Every year on March 1st, the disability community gathers across the nation to remember disabled victims of filicide–disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers. Earlier this week, UMBC's Women Gender and Equity Center held a vigil as this year it falls on a Saturday.
We see the same pattern repeating over and over again. A family member kills their disabled child or spouse. The media portrays these murders as justifiable and inevitable due to the “burden” of having a disabled person in the family. If the person stands trial, they are given sympathy and comparatively lighter sentences, if they are sentenced at all. The victims are disregarded, blamed for their own murder at the hands of the person they should have been able to trust the most, and ultimately forgotten. And then the cycle repeats within often inadequate and broken social systems.
Since 2012, ASAN and other disability rights organizations have come together at local vigils across the country to mourn those losses, bring awareness to these tragedies, and demand justice and equal protection under the law for all people with disabilities. On March 1st, we will come together again, and we ask you to join us. More information on those lost to filicide worldwide can be found on the Disability Day of Mourning website, which includes an Anti-Filicide Toolkit.
Resources include calling the 988 Crisis Response hotline, and reaching out to support via local resources, including Employee Assistance Programs, Retriever Integrated Health for self-care options.
Photo credit by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash accompanies the Post
]]>In this critical moment and movement, Accessibility and Disability Services affirms our solidarity with the Black community at UMBC and beyond. You matter. Your safety matters. Your health matters.
We
mourn the Black Americans who have lost their lives to police brutality: George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, David McAtee, Tony McDade, Breonna
Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Freddie Gray and too many others, including those whose identities include disability, such as Shukri Ali Said and Saheed Vassall.
American society
and its institutions have yet to end the oppression of people on the basis of their
race, religion, class, disability, and other aspects of their
identities. We have miles to go and must not rest as we rise up as a nation and fully embody the self-evident truth of being created equally as humans that are entitled to full participation.
Accessibility and Disability Services, along with Student Disability Services works with members of
the UMBC community to leverage our knowledge, skills and abilities to continue building more just communities and a society in which everyone can thrive regardless of race and ability. Given the experiences our work provides, we remain aware of how we must renew our commitment to challenging structural racism and white
supremacy, and to advancing social justice with our work. We call out in solidarity:
I Can't Breathe: We remain horrified by police killings and brutality against the Black community that not only creates trauma and harm (which can result in disability), but perpetuates disability-based stigma, closeting and denial. The price for being Black and disabled is too high in the United States (link). Research on Policing at the Nexus of Race and Mental Health (link) underscores the need for more awareness and action. Media coverage on law enforcement use of force and disability also must improve (link)to end myths and stigma, while enabling belonging and awareness.
We Can't Breathe: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, our national numbers are staggering. The Brookings Institute reports that the death rate from COVID-19 is disproportionately higher for Black and Latinx people in all age categories. The CDC highlighted how factors like residential segregation, service work/underemployment, and lower access to health care can result in adverse health outcomes and death for racial minorities. The grief and vulnerability are palpable. We will listen. We will seek opportunities to create inclusive and effective change as we continue our work with the students, staff, faculty and visitors who engage with our offices*.
We are encouraged and strengthened by University leadership:
UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Philip Rous's Statement: This Time in America and
USM's Leadership Statement on Structural Racism and the Killing of George Floyd