It’s time to build upon disability Justice to create something more radical and sustainable. Neoliberalism will not create the change we want to see in the world.
I owe a lot to disability justice and especially to the black, queer, trans, GNC, and native disabled folks who have done so much of the work and labor, often without the same acknowledgment as white cishet disabled organizers. We have this because of you and I’m eternally grateful of disability justice as my lens to view the world and my organizing.
The first time I encountered the Disability Justice- A Working Draft from Sins Invalid and Patty Berne I was so surprised, yet happy, to find something like this. I never really felt represented as a whole in many…
Capitalism and its constant emphasis on productivity being tied to one’s worth takes a toll on one’s mental health, so self-care is important, but it’s often a privilege communities of color don’t have access to.
Before I researched more into what self-care actually was I thought about my perceptions of it from when I first heard it. I saw white women meditating, going to their yoga classes, and doing aromatherapy whenever I thought of the word self-care. I saw them repeating mantras and daily affirmations to themselves. I saw them work their asses off but also take days off for themselves where they did things they love. I saw a lot of white people in my visions of self-care from my early teenage years. Self-care was quite honestly an abstract concept to me. The perceptions…
This goes out to all non-black people, and yes that includes non-black POC because we are all complicit whether we care to admit it or not.
Too often activism from non-black folks comes from places of guilt and shame. You want your activism to prove something to others. However, most importantly, you want your activism to prove something to yourself. You want to prove you are not the person you once were. You want to prove to yourself you care about black lives now, but all along the way are centering your activism around yourself and your guilt. How much is it worth this way? …
Responding to comments I’ve heard constantly in my life when I revealed my disabilities:
P.S. I have both physical and psychiatric disabilities but I will not disclose them all here. There are many different types of disabilities so I urge you to also look into more of them to get a better glimpse of how vast the disabled community is. Disabled folks also have intersectional identities. I, for example, am Latinx, queer, low-income, and first-gen. These parts of my identity also shape my experience in the disabled community.
“But in the end wouldn’t you rather be more like me?” No, I wouldn’t. If I was more like you I wouldn’t be who I am today. As much I struggle with my disabilities they are a part of me I can’t erase and don’t want to. I can’t imagine who I’d be without them. Who is this me we are speaking of anyways? The me that’s abled-bodied? Why does everyone think able-bodiedness is what everybody wants and what everyone aims for? Why are you what I should aim to be? I wish you were more focused on dismantling ableism…
Ren Aguilara
Méxicanx, Disabled, Non-Binary, Xicanx, Queer. Passionate about disability justice, anti-capitalist work, and dismantling white supremacy.
