Nelson Mandela, the Black Panthers and Disability Rights

RantWoman, you want to get one last #BlackHistoryMonth post out of your system. You want to post a link and just exclaim "Isn't it cool that NBC News has evolved enough to run this story. Why ya gotta go to South Africa first?

RantWoman's knowledge of the nuances of South African society in different eras is defined remembrances when Nelson Mandela died, by South African Quaker leader Dudu Mtshazo, and by Trevor Noah, his Book Born a Crime, and his comedy. Don't forget Paul Simon and LadysmithBlack Mbazo and Diamonds on the Souls of their shoes or one book on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In other words, RantWoman has enough for some metaphors to illustrate her points and other than that much to maintain lifelong learning and endless curiosity about.

Early in Mandela's career, he and others in the African National Congress, ANC did a great deal of diplomacy, reaching out to other African countries at a time when popular culture commentary in the US focused a lot on Cold War terms, much less on countering colonialism or listening to the needs and priorities of different African countries. RantWoman thinks this level of diplomacy is much to be admired. Period. Query: why would RantWoman possibly be bringing up this kind of diplomacy, reaching across boundaries?

Nelson Mandela was still on the US terrorist watch list when he was released after 26 years in prison for opposing the South African regime. The evolution of this image and of US policy is only one part of the recent history of post-apartheid South Africa. Query to justify this digression: what relationships might need to grow or evolve?

Dudu Mtshazo, when she was NPYM Friend in Residence in the late 1990's spoke of 3 categories of people in post-apartheid South Africa, people who went into exile, people who got sent to prison, and people who managed to stay and stay out of prison. Dudu's form of resistance was to violate pass laws so that people of different races could pray together.

Query: Where do readers suppose RantWoman might be going with this?

Now to the article, with special note to look up more about the Black Panthers involvement in the disability rights movement leading up to enacting of the ADA.

NBC News item about Black History and Disability

Queries: do readers suppose that some of the erasures and ableism and closetedness mentioned are unique to people of color? RantWoman does not want to minimize or erase; RantWoman does want readers to consider what needs and emotions might be at work in different situations touched on in the article.

T Vail Palmer memorial March 13, 11am Pacific Time

News of Quaker theologian T Vail Palmer's passing came to rantWoman via Twitter while RantWoman was attending a Ben Lomond center virtual workshop about Quakers and the Internet. News of a memorial has also come to RantWoman via Twitter.

RantWoman is sharing this post both as invitation to remember this weighty Quaker and with an excursion about what is or is not available via the internet and in formats accessible to RantWoman. RantWoman does not at all mean the latter realities to detract from celebration of a life well-lived. RantWoman will post separately to expand on many threads touched on here.

 T Vail Palmer Virtual Memorial Signup Details

T Vail Palmer page at Barclay Press

Amazon link for Face to Face Early Quaker Encounters with the Bible

Not available through Amazon in E-Reader format

So far no one has created a Wikipedia page and doing so is far beyond RantWoman's Light

RantWoman can check:

--Barclay Press directly for an eBook

--NLS BARD for audio recording

--Reading Ally for audio recording

--Bookshare RantWoman unclear about pathway to alternate format.

Or RantWoman may do none of these, read some reviews, see what conversations happen and then figure out something about having someone read aloud.

In Light, faithfulness, memoriam

Isn't Autism Awesome: Newsletter Disability Article of the Month.

RantWoman are you SURE you don't want to rethink that title?

WANT to is one thing. Whether or not it might be a good idea is another. As RantWoman has been known to say, "...not required to like..."

But RantWoman aren't you a little afraid someone will feel attacked or intimidated or squelched?    

1. It doesn't seem like Friend M intimidates or squelches easily, except when RantWoman is trying to have a conversation in email, with help of a clearness committee....

2. RantWoman could be a little bit worried. And RantWoman would find it easier to worry about this Friend feeling squelched if this Friend had not been helping edit a whole bunch of concepts important and relevant to RantWoman out of community conversation for...

3. RantWoman wonders what if anything anyone else has to say about disability in general or this topic in particular.

4. There is a whole ton of terminology here that RantWoman thinks might be unfamiliar to many readers. So...?

Joyfully Autistic

Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge

So many people associate disability with pain, shame, being kept out or held back. And of course, disabilities often include those things—but that’s like saying that being a woman means being objectified: true in some sense, but nowhere near a whole truth. There’s a lot more to disability (and womanhood) than that.

