The human mind must categorize the objects it comes into contact with, thus developing expectations about this kind of object should it be encountered again. Arguably, this is the essence of any kind of learning we do as human beings. We could not function in the world if we could not recognize types of things and then act accordingly. Some of our categories and expectations were learned at a very young age, like not to touch a hot stove. It is useful to sometimes categorize people as well as objects and develop expectations of interaction with them. A very basic example would be the expectation that a member of the category “police officer” will pull you over for speeding.
Of course, this process of categorization and expectation can also be quite harmful when someone bases their expectations on flawed information about the thing they are categorizing. If someone’s only knowledge of polar bears came from Coca Cola ads, they would be in for some serious consequences if they jumped into a zoo exhibit in the hope of getting a cuddle. Of course, in this case, the only consequence experienced by the polar bear is that he gets an exotic lunch. Categories of THINGS are generally not harmed by flawed information that leads to false expectations. The reverse is true when folks develop flawed expectations about entire categories of PEOPLE because the members of that category are typically the ones that are harmed by individualized and institutionalized bigotry. The flawed categorization and expectation of people is perhaps even the definition of prejudice.
Just as Coca Cola commercials feed us false images of polar bears, many different cultural sources represent people with disabilities in inaccurate and harmful ways. People with dwarfism are often portrayed as comical, infantile, or even malicious. My friend Gary over at the blog Common Ground wrote a recent piece describing a situation where a modeling agency contacted the support/advocacy group Little People of America (LPA) to try and recruit 50 people with dwarfism to dress up as the character Chuckie from the Child’s Play film series and run around Manhattan to promote a new DVD release. It never occurred to this modeling agency rep that LPA was something more than a “talent pool” for her exploitation. This is one of many expressions of people’s expectations about dwarfism that have been tainted by bad information about us as a category of people.
Such mistakes in categorization and expectation are everyday occurrences in the lives of people with disabilities and their affects can range from annoying to tragic. Last week, I had just left the building I live in and was headed across campus for a meeting when a man on a bicycle stopped and asked if I was OK or if I needed any help. After checking to make sure that my fly was zipped and that I hadn’t dropped all of the papers out of my notebook, I told him that I was doing just fine. I don’t think I looked any more confused than usual, but this gentleman had some bad information about the category of person with disability and assumed that I must need help, just by virtue of the fact that I was traveling across campus in my power chair alone on a Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps he assumed I had wandered away from my caretakers at the nursing home. Joking aside, these kinds of expectations of dependence and helplessness are exactly what keep people with disabilities from being full members of society. The idea that our category is defined as helpless in the minds of the public places us in a subordinate role in society. We are not the category of person that is a business person or a teacher or a politician or a husband or an engineer or a mother or… a grad student on the way to a meeting with the prof he is TAing for this term.
Sometimes, such expectations are self fulfilling prophecies when a system is set up according to those expectations. For example, last week, I arrived to teach the afternoon discussion sections of the class I am TAing, only to find that the only way to reach the front of the lecture hall was down a flight of stairs. There were accessible seats in the back for students, but the expectation was not that the teacher would have a mobility disability. This case shows how the physically built environment itself can express the ignorant construction of categories and flawed expectations, making it much harder for members of that category to get away from those expectations. Because of the way the room was built, it was impossible for me to take on the traditional perch of the teacher. Such expectations are fulfilled every time a person with a disability is forced into a nursing home because their Medicaid refuses to pay for community attendant support or in the fact that Michigan Rehab Services will pay for someone’s re-training after they acquire a disability, as long as that re-training doesn’t include the pursuit of a college degree. It is expected that people with disabilities would be segregated in nursing homes or incapable of going to college, and so the systems are set up according to that expectation.
How do we resist these flawed category definitions and change people’s expectations of us? Employment law or Medicaid reform can only do so much. We need to redefine some categories if the apparatus of ableism is going to come tumbling down.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
Hey Joe,
First off, good to see you in the blog world. I have to say that yours is far more intelligent than mine but I guess that’s the difference between a philosopher and a poli-sci major (ha!).
I wish I had anything to lend to the discussion, but all I can really say is that I’m glad to see you blogging about this because it’s clearly something that people are not well-enough informed about, as your examples obviously demonstrated.
