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On Sun, 18 Jul 1999, Andrew Azzopardi wrote:
> Some more questions that come to mind on the issue I have put to the list
> members;
>
> 1. How Marxist do we need to be to be able to comprehend and conceptualize
> disability as seen by the Dis. movement?
I am not Marxist per se, but take a more conflict theory/weberian approach
that informs my socialist feminism- so its eclectic and not dogmatic in
my view. I do not see the social model of disability or how it is
conceptualized by the disability movement as unified or universal-in fact
there are multiple interpretations within and betweeen different aspects
of the movement. I have met as many ( and seen on this list) right wing as
left wing interpretations. I also see in the U S many republicans
supporting disability rights and many against them. Many Democrats
supporting and many against. So politically, I thinkit takes alotof
reading, going to conferences, meeting people,and living with disability (
as a parent, partner or self) to understand what you say comprehend
disability. And I do not think that everyone in the disability movement
has reached what Paulo Freire calls consienciazation ( sorry for spelling)
> 2. Why has society in most part of the world interpreted Marxism as
> oppressive and have rejected it to capitalist politics?
I CANNOT ANSWER this and am not sure its true but I sort of side with
David Pfeffer on the use of the word Society - does it really exist as a
whole? or is it not a bunch of individuals, and if you want to know if
most individuals have interpreted Marxism as oppressive I de like to see
the survey or research on that one too.
> 3. How much do people with learning disabilities understand the
> politicization of the disability issues?
>
My daughter is 17 and is both Deaf and has learning differences (
disabilities, aka difficulties) and she has often complained about racist
comments ( she is Black) and about how HEARING people are stupid because
they oppress Deaf people ( her words) and she has some sense of sexism
and the differences between propertied people (have big houses and cars)
and us ( no car subsidized housing, relatively low income). Understaning
the politicization of the disability issues is in part measured by how
much impact it has on you- recently we moved her from the Deaf school to
the local hearing high school because the Deaf school REFUSED to allow her
to study Englishor Math as they had determined she would never graduate
and so it would be a wasted. This was a very grounded explanation to her
that the people with POWER over her decided that she was not worthy of
their efforts. But in general, ananswer to your question would be I
don't know. You would need to ask people with learning differences ( and
other people with disabilities) about their level of understanding because
the conference goers, writers, authors, and debaters are but a minority of
our rather large population.
I think its good questions andrew.
TANIS > Good thinking, > > Andrew Azzopardi >
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