You’re not fucking cripple punk if you are are gonna be ableist towards severely disabled people. Take those stickers off your cane if you can’t treat powerchair users with speech issues and carers like we’re fucking human beings.
In fact in general if you’re going to treat severely disabled people and people with intellectual disabilities or higher support needs like shit then stay the fuck away from disability “activism” or “advocacy”.
(hey op, hope you’re OK with me reblogging with commentary.)
so i’ve noticed that people are tagging this post with things like, “internalised ableism isn’t cool.” y'all have got the spirit, but wrong word. this post isn’t about internalised ableism.
internalised ableism = i feel like a burden on other people, i’m not in enough pain to need this mobility aid, i should just do XYZ even though it causes me pain, i’m faking, etc. it’s a product of other people’s treatment of you, to the point that you have to unlearn the shit that’s said to you because you start believing it.
being a dick to other disabled people is just ableism. the non-internalised kind.
if you don’t use a mobility aid, there is nothing internalised about your ableism towards to people who do. if you are sighted and hearing, you being ableist to someone who is blind or d/Deaf is not ‘internalised’.
it didn’t feel very internalised when my cane-using acquaintance told me, a wheelchair user, that they’d rather die than be a wheelchair user because of how embarrassing that would be.
i care about this now especially because there’s a trend of disabled activists who will catch themselves doing this and say “sorry, i’m working on my internalised ableism.” this implies they’re just as hurt by their actions as the actual victim, and they absolve themselves of any responsibility by blaming Ableist Society As A Whole for the way they, an individual, just mistreated someone else. sure, society plays a pretty important role in how we all think of disability, but pretending that nothing you say or do can be outright ableist because you’re also disabled is incredibly irresponsible.
you do not get to be a cripple punk and make fun of people who drool, or call people disgusting when they’re unable to meet your hygiene standards. you don’t get to be an ass to people who live with their parents and/or carers, who take certain medications, who can’t leave their homes, or communicate with words, or who need round-the-clock care. and you certainly don’t get to write it off as internalised ableism.