The Harriet Tubman Collective

In Defense of No New Jails: An Open Letter on Disability Justice to Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation

Image of six rainbow colored No New Jails screen prints. Art by Josh Josh MacPhee.

Last week, Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, released an article responding to community members who have been fighting for years to decarcerate NYC. Walker’s article supports a plan to construct more jails in NYC while refusing to commit to closing Rikers Island. In this article, Walker characterizes community members who are in opposition to this plan as “extremists” and suggests that they lack nuance.

As a collective of Black Disabled people, The Harriet Tubman Collective is acutely aware of the violence that the punishment system has inflicted upon our communities, past and present. We disavow any assertions that imply that the freedom fighters calling for the closure of Rikers without building new jails are as Walker terms it, “the enemy of progress”. We believe that they are the heroes of our generation and of those to come.

No New Jails NYC rallying cry, If they build them, they will fill them, is as true for jails as it is for nursing facilities, “state schools”, prisons, asylums, and any and all forms of institutions. Far too often, disability is criminalized. This is just one of countless reasons why Disabled people represent the largest “minority” population in jails and prisons, and precisely why anyone that purports to fight for disability justice should be working towards the horizon of abolition. Anything less will further disenfranchise disabled people and others.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of our people are locked away with little to no access to health care, education, language, visual/auditory stimulation, communication, and much more. Disabled prisoners are routinely segregated and tortured through the use of solitary confinement and through various forms of deprivation, even while housed in the “general population”. Those who survive incarceration, come home to an inaccessible social services infrastructure that provides almost no support. Many of them don’t make it far.

The plan that No New Jails has put forth is clear and attainable: shut down Rikers with no new jails taking its place.

The expansion of Rikers and construction of new jails would cost over $10 billion. Instead of building new jails, the community demands that those funds be invested into the community “to create safe, strong neighborhoods by addressing community needs.” These demands are central to achieving disability justice, racial justice and economic justice.

There is no humane way to strip people of their freedom, whether it’s through the use of jails, surveillance, or otherwise. Although the rhetoric of “reform” may seem attractive, there is no doubt that it will only result in the growth of the carceral state and loss of yet more life, liberty and humanity. Campaigns that seek to end mass incarceration by building new jails blatantly disregard the well-documented history of and research on carceral expansion.

An article published in the New York Daily News on November 26, 1972 titled: “Willowbrook: After Reform, What Then?”. 15 years prior to the closing of Willowbrook, the author argues that the proposed reforms to keep the institution open will not solve the issues longterm.

For example, not long ago, our elders fought to close Willowbrook State School. Progress was delayed by “reform” efforts that focused on the absence of a place to hold Disabled people captive. That energy should have been directed to building structures that ensured everyone could live and thrive freely in their communities. Decades after the closure of Willowbrook and similar institutions, structures that provide safety and freedom for disabled people have yet to materialize.

Or, take for example, the fact that New York City ships its students to the notorious Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Canton, MA. Students are taken there because New York City is not willing to create the support systems necessary to provide public education to all students. JRC is an institution that is well known for torturing Disabled children and adults. Upwards of 80% of the students at JRC are black or brown — with the institution intentionally targeting negatively racialized youth in low/no income communities. JRC even takes referrals directly from Rikers.

The connections between our struggles run deep. We are routinely and intentionally deprived of resources, then blamed for our suffering. We are then divided into groups to be categorized for cages. This will not change until the cages no longer exist.

The Harriet Tubman Collective stands in solidarity with No New Jails NYC and will sign onto their campaign in struggle for what we know our people deserve.

DisabilitySolidarity disabilityjustice

#ProtectHarriet: The Harriet Tubman Collective’s Response to RespectAbility’s Racism & Ford Foundation Enabling the Same

Image Description: Black Disabled freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman sits with a determined look on her face. Text positioned on her chest reads: Born c. 1822, #ProtectHarriet, Not For Sale, Not For Profit.

On December 21, 2016, members of the Harriet Tubman Collective, a group of Black Deaf and Disabled community builders and advocates, learned that RespectAbility received a grant from the Ford Foundation to establish a fellowship, and that RespectAbility named this fellowship after a Black Disabled Freedom Fighter, Harriet Tubman. Our Collective is deeply troubled by this grant having gone to RespectAbility and the naming of the fellowship after Harriet Tubman for myriad reasons. Here we lay out just a few of our concerns.

