Black Disability Politics

by Sami Schalk

Overview

In Black Disability Politics Sami Schalk explores how issues of disability have been and continue to be central to Black activism from the 1970s to the present. Schalk shows how Black people have long engaged with disability as a political issue deeply tied to race and racism. She points out that this work has not been recognized as part of the legacy of disability justice and liberation because Black disability politics differ in language and approach from the mainstream white-dominant disability rights movement. Drawing on the archives of the Black Panther Party and the National Black Women’s Health Project alongside interviews with contemporary Black disabled cultural workers, Schalk identifies common qualities of Black disability politics, including the need to ground public health initiatives in the experience and expertise of marginalized disabled people so that they can work in antiracist, feminist, and anti-ableist ways. Prioritizing an understanding of disability within the context of white supremacy, Schalk demonstrates that the work of Black disability politics not only exists but is essential to the future of Black liberation movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478023258
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2022
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Sami Schalk is Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction. Black Health Matters  1
1. “We Have a Right to Rebel”: Black Disability Politics in the Black Panther Party  23
2. Fighting Psychiatric Abuse: The BPP and the Black Disability Politics of Mental and Carceral Institutions  48
Praxis Interlude One. Anti-ableist Approaches to Fighting Disabling Violence  69
3. Empowerment through Wellness: Black Disability Politics in the National Black Women’s Health Project  81
4. More Than Just Prevention: The NBWHP and the Black Disability of HIV/AIDS  110
Praxis Interlude Two. Approaches to Disability Identity in Black Disability Politics  129
5. Black Disability Politics Now  140
(Not a) Conclusion. The Present and Futures of Black Disability Politics  154
Notes  161
Bibliography  187
Index  199

What People are Saying About This

Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980 - Kimberly Springer

“Black Disability Politics bravely and humanely confronts shortcomings in social movements beyond the dualism of romanticizing them or throwing them away from a presentist perspective. Challenging myriad assumptions about disability activism and Black social movements, this book is an essential and overdue bridge between how we think about Blackness and how we think about disability.”

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice - Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

“Black disabled genius is crucial to the work of creating a free present and future. In Black Disability Politics, Sami Schalk does so much absolutely brilliant Black queer disabled femme labor of surfacing buried Black disabled activist histories and organizing lessons. Her book is a Black queer disabled love offering, and reading it made me shout for joy and learn so much. I’m so grateful this book is in the world. Read it and give thanks that we get to share the world with the brilliance of Schalk and the organizers she writes about—then get to work putting into practice the lessons you’ve learned, so we can win.”

Editorial Reviews

"Sami Schalk explores the histories and essential lessons of Black disabled labor, politics and movements. This is a long-overdue and essential volume."

Ms. - Karla Strand

"Black Disability Politics is a profound exploration and documentation of a cultural topic that has gone overlooked throughout the entire history of the Black American experience. . . .  A deeply important view of the fight for the rights of disabled Black people in America since the 1970s."

New York Amsterdam News - Jordannah Elizabeth

"With Sami Schalk’s incredible book, Black Disability Politics, we begin to move into a different kind of book doing intrinsically connected work—a rigorously researched look at all the ways that disabled people’s concerns have been foundational to Black resistance organizing. . . . If knowing your history is a key ingredient to success, Black Disability Politics presents a deeply researched and still incredibly readable map of the past, with implications for the shimmering future. This, along with what I can only describe as a muscular clarity in her writing, was incredible as a beginner to the topic to feel my understanding grow as I read, and that is only possible in the capable hands of a great writer like Schalk."

Xtra! - S. Bear Bergman

"This book will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students because it invites continued exploration of Black disability studies and politics. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty."
 

Choice - S. Burch