On Surviving Race with Allies: Disability, Race/Ethnicity, and Human Rights

Abstract

The United Nation’s treaty from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) speaks to the assurance of rights and access to justice. To assure the rights addressed in the treaty, disability scholars have argued for a collaborative approach between police officers, mental health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, professionals, and disability rights organisations. Internationally, we have witnessed that rights are being trampled at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation. Interactions with the police and the various systems are sometimes experienced as sources of trauma, racism, disrespect, pain, and abuse by individuals living with disabilities. Allyship and organising with the community, particularly with BIPOC and other ‘minoritised’ communities, is essential for policy and other systemic change. Community conversations were done to learn how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and allies experience and address policing and disability and act at these intersections. The advocacy and activism of Surviving Race: The Intersection of Injustice, Disability, and Human Rights served as the impetus for this study. Surviving Race was created to unite psychiatric survivors, BIPOC impacted by the mental health and disability systems, White allies, and members of the LGBQTIA+ community to stand in solidarity with activists who were demanding systemic change after the deaths of far too many. This chapter explores intersectional and cross-disability allyship, allyship to BIPOC disability, and psychiatric survivor communities. It examines how people with disabilities and allies can more effectively work at the intersection of race, rights, equity, and justice.

Citation

Brown, C., Brooks, C.(., Edwards, J.P., Bellamy, C.D. and O’Hara, K. (2024), "On Surviving Race with Allies: Disability, Race/Ethnicity, and Human Rights", Good, A., Elliott, I. and Mallon, S. (Ed.) Advances in Disability Research Ethics (Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity, Vol. 11), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-601820240000011006