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.