Book Review: HOW ABLEISM FUELS RACISM by Lamar Hardwick
I really appreciate this book by Lamar Hardwick. He exposes the racist and ableist underpinnings of theology and religion while also trumpeting a call to action for religious people to believe disabled people, as intentional creations of God, desirable.
I am a formerly religious person and the religious lessons I learned as a child were to view the disabled with pity and disdain. Mr. Hardwick validates my morphed indoctrination of pity for disabled people to scorn for religion in general.
I love he begins his book on language. Upon reading this passage, my previous trepidation I had for reading a book by a pastor waned.
“The use of the concept and word disability will be the primary way that I describe physical, developmental, or intellectual impairment of any variety in this book because it is my belief that as part of the dismantling of body hierarchy in the church and in society, we must attempt to set aside the idea that the word disability is itself the problem. Disability is a natural part of life, and the felt need to use euphemisms to describe human impairment or limitation is often simply a way of trying to avoid a term that society has led us to believe is shameful. Disability is not a dirty word, nor are disabled people less valuable members of our churches and communities, and we should partner with them in dismantling language that suggests otherwise.”
In his chapter on the politics of desirability, he explains: “The politics of desire and. Ability is most often experienced at the intersection of disability and Blackness. We built this nation by using segregation as the primary gatekeeping mechanism for attaining social capital…People who are unsightly are framed as not only unworthy of being seen or of having eyes set upon them, but they then become the target of interventions to curb the possibility of their causing aversion and discomfort in others.”
I break with fellow disability advocates on several issues, mostly rooted in white supremacy. First, those who posit that “investments in early interventions” are necessary to try and “fix or cure” a child from their (actual or perceived) disabilities. As with Mr. Hardwick, I find it odious that we do not have a community that embraces all different kinds of human experiences, but to great pain, discomfort, and detriment of disabled children, we set out to “fix” them in the name of getting them to appear as close to “normal” as possible. As we know, “normal” has always been defined by people with the political and cultural power to demand conformity. The messages I hear today carry the lingering odor of a Jerry Lee Lewis telethon.
I also break with fellow disability advocates on what Mr. Hardwick describes in his book as “grind culture.” He writes, “one of the most subtle and damaging evangelical teachings that arose from early Puritan theology is the idea that our bodies are inherently bad…Grind culture, also known as hustle culture, is the idea that achievement and success are based on high levels of productivity. Grind culture not only encourages working long hours and ignoring the needs of the body for rest; it actually uses the lack of rest as a metric for success…There is a great spiritual truth that those who live with disabilities can teach the church. Production does not equal worth.”
In our state, as an objectionable outlier to the rest of the country, we have extinguished nearly all available day programs for adults with disabilities. Mr. Hardwick explains that doing this in the name of pretending that ALL adults with highly impactful developmental disabilities can work is a farce rooted in ableism and racism. I couldn’t agree more. While our relationship with work continues to morph and change because of technological automation, it is important to be mindful of the limitations disabled experience to patriciate in meaningful workforce. For example, most people with disabilities are relegated to jobs in the “food, flower, and filth” industries. Near zero upward mobility is available to developmentally disabled people, and most are unemployed. Yet, our tax dollars go to artificially maintaining the premise that everyone can work, and work full time jobs. Neither the qualitative or quantitative data support this assertion.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be morally and intellectually challenged. It's a quick read, and it’s insightful and incisive.
