Thank you for openeing a couple of windows or so to let the breeze and sun
shine. Again there seem to be more questions than answers:
Who and what is this movement representative of? Well educated academics of
all races/religeons?
if it is to be representative, who is going to speak for the undernourished,
under educated? Who will represent the large numers of people with
intellectuall disabilities, who can not speak up for themselves? Who is
representing unpaid carers who also have enormous emotional equity?
Can the 'movement' be all inclusive? If not, may be we should be honest,
accountable, transparent (I know mostt of the buzz words current), do a
reality check, and define the limitations, and important stop pretending.
Have a good time, rgds John
(writing this I have a decided sense of deja vue)
----- Original Message -----
From: carlos drazen <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 12:52 AM
Subject: Re: diversity on campus
> The question Dr. Hirsch and others have asked is:
>
> Has anyone heard of a social movement for change that didn't have an
> educational
> component ?
>
> My answer is yes--status movements for "change," (such as Temperance,
Birth
> Control and Women's Rights, in the 19th century) tended to push for change
> that -preserved the status quo (Gusfield, Symbolic Crusades, 1986). In
> these cases, there was less an educational component because the status
> groups calling for change knew what they wanted and knew who they wanted
to
> exclude. I have read and watched all of the emails on this topic and have
> yet to hear anyone point out what you all know is true. That when you say
> you want diversity at universities to include people with disabilities,
and
> that you want the SDS to send speakers around to talk about disabilities,
> you actually mean white persons with disabilities and their issues. Since
> there are few (if any) people of color with disabilities in SDS, I don't
> see any issues of say, poverty and disability, the double impact of
> disability and minority status, or just plain cultural issues of
> disability and minorities. It puts me in mind of the early women's
movement
> when women said they wanted to be treated as "equals," but their issues
had
> nothing to do with minority women--did they want to be treated as equals.
.
> .or treated like white men? Look around you at the "history of people
with
> disability" Where are the minority issues that our history is full of.
> Which of you scholars are writing about disability in an all inclusive
> manner--such as to include people like me, a black woman who has spent her
> life in a wheelchair ? Are you even aware of the issues of my group?
>
> The early temperance movement was started by the elite upper middle class
> when they felt that (due to a large amount of poor and eastern European
> immigrants) they were losing control. Temperance was their way of gaining
> that control back. "Status concepts lead us to focus upon such elements
of
> values, beliefs, consumption habits and the cultural items differentiating
> non class groups from each other." (David Reisman, The Lonley Crowd, Yale
> University Press, 1950 pp31-36) By using temperance as a sign of being
in
> the elite class, this group was able to maintain their status by
> identifying all who were not in their class as lower and deserving less
> respect.
> I bring all of this up because, as I mentioned earlier, I see a great many
> parallels between the symbolic crusades of the 19th century and the
> Disability Cultural movement of today. This seems to be a status struggle
> for an elite group of persons with disabilities (white, well educated)
> to--in the midst of the Diversity movement--acquire the status of their
> able-bodied white counterparts. This does not seem to be about equal
> rights but about getting the same rights as other elite white persons have
> in this society. So my questions are: when you say that diversity
programs
> need to include issues and persons with disabilities, what issues and
> persons are you meaning? when you say you should send speakers from SDS
> around to talk about disability at these campuses, how diverse will your
> speakers be and how diverse will your issues be? Where are the disabled
> people of color in the Disability Cultural Movement? Where are the
> Disabled Speakers of Color in your movement? And finally in quoting a
> saying you all seem so fond of ,"Nothing about us without us," what "us"
> are you meaning? I ask these questions because I think that you may need
> to answer them before you begin "educating" people on disability.
> This is not a complaint or a flame to this list and I don't mean to
> insult but to perhaps get us thinking about what we mean when we say
> Disability Studies. And --more important--what groups we leave out when
we
> do Disability Studies. From my perspective, you seem to have used the
> minority studies model to create it and then you did away with any
minority
> perspective--as if being disabled is the only minority that's important.
> Now you accuse Diversity Programs at universities of doing the same thing
> that you seem to have done, which is to forget the struggles and issues of
> a whole group of people with disabilities. W.E.B. DuBoise said, "The
> foremost issue that needs to be resolved in the 20th Century will be that
> of race (The Souls of Black Folks, Duboise 1941).
> Call it Disability Studies, Disability Culture, whatever, you will still
> need to acknowledge and resolve the issue of race within within your group
> if you are to gain any credibility with other status groups in this
> society. Those of us in the "minority people with disabilities" group
> will be around. . .watching. . .to keep you honest.
> Carlos Clarke Drazen
> UIC Athletics/Department of Disability and Human Development
> 1640 West roosevelt RD m/c 626
> 312/413-7520 v 312/413-1326 FAX
> [log in to unmask]
> I am not a crook! --Richard Nixon
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