|
by Leroy Moore
There are always two sides of every story but many
the public only gets to hear or see only one side.
On July 26th the Bay Area and the rest of this country
will be celebrating the tenth birthday of the Americans
with Disabilities Act, ADA, of 1990, what disabled
Americans call Independence Day. But we have to
realize that there are two sides of this celebration and
of the disability rights movement.
Many times poor, homeless, youth, people of color
and immigrants with disabilities aren't given the
opportunity to express themselves during the ADA
birthday or any other time for that matter. This is why
Disability Rights Advocates of Minorities
Organization, DAMO in collaboration with many Bay
Area grassroots organizations, will be sponsoring: The
Other Side Rally at City Hall Plaza in San Francisco on
July 26th at 12pm. The goal is to present the other side
of the tenth birthday of the ADA and the disabled
rights movement.
As a Black disabled man, Independence Day is still far
away and I see no reason to celebrate! On July 26, 1990
President Bush turned to the four White, upper class
activists with disabilities near him and proclaimed, let the
shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down!
However for people of color, homeless, poor and
immigrants with disabilities the wall of exclusion is still
up in our communities, disabled leadership positions and
in the history behind the ADA. Lately this wall of
exclusion has turn deadly. For example, the San
Francisco Coaltion on Homelessness said that they have
witnessed more disabled people living on the streets
lately. From Margaret L. Mitchell to Ya Fang Li, disabled
people of color are victims of police brutality. Now
people with mental illness will experience more negative
force if Assembly Bill 1800, (i.e.,forced treatment)
passes in California.
Even the latest report from the National Council on
Disability, NCOD, reads that disabled people of color still
have the highest unemployment rate, this is why
traditional Black organizations are now working with the
NCOD. We individuals with disabilities are suppose to
leave our harsh reality that surrounds us everyday to
celebrate a piece of paper, the ADA, that hasn't touched
many in our community! I say lets come together and
voice our side of the story and find our own solutions.
We can't wait another ten years!
EMERGENCY!
EMERGENCY!
There is an emergency in our society that has been
ignored for too long. It certainly affects one of the
fastest growing sectors in this country and probably
worldwide. The lack of attention to disabled women of
color presents a dire emergency. In addition, disabled
women of color are the latest victims of institutional
racism. They have been under attack from law
enforcement throughout the country, as well as the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Furthermore,
the status of disabled women of color is not included
in conferences on women and the disabled when
framing issues for media consumption.
Last year, I wrote an article on the brutality against
disabled people of color. During my research, I had
noticed that many of the cases involving brutality were
perpetrated on disabled women of color. In 1999, a
disabled elderly Asian woman filed a complaint against
an officer of the San Francisco Police Department. The
complaint stated that the policeman had hurt her while
she was collecting bottles for recycling near 3COM
Park. She reported that she suffered bruises on her
knees and hands.
We can’t forget the horrible death of Margaret L.
Mitchell, a black, homeless woman with mental
illness. Ms. Mitchell had been shot to death by a
LAPD officer because she had a foot-long
screwdriver.
Although violence and disabled women of color have
been highlighted in the news lately, conferences on
women have not included disabled women.
A friend of mine attended the San Francisco Women’s
Summit at City Hall this year. Idell Wilson, an
African-American woman and advocate for people
with invisible disabilities, told me that no one talked
about women with disabilities. Idell Wilson offered to
work with the organizers of the summit by doing
outreach to the disabled community. She also offered
to make their language disability-friendly. The
coordinator of the summit refused her help.
According to a statistical report drawn from the Census
Bureau data on black and Hispanic adults with
disabilities, "Women face higher unemployment rates
and lower educational attainment than non-disabled
women of color and their white disabled peers." An
example of this can be extracted from the 1998
Conference on Minorities with Disabilities. It was
reported that disabled African-American women had a
98% unemployment rate. Although statistics on
disabled people are becoming easier to receive,
statistics on disabled Asians and Pacific Islanders do
not exist. The 1996 data from the United States
Census Bureau reported about 79% of the 14.2 million
Asians-Americans and Pacific Islanders with severe
disabilities were jobless. Furthermore, the United
States has a long and well-documented history of
discouraging immigration and an equally documented
history of failure to grant citizenship to people with
disabilities. Women and those from certain racial and
ethnic communities have been particularly burdened by
these past practices. The historical pattern of
discouraging and actively restricting the immigration
and citizenship of people with disabilities has
continued on into the 1990s and today through a more
indirect, yet equally exclusionary practice of denying
immigrants with disabilities their right to reasonable
accommodations in the naturalization process.
I bring this up because lately disabled immigrate
women have lived this reality. For example in July of
1997 the San Francisco Independent had an article
entitled WAITING GAME. It reported on how a
disabled young lady’s sister try to get her sister
citizenship but the INS said that because of her
disability it was difficult to get a satisfactory
fingerprint sample. And recently the Asian Week had
an article entitled Disabled Women Sues for
Citizenship. Officials said Vijai Rajan was denied
citizenship because her inability to comprehend the
oath of allegiance due to medical certified condition,
according to INS documents. The INS bypassed that
Rajan lived in the United States since she was four
moths old. She is now 18 years old. She has brought a
lawsuit against the INS.
The above cases are only scratching the surface when
it comes to the lives and struggles of disabled women
of color. What is sad and shocking is that conference
leader; summit coordinators, feminists, authors etc.
nine times out of ten have no clue what’s happening to
their disabled sisters of color. Did the Million Women
March in ’99 include issues and leaders that represent
disabled women of color? Do you understand we have
an emergency on our hands! My disabled sisters of
color its time to take a stand!
| 