Jennifer Mizrahi, President of RespectAbility, and her organization have continuously utilized overt racism, classism, and ableism in private and public statements to make a profit at the expense of marginalized disabled people. Disabled advocates have taken to social media to express outrage at Mizrahi’s harmful offenses. Sarah Blahovec, Andrew Pulrang, and Ingrid Tischer’s articles outline Mizrahi’s problematic leadership and the harm she enacts upon Black, deaf, and disabled communities. Despite these public indictments, RespectAbility and Jennifer Mizrahi are still being rewarded by philanthropic organizations like the Ford Foundation, that are not aware of or responsive to marginalized communities they purport to serve with their ill-advised and misguided philanthropic gifts.

Mizrahi also has a long and storied history of erasing and exploiting the work of Black individuals and Black-led organizations and coalitions for her own reputational and economic gain. This summer, for example, after quickly piecing together a white paper on the criminal legal system based heavily on the work of marginalized individuals who have been on the ground engaged in advocacy, she took interviews with news media that should have gone to multiply-marginalized individuals who have been engaged in direct advocacy for decades. Mizrahi’s flagrant erasure and theft of Black Disabled intellect and labor is arguably most clear in this very situation, where she held closed meetings to petition for funding from Ford Foundation by putting forward the work of Black Disabled people.

The Harriet Tubman Collective (“HTC” or “Collective” throughout this statement) released our inaugural offering, “Disability Solidarity: Completing the Vision for Black Lives,” on September 7, 2016. Our powerful piece was read and shared by thousands in a matter of days; and people began to discuss and understand the meaning of Disability Solidarity. Importantly, the Collective revealed our name, and the significance of honoring Harriet Tubman, a Black Disabled Freedom Fighter on this day. On the same day, Mizrahi emailed a Collective member to inform them that she “mentioned this disability inclusion issue” to Ford Foundation who, “are MAJOR backers of BlackLivesMatter [sic].” Mizrahi was referencing HTC’s ongoing on-the-ground effort to bring about disability solidarity within the struggle for racial justice. Mizrahi and her team closely followed the online accounts and work of Collective members, and at times parroted our posts and writings with no actual understanding of or investment in our offerings, lives, or work.

The aforementioned instances are just a handful of examples of Mizrahi’s unapologetic erasure and intellectual theft of the work of marginalized advocates/activists. Put plainly, any funding received for work being done rightfully should go directly to those on the ground doing the actual work–who also happen to be Black, Deaf/Disabled. This grant and acceptance of funding displays blatant disrespect to Black history, Black Deaf/Disabled people, and a disregard for Harriet Tubman’s legacy and everything she stood for.

In brief, RespectAbility convinced the Ford Foundation to fund a “Harriet Tubman Fellowship” after its president has been repeatedly called out for overt racism, and after she tediously tracking the work of Black Disabled/Deaf activists and presenting their ideas and work of the Harriet Tubman Collective as her own. It should also not be lost on anyone that RespectAbility also threw our comrades in the Movement for Black Lives under the bus just to obtain funding. It should be noted that HTC had been in constant communication with the Movement for Black Lives. We were working together to address the issues we raised directly with them.

To add insult to injury, the organization actually misspelled Harriet Tubman’s name in the fellowship they purportedly named in her honor. RespectAbility’s press release also failed to explain who Harriet Tubman is, why her existence and work are paramount, or why this organization–which is known for overt racism–chose to name this fellowship after Tubman. The press release literally erased Tubman’s Blackness. Finally, Harriet Tubman was a Black Disabled enslaved person who escaped a racist institution that controlled her intellect, her labor, and her body. Apart from the two people of color who are now paid “fellows,” RespectAbility’s paid staff is composed of all white people as far as we can tell. It seems the organization and Mizrahi believe that bringing two interns of color on will somehow erase the ways in which the organization uplifts racism. Ford Foundation’s grant enables this behavior and seems to indicate that it supports RespectAbility’s actions and position on these matters. This is a sad, dangerous and a deeply troubling position to take–a direct contradiction of all that Harriet Tubman stood and fought for.

Sadly, white-led, well-resourced disability and deaf organizations together with well-intentioned philanthropic organizations continue to erase the lived experiences and contributions of Black Deaf/Disabled people while benefitting immensely from our labor and profoundly setting back our efforts. Racism, ableism, classism and oppression thrive in deaf/disability organizations and philanthropic spaces–each continuously on display with little to no action from organizational or philanthropic “leaders” who should be at the forefront of ending oppression and promoting critical intersectionality. The silence of disability organizations, agencies, and disabled individuals perpetuates this crisis. Remaining silent or taking a stand against racism without specifically naming those involved in racist acts has allowed room for cycles of oppression to continue. Again, here, many Black Disabled activists were contacted by large organizations who were concerned that RespectAbility was on Ford Foundation’s short list, so those organizations, instead of contacting Ford Foundation directly, contacted folks on the ground to ask that we contact Ford Foundation to share about concerns about Mizrahi and RespectAbility. These organizations are as complicit in this violence as RespectAbility and Ford Foundation.

