Intersections Between Racism and Ableism
This resource offers insights and resources to better understand the strong connections between racism and ableism.
For our work to be truly disability-inclusive, we must recognize and learn about the ways in which racism and ableism are deeply linked. As explained by Isabella Kres-Nash:
“Racism and ableism are often thought of as parallel systems of oppression that work separately to perpetuate social hierarchy. Not only does this way of looking at the world ignore the experiences of people of color with disabilities, but it also fails to examine how race is pathologized in order to create racism. Meaning that society treats people of color in specific ways to create barriers, and these poor conditions create disability. The concept of disability has been used to justify discrimination against other groups by attributing disability to them.”
To begin your learning, please watch our webinar on the connections between racial equity and disability and read this explainer, Race and Disability: A New Reckoning, which we partnered on with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Then, we encourage you to explore the following articles and resources.
Reading on Racism and Ableism
- Autism and Race a website maintained by Lydia X. Z. Brown
- Disability and Access, Showing Up for Racial Justice
- Curated pieces connected to racism and disability from Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility Project
- Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People, a Disability Justice Primer from Sins Invalid
- Race and Disability: From Analogy to Intersectionality by Angela Frederick and Dara Shifrer
- To Be BIPOC, Disabled, and Fighting for Justice by N. Jamiyla Chisholm
Anti-Black Racism and Ableism
- Q&A: Is the Disability Community Part of Your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts?, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
- It’s Time To Listen To Black Disabled People by Vilissa Thompson
- Black disabled Americans continue to face higher rates of police violence by Nick Winges-Yanez
- Black Disabled Woman Syllabus, compiled by Vilissa Thompson
- Disability: What Have Black People Got to Do with It? by Dr. Angel Love Miles
- Anti-Black Racism and Ableism in the Workplace by D’Arcee Neal
- In My Own Words by Morénike Giwa-Onaiwu
Anti-Asian Racism and Ableism
Financial Inequities
- Financial Inequity: Disability, Race, and Poverty in America, National Disability Institute
- Race, Ethnicity and Disability: The Financial Impact of Systemic Inequality and Intersectionality, National Disability Institute
- Disability and the Racial Wealth Gap, The Disabilities Fund of the Chicago Community Trust
- The Racial Wealth Gap and Disability Inclusion: A Conversation with Dr. Angel Miles, The Disabilities Fund of the Chicago Community Trust
- Nothing About Us Without All of Us, Part 1 and Part 2, The Disabilities Fund of the Chicago Community Trust
Educational Disparities
- Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
- Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities, National Council on Disability
- Deconstructing Racism and Ableism in the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Temple University Institute on Disabilities
- We Can’t Address Disability Without Addressing Race by Lydia X. Z. Brown