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Even as the federal government questions its strategy in an attempt to regain public favor, the occupation of the Twin Cities continues. Here and across the country, masked agents take families, friends, parents, children, and more away, treating them as less than human. Until they have stopped, we cannot be silent.
For as long as the disability rights movement has been around, it has been dominated by white voices. Right now, many white disabled people are trying to live in denial, remain at a distance from the horrors, and stay silent as their neighbors are taken away.
It enrages me. Disability Justice means Immigrant Justice, plain and simple. Justice for only some is not true justice. We may have fewer resources than our nondisabled counterparts, but if we can use them to be resisting illegal federal actions or uplifting other people, we should be doing so.
Let’s not forget that disabled people of color, disabled immigrants, exist too. And the actions of the government are only serving to disable more people. As I hope you’ll soon understand, even if we stay silent now, we will still be a target.
So, let’s do what I love to do and learn a bit from history. By looking at those who came before, we can learn what worked for them and how to move forward. Shall we?
Table of Contents:
- Who were the Young Lords?
- The takeover
- The insidious ideology underneath medical and environmental racism
Who were the Young Lords?
The Young Lords were a political organization initially founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois in 1959. They quickly grew, starting another chapter to connect Puerto Rican communities in New York City. Soon, their membership included many Latine and Black New Yorkers, some of whom were immigrants.
Throughout the 60s and 70s, the Young Lords led many demonstrations and actions to fight for better treatment of their communities. One of their core issues was inequity in healthcare, inspired by stories from their community of people being ignored, mistreated, and overlooked.
The Young Lords believed in taking direct action that brought immediate help to people in need. Their health activism included commandeering a medical truck to provide tuberculosis testing, a sit-in to get access to kits to test for lead, and of course, the infamous Lincoln Hospital takeover.
The takeover
On the morning of July 14, 1970, the Young Lords occupied and took operational control of Lincoln Hospital, a South Bronx facility known to have pretty miserable conditions—it was known as the “butcher shop of the South Bronx.”
For 12 hours, the Lords remained in the hospital, setting up testing/screening stations and providng a daycare and education center in the basement. They did not want this to be a violent takeover. They wanted to allow the doctors to keep working while gaining public attention for their demands for improved conditions for both workers and patients.
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The Lords shared their demands early in the day: no cutbacks, increased funding for a new facility, and more community-led healthcare, among others. They were negotiating with hospital administration and representatives from the mayor’s office.
Unfortunately, negotiations ended when undercover police officers attempted to worm their way into the hospital.
After 12 hours, the situation was growing more fraught, and the Young Lords realized that they were not going to successfully achieve their demands for a “people’s hospital” without further damage. So, with support from many of the hospital’s staff, they dressed themselves up as doctors and nurses, slipping away.
While the takeover may have lasted for only 12 hours, their demands are timeless. Structural inequality in America’s medical system has continued to disproportionately affect patients of color, and recent events have made it harder for many people to even feel safe enough going to the doctor for care.
The insidious ideology underneath medical and environmental racism
Here’s why the Disability Justice movement and the Lincoln Hospital takeover are far more connected than most people would think: the ideology that created the conditions at Lincoln is the same one that has been used to justify the erasure of disabled folks. Yep. Eugenics.
While Francis Galton may have coined the term, the ideas behind eugenics have been around for far longer than him. Under the guise of eugenics—of “improving the health of the population”—disabled people and people of color were (and are) subjected to:
- Medical discrimination
- Inadequate healthcare
- Involuntary sterilization
- Lack of access to care resources
- Public fearmongering campaigns (the AIDS crisis provides a stunningly salient example of this)
- Cultural and professional exclusion
A world in which we allow eugenics ideals to prosper is not one lived by the tenets of Disability Justice. When the federal government says they’re cleaning up the streets, removing “the worst of the worst,” and protecting the American public from a form of cultural contamination, they are spouting eugenics ideals. And where eugenics exists, disabled people are not safe.
Our movements cannot remain separate. Disability movements cannot continue to be dominated by white (and often male) voices and experiences. White disabled people (like me) may have the luxury of being more removed from this fight, but we should not partake in that luxury. A Disability Justice future is one where immigrants, disabled people, and disabled immigrants support each other uneqivocally.
Do you have things you want to add about Disability Justice and (Im)Migrant Justice? You can leave a comment down below or carve it into an ice sculpture. And if you liked this post, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.
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Ashton Rose 