I have been thinking about this for many hours now, and finally decided to try and weigh in, hoping I can be careful and respectful, and with respect also to all the previous commenters.
So let me start with what you explicitly asked for, which is true. I see your concerns and they are valid. And for myself, I am not convinced of anything regarding antifa.
I am convinced that whether you call them Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, or whatever, you can pretty much guarantee that they take a very hard-core ablist line: i.e., they want to see disabled people at the very best out of the running to help breed the master race, and often they are just as happy to see disabled people dead.
I also have recently written about how privileged white men can use ablism to their own ends in an academic setting, and may feel rather too free to oppose ablist rhetoric that limits them without acknowledging ablist behaviors and assumptions they may be espousing.
In other words, it's complicated.
As I understand "antifa" (and there's lots useful about this upthread), it is not an organized group but is a loose connection of various affinity groups and other clusters. I have absolutely no doubt that some of the people who identify as antifa are ablist; I certainly believe you when you say that you have been described as oppressive by people identifying as antifa.
I live in Oakland, California, and the local antifa group also has roots in neighboring Berkeley, which may well be the most disabled-aware community in the world, thanks to a combination of our climate, the Center for Independent Living, and more recently the Ed Roberts Campus. I am inclined to believe that most local antifa-identifying people are unlikely to subscribe to the ablist positions you describe, especially so directly and unambiguously. Like racism, ablism permeates the culture and affects us all, and I'm sure there is ablism in local antifa, but I suspect it is more subtle.
I was also very struck by my hero Dahlia Lithwick's article about the actual behavior of antifa people in Charlottesville.
I think what I am struggling to say is something like:
1) OF COURSE, you have to find your own level of comfort with whom you support. Nothing ever obliges you to support or work with anyone who cuts off communication or refuses to listen to thoughtful disagreement.
2) ablism is everywhere and all kinds of people use it to their (our) own ends;
3) #notallantifa, at least not all to the same degree; and
4) thanks for bringing such a thoughtful conversation into the open.
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regna
Stepping in Carefully
Date: 2017-08-30 06:19 pm (UTC)So let me start with what you explicitly asked for, which is true. I see your concerns and they are valid. And for myself, I am not convinced of anything regarding antifa.
I am convinced that whether you call them Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, or whatever, you can pretty much guarantee that they take a very hard-core ablist line: i.e., they want to see disabled people at the very best out of the running to help breed the master race, and often they are just as happy to see disabled people dead.
I also have recently written about how privileged white men can use ablism to their own ends in an academic setting, and may feel rather too free to oppose ablist rhetoric that limits them without acknowledging ablist behaviors and assumptions they may be espousing.
In other words, it's complicated.
As I understand "antifa" (and there's lots useful about this upthread), it is not an organized group but is a loose connection of various affinity groups and other clusters. I have absolutely no doubt that some of the people who identify as antifa are ablist; I certainly believe you when you say that you have been described as oppressive by people identifying as antifa.
I live in Oakland, California, and the local antifa group also has roots in neighboring Berkeley, which may well be the most disabled-aware community in the world, thanks to a combination of our climate, the Center for Independent Living, and more recently the Ed Roberts Campus. I am inclined to believe that most local antifa-identifying people are unlikely to subscribe to the ablist positions you describe, especially so directly and unambiguously. Like racism, ablism permeates the culture and affects us all, and I'm sure there is ablism in local antifa, but I suspect it is more subtle.
I was also very struck by my hero Dahlia Lithwick's article about the actual behavior of antifa people in Charlottesville.
I think what I am struggling to say is something like:
1) OF COURSE, you have to find your own level of comfort with whom you support. Nothing ever obliges you to support or work with anyone who cuts off communication or refuses to listen to thoughtful disagreement.
2) ablism is everywhere and all kinds of people use it to their (our) own ends;
3) #notallantifa, at least not all to the same degree; and
4) thanks for bringing such a thoughtful conversation into the open.