In response to this inappropriate use of Harriet Tubman’s name and gross distortion of her legacy, many took to social media to express outrage and illuminate why we must #ProtectHarriet. The disabled community has a clear history of erasing the involvement of Black disabled people within our movements; oppressing and tokenizing our voices; failing to promote visibility and support to Black disabled advocates who are doing path-breaking work; establishing organizations that are white-led and dominated; creating spaces where Black disabled people do not feel safe, included, or free to exist; and finding grotesque ways to monetize all of this.

The Harriet Tubman Collective condemns and will not tolerate abuse, misrepresentation or exploitation of Black Disabled/Deaf people or their lived experiences and labor. We will continue to publicly challenge racism and fight against white-led disability/deaf organizations who are profiting off of Black Deaf/Disabled people’s labor and intellect. Similarly, whitewashing of Black Deaf/Disabled history will not be tolerated.

Harriet Tubman and her legacy belongs to us. Her life should not be misappropriated for capitalist gain. She is not for sale, not for profit. This is true for all, but especially for those who bear no respect for her or any of what she stood for.

ProtectHarriet DisabilitySolidarity BlackLivesMatter BLM Disability

Jeremy “Bam Bam” McDole

In the photo, 3 white signs sit on the street leaning against a car with black lettering. The signs read: “Justice for Bam” and “Justice or Else” with an image of Jeremy McDole’s face on the far left sign and a wheelchair symbol on the middle sign.

TW: Graphic depiction of police brutality and police murder.

Last Friday, September 23rd, 2016, marked one year since the Wilmington Police Department lynched a man.

They left his broken body to lay in the street for hours. His wheelchair, once serving as a tool for independence, rest next to him as a bloodstained reminder that freedom isn’t free in America. Instead of obtaining support in time of crisis, Jeremy McDole was murdered. Instead of being seen as an individual with thoughts and feelings, the man that was known as “Bam Bam” by his friends and family, became another name in a sea of hashtags filled with dead people with disabilities. “Leaders” called for patience with the criminal legal system and activists hesitated after reports of his mental state. Jeremy McDole’s murder had just as much to do with ableism as it did racism. His police-reported suicide attempt was used as a justification for the removal of his body. Their fear of him threatening the lives of others, defied everything we know to be true about mental health disabilities. The Wilmington Police, like the majority of law enforcement agencies, assured the public of their commitment to the continuum of CIT training that is instituted to teach officers how to not kill disabled people.

There are those that are afraid of discussing race and disability in the same breath - those that believe that if somehow we can address the issues related to freedom in a vacuum, then suddenly everyone will come around and realize the egregious misunderstanding of race ability ethnicity gender identity our country. To do so not only separates us from the power that our voices have when they are mingled together but also seeks to separate us all from the outrage we should all feel at the murder of one of OUR own.

It is important that we do not separate his disabilities from his blackness. The facets of his identity were not mutually exclusive in his murder. We must continue to type, write, sign and sound his name to uplift him and the countless Deaf and Disabled Black folks that have died because of their otherized existence within this system. Our organizing efforts need to be accessible to the people that are most likely to die if they encounter police. Just this week alone, we have mourned the loss of Deaf/Disabled martyrs, such as Keith Lamont Scott and Desean Welch. The failures to effect justice and convictions for Black deaf/Disabled deaths at the hands of the police are atrocities that cannot continue.

Black Deaf/Disabled lives matter, and we will continue to proclaim this truth until we are all able to freely exist without fear of experiencing violence and death spearheaded by the police. We will not be extinguished by hate and ableism - enough is enough.

BlackLivesMatter DisabilitySolidarity DisabilityJustice JeremyMcDole

harriettubmancollective

Disability Solidarity: Completing the “Vision for Black Lives”

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Comprising no less than twenty percent of the United States population, people with disabilities are the largest “minority” group in the nation. Notably, among differing socially-constructed racial categories, the Black community has the highest prevalence of disability–with almost a full quarter of the Black population having some form of a disability.

And yet, on August 1, 2016, the Movement for Black Lives (the “Movement”) released a groundbreaking policy platform outlining the Movement’s idea of what is required to build a more just world for “all black people” that did not once mention disability, ableism, audism or the unspeakable violence and Black death found at the intersection of ableism, audism, and anti-Black racism. The six-point platform, which was supported or endorsed by more than fifty organizations from across the country, stated, in part:

We believe in elevating the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized Black people… We are intentional about amplifying the particular experience of state and gendered violence that Black queer, trans, gender nonconforming, women and intersex people face. There can be no liberation for all Black people if we do not center and fight for those who have been marginalized. It is our hope that by working together to create and amplify a shared agenda, we can continue to move towards a world in which the full humanity and dignity of all people is recognized.