I hope all’s well in Michigan, shoot me an email if you’re ever back around Hartford.
Brent
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 am
Joe,
Your articles on the blog are lyrical narratives. They are heartbreaking, divine and so in touch with love. I am so impressed at your patience, your passion, and your articulation of suffering and life.
To your credit, you cannot mingle the prejudice against you with your feelings for the outside world, and by virtue of this patience, the time you give to the more privileged, who may try to be sensitive, but, accordingly, have no idea of your hardship, comes of a place of such ineffable sensitivity and devotion as makes humanity an evolving being. Please write more, I am adding you to my blog roll on fromwithinwithout.blogspot.com and I wish you all my best.
Ever humbled,
Alex
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:11 am
Howdy, dude. Glad to see you take up this format - I’ve enjoyed reading your diatribes before, but I think the external blog style works much better for you!
It’s almost impossible to stop the human mind from categorizing everything - the challenge is to force them to re-think the categories. This, on the other hand, I have no idea how to do. Most people don’t even think about rethinking certain categories, as I can attest to. I’m a relatively enlightened progressive type, who has never felt the need to have “token” friends of any kind, but who has been friends (and sometimes more) to many people who were very different than me. My kids don’t have the same skin color as me, in one of the more drastic examples.
However, I’d never really considered what it was like to deal with dwarfism, or with almost any disability, until my daughter was born with achondroplasia. My wife has worked in disability services for many years, first with the ARC in Bakersfield, then with Kern Regional Center which is part of the California Department of Developmental Services, and now with Easter Seals. I’ve come and helped out with different volunteer activities in the past, but that’s been the extent of my involvement, and of the amount of thought I’d put into it.
Now, I notice accessibility issues almost on a daily basis. I’m amazed by the number of things I’d just passed by over the years. The Detroit conference really helped me understand that, with so many attendees being either confined to or assisted by a wheeled chair of one sort or another.
I will say that some places do a better job of that - Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, a country nightclub I used to work at, had a wheelchair elevator for access to the stage in case any performers needed the access. The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, where I spent a few days working last week, had an elevator for access to the back of the audience seating, as well as a hallway that linked the lobby to the front of the audience seating and to the stage. On the other hand, the restrooms at the Anaheim Hilton outside the Pacific Ballroom, while wide enough to admit most wheel or power chairs, did not have power assist and were nearly impossible for anyone with a chair to open.
I certainly don’t have a magic feather to fix the problem of perception - and Verne Troyer (bless him for having a well paying job) really isn’t helping with his oscar tribute in the Love Guru or his fantastic secret sex tape. On the other hand, the way the professions list compiled by Fred Short on both the Dwarfism and the POLP yahoo lists keeps growing, there are more examples of disability not preventing professionalism every day. The best I can hope for is that people start to notice the positive models and understand that just as there are good white people and stupid white people, circus freaks and nursing home residents don’t represent the professional pinnacle for people with disabilities.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Very well said!!! Your blog is definitely more intelligent than mine as well, but that’s not surprising since you are a Philosopher and I am a Nursing student. ; )
Mine just started out as a way to pass the time, but will soon become evidence of my journey into the Nursing school world! Only a few more pre-recs, and a letter of my acceptance, then I am off to experience the joys of burying my face in textbooks for the next 2 + years! Wish me Luck!
I have always enjoyed reading your posts before, but I have to agree with Mike, this style works much better for you! Keep it up!
As for the disability and accessibility issues, I wish there was more we could do! While I have never experienced being in a wheelchair for any length of time, and I do not have any form of disability that prohibits me from accessing most public areas, I do have friends and family who it seems to be a constant struggle for. My only issue is that I am short and have a hard time reaching SOME areas in SOME public places. So, I can only sympathize with people who have to deal with this type of frustration on a daily basis.
I would actually like to get more involved with groups that specialize in not only advocating for the disabled community but also that advocate for people with Learning disabilities. I Do know what it’s like living with severe learning disabilities and being viewed as practically helpless because of that!
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
re: chuckie movie and LPA—-
SERIOUSLY?????!
*shakes head in disgust*