Poverty and Disablism

by Leigh Graham

categories: Activism, Culture of Poverty, Federal, Government, Health & Healthcare, Inequality, Social Programs

Published May 01, 2009 @ 11:35AM PT

Hey all, it's BADD! Click the logo on the left to visit the BADD homepage at Diary of a Goldfish and read all the BADD posts as they come rolling in.

I'm attempting to be an ally to my Autism colleague Dora Raymaker and other blog friends by participating in Blogging Against Disablism Day.

Disablism, or ablism, as it's known in the US, is prejudice towards people with disabilities.  Like racism or sexism, it can be individual or institutional (why isn't every single place we traverse handicap-accessible??).  In the US and worldwide, people living with disabilities are overrepresented among the poor.

One only need read the regular comments of our fabulous reader Danetta to understand how closely being disabled - or differently abled - is to falling into poverty and getting stuck there.  To that end, our fabled notion of "bootstraps" can be unintentionally discriminatory.  I don't know about you, but what comes to mind for me with that phrase is an able-bodied man tugging on his boots and then heading outside to earn a day's wages!  So hearty!  So feisty!  So independent!

We make it extremely difficult for those living with mental illness or developmental or physical differences to be as independent as that notion conjures.  I personally feel particularly passionate about the issue of mental health.  My mom is a mental health practitioner for 2 decades now, and is often repeating that we need to think of mental illness like we would diabetes, absent stigma and shame and meager resources (though this assumes we don't highlight diabetes in our attempts to shame overweight people for their size).  She's worked in public and private hospital settings, of late focusing on getting people out of institutional environments and into homes and/or community settings.  In my neighborhood, a group home often comes under fire from homeowners who dislike its presence on our blocks.  I seconded a participant on a neighborhood listserv who pushed back, saying that it's not up to us to restrict the rights of others to live in our neighborhood and that the diversity is welcome.  No surprise, this is the same homeowner's association who rails against affordable housing plans, fullstop, without consideration for its overall necessity and potential to benefit the neighborhood with tenants who are not local college students.  (We live in the shadows of Boston College, and a stone's throw from Harvard and BU.)

Finally, I come from what my aunt describes, herself include, as a "long line of drunks and nuts."  There's something comforting in that, an empathetic ear when I need one, and an accompanying lack of judgment.  Poverty and disability are present here, but mostly what I find when I'm with my relatives is a lot of love, warmth, togetherness, irreverent perseverence - and a hell of a lot of intimate knowledge of the modest strengths and major limitations of our social safety net.