LOUDLY cheers as if that's a good thing, and no one bats an eye."

social justice/DEI = visceral hatred of men?

If that wasn't bad enough, one of my female friends commented "How is that a bad thing? Have you met men?" to which she received several likes.

Likes from people that have husbands or children that are men!

I'm like, really?!

You're happy that they're continuing to die earlier and earlier than women?! You want that to happen to your husband or child?

I've also experienced things where a woman is verbally attacking me like I'm a terrible human for something that isn't even a minor faux pas, but then finds out that I'm intellectually disabled and then suddenly does such a complete 180 that your head would spin!

 

[version]

It's still, essentially an offshoot of clubbing, obsessed with image, appearance, fashion. When was the last time you saw a wheelchair in a nightclub?

They'd have to do something material and alter the clubs to include some disabled people. They can just gesture at other groups on flyers and social media without having to spend more money than usual and still get credit for being progressive.

 

[Clinamenic]

@malelesbian

 

[Clinamenic]

@CorpseysEvilTwin

 

[Murphy]

I think modern social justice/DEI has failed.

What convinced me of that is that, a few weeks ago, I was watching Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" and I posted the following on Facebook "You know things are out of control when someone mentions that the death gap between men and women has continued to increase with men dying on average 6 years before women, and the audience LOUDLY cheers as if that's a good thing, and no one bats an eye."

social justice/DEI = visceral hatred of men?

If that wasn't bad enough, one of my female friends commented "How is that a bad thing? Have you met men?" to which she received several likes.

Likes from people that have husbands or children that are men!

I'm like, really?!

You're happy that they're continuing to die earlier and earlier than women?! You want that to happen to your husband or child?

I've also experienced things where a woman is verbally attacking me like I'm a terrible human for something that isn't even a minor faux pas, but then finds out that I'm intellectually disabled and then suddenly does such a complete 180 that your head would spin!

snl is painful, you can’t apply it as a barometer of ethics because it’s junk to begin with

 

[droid]

They'd have to do something material and alter the clubs to include some disabled people. They can just gesture at other groups on flyers and social media without having to spend more money than usual and still get credit for being progressive.

Precisely.

But that is also true about intellectual disability, I mean FFS, there was that minor scandal a while back about someone being humiliated online just cos they were old and dancing in a club.

 

[chava]

Take, for example, this Resident Advisor page about diversity and inclusion:

Resident Advisor ⟋ RA

ra.co

Thank you for reminding me not ever to check that site again.

Otherwise, good post. Disability as a cause has been completely eclipse in the last decades by all the other (_mostly__) completely irrelevant stuff

 

[0bleak]

Precisely.

But that is also true about intellectual disability, I mean FFS, there was that minor scandal a while back about someone being humiliated online just cos they were old and dancing in a club.

Do you think all intellectual disabilities are visibly apparent to most people in some way?