Spotlight: Intersectionality – Race and Disability
“Disability narratives are overwhelmingly white. I’ve been told that people don’t know how to market my book because I’m a disabled brown person and people can only think in terms of one box at a time. It doesn’t reflect society.”
“Adults with an impairment from Black or Black British ethnic backgrounds report the highest number of life areas (for example, education or leisure) in which participation is restricted, while adults from white ethnic backgrounds report the lowest.”
“The publishing industry concedes that it has a problem with a lack of diversity. Publishers recognise that writers of colour in particular have been historically excluded.”
“Judging panels, arts organisations dealing with disability, are overwhelmingly white. What gets published doesn’t reflect society.”
People who experience racism who are also disabled will not have the same experience of disability as white disabled people; the intersection of racism and ableism creates additional barriers.
Unfortunately, representation of people of the Global Majority in publishing is poor, and systemic racism in the industry needs to be addressed and dismantled. Words aren’t enough; we need action. We need to provide a safe space, allowing disabled people who experience racism to focus on their art and not have to expend precious energy fighting racism and ableism in the industry. It’s important to bear this in mind when programming events and implementing access; champion disabled people who experience racism and create events where their needs are met, where they are safe, and they are celebrated for their art.
The Spread the Word report ‘Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place’ (2015) looked at people doing events at three major book festivals in the UK and found that just 100 (four per cent) [of authors] could be classified as people who are Black Caribbean, Black African, South Asian or East Asian, and UK based. Discounting the 55 non-authors, the percentage is just two per cent. Hopefully things have improved since, but as the report ‘Rethinking Diversity’ (2020) states, the core audience for publishers is ‘white and middle-class’, and the whole industry is essentially set up to cater for this one audience.
It’s also important to be aware that people of the Global Majority, women, LGBTQIA+ people, migrants and refugees, and working class disabled people will all be facing different barriers where their identities intersect. Building an industry and event provision where they are supported, championed and safe should be our collective goal.
“It’s something that a lot of people of colour will be feeling: ‘Am I just here as a box-ticking exercise?’ Good intentions can be harmful if not properly thought through. That can be a similar experience to how disabled people feel, especially when requirements haven’t been put in place to support them. There’s also that fine line: wanting representation but not wanting to be put high up on a pedestal as if you’re speaking for all BPOC or being the only one in the room.”
“I went to an event, and they booked interpreters without letting me know who they were, and this person used quite racist signs. I told them I didn’t like this interpreter because of that; I said I wanted to work with these specific interpreters, not this person. I really had to fight it. The organisers themselves were white. They didn’t understand this idea that I wanted a person of colour to interpret for me.”
“It really angers me when people ask why initiatives for racial justice are supposedly privileged above disabled people based on their assumptions that those people are able-bodied. But some people don’t want to disclose their disabilities and those Black or brown people, they’re more likely to be disabled. Racism and ableism are intimately intertwined in societal ways. It isn’t race versus disability. ”
Further Reading
For further commentary on this topic, the essay “Disability Justice, Race, and Rethinking Ableism” by Dr Khairani Barokka is available on the Inklusion blog.