 I have been enjoying reading articles about being joyfully disabled, or brilliantly disabled, or queerly disabled, or revolutionarily disabled. I’d like to share with you all the Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network (AWN), which is a fabulous organization run by autistic people, for autistic people. In paticular, I enjoyed their article, “12 People On What It Felt Like To Discover Autism.”

 Autism is a type of neurodiversity that can be disabling in a world that does not accommodate divergence from one so-called “normal” way of being, thinking, feeling and inter- acting. For many years, it was primarily thought to be something that affected boys and men, but more recently it’s been discovered that autism presents differently in women and girls. Many autistic folks who were assigned female at birth grew up not knowing that they were autistic.

 This article relays twelve people’s responses to figuring out that they were autistic as adults. These two reactions really stood out to me:

 “I finally had an answer: I wasn’t WRONG for being the way I was[,] not a broken version of a “normal” person. I was just different. After discovering, I was able to forgive and go easier on myself. I understand now when not to push myself too hard. It was like putting the key in a lock and opening a door to a world where I made sense.”

 “… being autistic isn’t a disease—it’s a beautifully made puzzle-box. I still struggle with finding a place in the world that suits me, but now I feel less like I’m a badly-made neurotypical and more like a half-open bud with a beautiful neurodiverse future.”

The full article is a five-minute read on the AWN Network website. 12 women on what it feels like to be autistic

 

OKAY RantWoman, and so...?

Do you have to identify as non-binary to be a proud autistic?

Does anyone think they have enough information to answer the question "What does accessibility mean ...?"

But never mind. The answers especially to the second question are much too much for one blog post and RantWoman insists on thinking about more pieces of the picture anyway.

Worried about terminology? How about a whole lot MORE terminology?

Wikipedia article on autism spectrum disorder

By amazing coincidence as a result of RantWoman permitting Twitter to guess at things RantWoman might find valuable, here is an awesome list of tweets and blogs by non-speaking autistics

Thread

See new Tweets

Tweet

Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 13, 2019

I have undertaken to post a piece of writing, or a video or some other artefact every day from a nonspeaking autistic person who uses words or word-linked symbols to communicate.

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Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 6

"So the fundamental question remains - do meltdowns, whether it is due to sensory overstimulation or any other reason, define the entirety of the nonspeaking autistic who is still a living, breathing and thinking individual?" (Cont'd)

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Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 6

"If such sensationalized scenes are the only images being flashed over and over, in movie after movie, what impression is being cemented about the members of this group to the rest of society?" (Cont'd)

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Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 6

"What kind of opportunities can this group hope to have if society deems them incapable or is even fearful of them at the door itself?" (Cont'd)

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Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 6

"Will they ever be allowed to be included and visible in mainstream society? What about the potential internalized harm and trauma of this stigma for members of this group?" Read the full text by nonspeaking autistic activist Hari Srinivasan:

A Boy Like Me

A Boy Like Me Hari Srinivasan    One morning in late November 2020, I woke up to find that my rather modest twitter account had somehow gained around 1500 followers overnight. The final exams …

disabilityvisibilityproject.com

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Tania 

 Autistic Strategies Network

@ekverstania

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Feb 8

I'm not going to ever be able to give up sarcasm while the people I admire keep setting me this kind of example! Here's nonspeaking autistic activist Ido Kedar:

I’m Feeling Snarky

I might be autistic, but they understand the disability better. I have to give credit to those experts in the noble field of autism treatment who bravely stand up for the rights of nonspeaking auti…

idoinautismland.com

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lazy perfectionist

@kazADHD

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Feb 24

being neurodivergent is inherently traumatic because from the moment we start developing our own personalities we're inundated with messages that we are wrong or flawed in some way. we internalise these messages and our inner dialogue adopts the voice of the criticism.

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Emily♡

@ItsEmilyKaty

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Feb 24

The vibrance and joy of autism is often overlooked amongst the trouble that it can cause. The hard parts do make my life hard, but people forget that the good parts are what makes my life really good. - a thread. /1

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And a couple more links in case people want to start from one place instead of seeding search engines with terms such as:

autism or asperger's syndrome

Easter Seals all purpose Disability resource

Autism Career Pathways