The platform goes on to propose many crucial changes to the ways in which the government and its institutions treat Black people, providing a framework to combat many systems of oppression experienced by Black people in the United States and abroad.

Many, however, were left wondering why disability was erased, and ableism and audism omitted from this platform–especially considering the critical role ableism and audism play in every institution named by the Movement as a purveyor of violence against Black bodies and communities. Specifically, many were confounded as to how a movement whose primary focus is ending police brutality, could outright ignore the violence experienced by Black Disabled and Deaf people when statistics prove that at least 60-80% of the people murdered by police are, in fact, Disabled and/or Deaf people.

The following are a few more of the many ways in which Black Disabled people are disproportionately impacted by state violence :

People with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty because poverty operates as a cause and consequence of disability;
Children with disabilities enter the juvenile legal system at 5-6 times the rate of youth who do not have disabilities, with 65% of boys and 75% of girls in juvenile detention having at least one mental illness, and up to 85% of children in juvenile detention having at least one disability; and
55% of male state prisoners and 73% of female state prisoners have a mental health condition, with just 1 in 3 state prisoners and 1 in 6 jail inmates receiving treatment for their illness since being admitted.

Within each of the above-provided statistics, Black people and other racialized individuals are grossly disproportionately represented. Indeed, ableist social norms often criminalize the existence of disabilities such as schizophrenia, autism, oppositional-defiant disorders, and developmental and intellectual disabilities. To be sure, Black people with these and other disabilities are particularly vulnerable to unjust encounters with school officials, police officers and the criminal legal system.

Many Black Deaf/Disabled leaders–especially those who have given their time and talent to the Movement for Black Lives–have noticed this deficit and believe that it reflects much larger problems with ableism and audism in the Movement. We, the undersigned, united under the coalitional name the Harriet Tubman Collective, are here to remind the Movement that liberation will never come without the intentional centering of Black Disabled/Deaf narratives and leadership. We know this because it never has.

We understand, based on our communication with some of the Movement’s drafters, that at least one person who the Movement identified as disabled was at the table when drafting this policy platform. However, the Movement did not connect with self-identified Black Disabled/Deaf advocates, community builders, or organizers who have been on the ground and actively engaged in truly intersectional anti-violence work to support in the drafting process. This led to the Movement’s overall failure to adequately address the disparities and specific violence and oppression that exist at the intersection of Blackness and Disability/Deafness.

This absence and erasure of the Black Disabled/Deaf experience was apparent within critical foci of the platform, including ending the war on Black people, reparations, invest-divest, economic justice, community control, and political power. The lack of understanding about the Black Disabled/Deaf experience was further seen with the use of the term “differently abled,” which is considered offensive within disability communities. The phrase “differently abled” suggests that we are the locus of our disability when we are, in fact, disabled by social and institutional barriers. Not only is this term offensive, but it also reifies the marginalization that Black Disabled/Deaf people face on a regular basis by and within our own communities and oppressive state institutions.

If a staunch political stance is going to be taken about the Black experience, it is a grave injustice and offense to dismiss the plight of Black Disabled and Black Deaf communities. This platform and work is wholly incomplete if disability is not present. To be sure, no successful movement has existed without our leadership, and no movement will be successful without us.

Any movement that seeks to end police violence has no choice but to work to undo the racism and ableism and audism which, together, make Black Disabled/Deaf people prime targets for police violence. For instance, Darnell T. Wicker, a Black deaf veteran was killed by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky on August 8, 2016 (note that the lowercase “d” indicates that Darnell Wicker was deaf; not Culturally Deaf). Body camera footage shows officers shooting Darnell Wicker multiple times within one to two seconds of issuing verbal orders on a dark night. However, Darnell Wicker relied on speechreading to communicate. His family asserts that he likely never heard or comprehended the officers.

The circumstances surrounding his murder made clear the critical importance of naming Darnell Wicker’s deafness and Blackness as having been criminalized by police officers. Yet still, no national coalition, network, cohort was found to have even made mention of Darnell Wicker’s deafness during their physical or online actions “in his name.” One all-volunteer national Deaf/Disability Justice organization issued a powerful statement in American Sign Language, Spanish and English calling for Disability Solidarity with Black Lives Matter in response to unrelenting police brutality against Deaf/Disabled people, including the murder of two D/deaf men last month alone. This sort of intersectional approach is sorely lacking in national organizations, networks and coalitions that claim to fight for racial justice, disability rights and deaf rights. This lack of intersectionality leads to yet more Black, Deaf and Disabled people being killed by the police.

