At the beginning, and throughout the first two years of the ongoing, yet to be over, COVID-19 pandemic, ideas pioneered by disability justice organizations were finally given credence by larger swaths of the population. This is no longer the case. Given the ongoing pandemic, and the disproportionate short and long-term consequences for the communities most directly impacted, the insight provided by people on the front lines of eugenicist medical policies should be revisited. Particularly with regards to health-based discrimination and social ostracization of at risk people with auto-immune or other precarious health issues.
Sins Invalid offers these ten principles for disability justice:
INTERSECTIONALITY "We do not live single issue lives" –Audre Lorde. Ableism, coupled with white supremacy, supported by capitalism, underscored by heteropatriarchy, has rendered the vast majority of the world "invalid."
LEADERSHIP OF THOSE MOST IMPACTED "We are led by those who most know these systems." –Aurora Levins Morales
ANTI-CAPITALIST POLITIC In an economy that sees land and humans as components of profit, we are anti-capitalist by the nature of having non-conforming body/minds.
COMMITMENT TO CROSS-MOVEMENT ORGANIZING Shifting how social justice movements understand disability and contextualize ableism, disability justice lends itself to politics of alliance.
RECOGNIZING WHOLENESS People have inherent worth outside of commodity relations and capitalist notions of productivity. Each person is full of history and life experience.
SUSTAINABILITY We pace ourselves, individually and collectively, to be sustained long term. Our embodied experiences guide us toward ongoing justice and liberation.
COMMITMENT TO CROSS-DISABILITY SOLIDARITY We honor the insights and participation of all of our community members, knowing that isolation undermines collective liberation.
INTERDEPENDENCE We meet each others' needs as we build toward liberation, knowing that state solutions inevitably extend into further control over lives.
COLLECTIVE ACCESS As brown, black and queer-bodied disabled people we bring flexibility and creative nuance that go beyond able-bodied/minded normativity, to be in community with each other.•
COLLECTIVE LIBERATION No body or mind can be left behind – only moving together can we accomplish the revolution we require.
