"Dr.Phyllis Rubenfeld" wrote:
> Hi,
> I wish we had a Cornell West among us-let's not forget the volumes he's
> written and the numerous times he's been on the lecture circut-the same
> was true for Jimmy Baldwin, etc. I'm referring to people who do less
> than - .Your thoughts?
My thoughts? hmmmm My first thought is, "Yeah, and we'd all love to be Bell Hooks, too
. . . but then reality sets in."
I think, you're comparing apples and oranges. Yes, they're both fruit but there's about
a hundred years more growing time on that tree than there has been on this one.
Translation: Check the Disabled community in about 100 years and you'll have your
"Corn" in the community. However and still, before Cornell West there were others, like
Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. DuBois, etc. who were doing their work just like West is now.
That their work was not getting the notice of most of society was not their fault and
does not make their work any less necessary, any less valid, or any less activism.
After all, one could easily argue that if it were not for those who did their work and,
for the most part, got ignored, there would be no Cornell West, Bell Hooks, Angela
Davis, Toni Morrison, etc. Someone had to lay the foundation for them to follow.
I would suggest that just because society is still stuck in ignore mode with regard to
Disabled people, our civil rights and Disability Studies does not make an activist's
work less important just because it is not the stereotype. Personally, I would not have
been the activist -- the "in your face"/sit-in/protesting variety -- I've been and
definitely not in Disability Studies were it not for activists like: Lennard Davis,
Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Simi Linton . . . or, more specifically, their works. Justin
Dart can lobby Congress all he wants but he's not going to get the next generation
moving -- and that's ok, it's not his work. To each his own and in his own time. . . .
--
Carolyn
check out, "Passing, Invisibility and Other Psychotic Stuff" at
http://www.tell-us-your-story.com/_disc68r/00000003.htm
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