Last month I had the opportunity to attend one of the first Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition (DPOCC) town hall meetings. This coalition was founded in 2018 by self-advocates Timotheus “T.J. Gordon, Jr. and Jae Jin Pak. Gordon and Pak created the coalition in hopes of unifying disabled, autistic, Deaf, and neurodivergent people of color and encouraging them to have pride in being disabled people of color and develop their advocacy skills. The coalition’s mission statement includes:
“We, the Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition (Chicagoland DPOCC), are a group founded by, centered around, and run by disabled, Deaf, autistic, and neurodivergent people of color in the Chicagoland area.” The organization promotes disability justice, education around disability acceptance and accessibility, and fosters a safe space for disabled people of color to advocate and discover their disability pride. Allies, like myself, are welcome to participate and engage in DPOCC, as long as they uphold the three-point mission statement and understand that the organization centers around issues and topics related to disabled people of color.
During this meeting, DPOCC founders, including T.J. and Jae Jin, and 2 other disabled people of color, and 2 allies, including myself, spent time discussing the barriers disabled people of color face. Much of the conversation was on the premise that the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and disability are essential to understanding and addressing these barriers. Additionally, self-advocates emphasized the importance of context and environment. For example, Lawndale, which is a predominately African American and Latinx community in Chicago, where 93% of its families live below the poverty line, is a highly under resourced and marginalized community that embodies even greater challenges for disabled individuals. People of color with disabilities experience the compound effect of race and ethnicity and disability with an increased poverty rate, plus the many additional barriers to climbing out of poverty. Limited job opportunities systemically related to race and disability create even greater challenges for disabled people in Lawndale.
The HHS Advisory Committee on Minority Health has described living as a member of racial or ethnic minority group with a disability as a “double burden” due to the added sociopolitical challenges encountered. Much of my clinical work throughout the past four years of training has been focused on serving children, adolescents and families within Lawndale who have this “double burden”. As an ally, I walk away from my clinical interactions, and from meetings like the one at DPOCC, feeling challenged to use my work, skills, and privilege to also “promote disability justice, education around disability acceptance, and foster a safe space for disabled people of color,” as stated by DPOCC’s mission statement. One way I think this is possible is by applying Bryan Stevenson’s four rules for achieving peace and justice:
1. Stay close to the people you are trying to help. It can be easy for us to stay in our academic meetings, didactics, and classrooms, but I believe to truly be an ally is to be engaging with and in the communities we are allies for. How can we advocate for issues we are too far away to even see?
2. Change the narrative. While this is thankfully changing, much of society has a negative narrative about both people of color and people with disabilities. To be an ally and to impact change, we must point to a different narrative, a truer narrative of disabled people of color.
3. Stay hopeful. This is likely my favorite rule. Bryan Stevenson often states, “injustice prevails where hopelessness persists.” As allies, we must be people of hope toward change to effectively bring justice. First, we must find what is it that gives us hope. While I appreciate the HHS Advisory Committee on Minority Health’s description of the intersectionality of being a member of a racial minority group with a disability as a “double burden,” I want to argue that allies can work at this intersection and offer hope, through our work, which should ultimately “promote disability justice, education around disability acceptance, and foster a safe space for disabled people of color,
4. Do things that are uncomfortable and inconvenient. To be an ally, we must get uncomfortable, be willing to increase self-awareness and engage in self-criticism to continue to grow. If we continue to sit in spaces where everyone agrees with us and has the same exact views, how will we grow? As an ally, attend a DPOCC event, and listen to the voices of disabled people of color and find ways that your work can contribute towards their mission!
Image description: The image is the Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition logo with four distinct areas. The upper left corner is the Chicago flag, which consists of two blue horizontal stripes or bars on a field of white, each stripe one-sixth the height of the full flag, and placed slightly less than one-sixth of the way from the top and bottom. Between the two blue stripes are four red, six-pointed stars arranged in a horizontal row. The upper right corner includes 8 different symbols that signify accessibility, such as the CC for closed captioning. The lower left corner is an image of a disabled individual of color wheelchair user in the street with other individuals who are walking beside them. The lower right corner is the UIC symbol which is a closed circle with the letters, “UIC” bolded on the inside of the circle and above the circle are the words “Disability and Human Development” bolded in black and the words, “College of Applied Sciences” bolded in gray.
taken from: https://chicagolanddpocc.wordpress.com