The Harriet Tubman Collective submits that any struggle against white supremacy must also address all of its interrelated flaws–including ableism and audism.

It is disingenuous, at best, and violently irresponsible at worst, to claim to want justice for those who have died at the hands of police, and neither name disability nor advance disability justice. We call upon organizations that label themselves “intersectional” to truly embrace that framework, and we remain as a resource and network of support to any who seek this end. We demand a centering of the Black Disabled/Deaf narrative as this narrative represents 60-80% of those murdered by police–including all of those names that the Movement continues to uplift whilst erasing and dishonoring part of their humanity:

Tanisha Anderson
Sandra Bland
Miriam Carey
Michelle Cusseaux
Ezell Ford
Shereese Francis
Eric Garner
Milton Hall
Korryn Gaines
Freddie Gray
Quintonio LeGrier
Kyam Livingston
Symone Marshall
Laquan McDonald
Natasha McKenna
Stephon Watts
Darnell Wicker
Mario Woods

And countless other Black Disabled/Deaf victims of police brutality.

We will not be martyrs for a movement that denies our humanity. We demand that “social justice” coalitions, networks and organizations end the violent erasure of disability from these and all other narrative of the victims of police violence and murder. We further call for an end of the stigmatization of Black Disabled and Black Deaf people by those who claim to fight for us.

We are not an afterthought.
We are here.
We are fighting for all of our lives.
We are Black. We are Disabled. We are Deaf.
We are Black.
Our Black Disabled Lives Matter.
Our Black Deaf Lives Matter.

In Solidarity,

Patricia Berne
Kylie Brooks
Neal Carter
Patrick Cokley
Candace Coleman
Dustin Gibson
Timotheus Gordon, Jr.
Keri Gray
Christopher DeAngelo Huff
Cyree Jarelle Johnson
Lorrell D. Kilpatrick
Carolyn Lazard
Talila A. Lewis
Leroy F. Moore, Jr.
Vilissa Thompson
Alexis Toliver
Heather Watkins

*For questions, comments, or interest in getting involved, please contact the Harriet Tubman Collective at harriettubmancollective@gmail.com.

harriettubmancollective

Disability Solidarity: Completing the “Vision for Black Lives”

harriettubmancollective

Comprising no less than twenty percent of the United States population, people with disabilities are the largest “minority” group in the nation. Notably, among differing socially-constructed racial categories, the Black community has the highest prevalence of disability–with almost a full quarter of the Black population having some form of a disability.

And yet, on August 1, 2016, the Movement for Black Lives (the “Movement”) released a groundbreaking policy platform outlining the Movement’s idea of what is required to build a more just world for “all black people” that did not once mention disability, ableism, audism or the unspeakable violence and Black death found at the intersection of ableism, audism, and anti-Black racism. The six-point platform, which was supported or endorsed by more than fifty organizations from across the country, stated, in part:

We believe in elevating the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized Black people… We are intentional about amplifying the particular experience of state and gendered violence that Black queer, trans, gender nonconforming, women and intersex people face. There can be no liberation for all Black people if we do not center and fight for those who have been marginalized. It is our hope that by working together to create and amplify a shared agenda, we can continue to move towards a world in which the full humanity and dignity of all people is recognized.

The platform goes on to propose many crucial changes to the ways in which the government and its institutions treat Black people, providing a framework to combat many systems of oppression experienced by Black people in the United States and abroad.

Many, however, were left wondering why disability was erased, and ableism and audism omitted from this platform–especially considering the critical role ableism and audism play in every institution named by the Movement as a purveyor of violence against Black bodies and communities. Specifically, many were confounded as to how a movement whose primary focus is ending police brutality, could outright ignore the violence experienced by Black Disabled and Deaf people when statistics prove that at least 60-80% of the people murdered by police are, in fact, Disabled and/or Deaf people.

The following are a few more of the many ways in which Black Disabled people are disproportionately impacted by state violence :

People with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty because poverty operates as a cause and consequence of disability;
Children with disabilities enter the juvenile legal system at 5-6 times the rate of youth who do not have disabilities, with 65% of boys and 75% of girls in juvenile detention having at least one mental illness, and up to 85% of children in juvenile detention having at least one disability; and
55% of male state prisoners and 73% of female state prisoners have a mental health condition, with just 1 in 3 state prisoners and 1 in 6 jail inmates receiving treatment for their illness since being admitted.