Race and Disability: Just a Double Oppression?

ABSTRACT

This paper questions the notion that being a black disabled person is to experience a ‘double oppression’. On the contrary, this paper suggests that black disabled people have a singular experience. The sum of a number of experiences helps to shape the general outlook of this group. Rather than double oppression, these experiences occur simultaneously; this is a more appropriate description. The image of black disabled people has been ascribed from without. This is based upon a comparison with the experience of white people. For example, certain ailments experienced by black people are seen in terms of a failure on their part to follow ‘a healthy Western diet’. This paper suggests that decision making by those who allocate finite state resources assume a similar norm. The immigration debate stigmatises black people as interlopers in Britain. Both bizarre health practices and the fear of interlopers isolate black disabled people. Finally, this paper looks at the impact of this form of marginalisation on the ethnic minority community. However, the identities constructed by these various communities in response to ascription impacts upon their disabled peers. This is because of wide acceptance of the medical model of disability.