If you’re not yet engaged in mutual aid communities in which you are gaining something as you also help other deaf people and other disabled people, now is the time.
In our diverse groups, we often think that commonalities override differences. Our deafness is more important than our racial diversity. This is only partly true.
It is important to move beyond our commonalities and to value the differences within and across our communities.
Valuing how we are the same and how we are different is an important mechanism that leads to solidarity. Solidarity is the idea that we are a coherent group because of our similarities and our differences. We are deaf and disabled people who are multiracial, multicultural, multilingual, multimodal.
Deaf and disabled solidarity should be central moving forward in a strange new time, where in the US and across the world, we are once again facing the specter of fascism.
Our major enemies are audism and ableism and those who propel these ideologies, whether intentionally, accidentally, or with malice. While true, we are also concerned about all the other major systems of oppression that create harm separate from audism and ableism, but often connect to it. Racism, xenophobia, homophobia/transphobia, misogyny/misandry, linguisticism, and more. While our enemy ideologies have built a coherent system of coordinated oppression, which is called a hegemony, we need to devise community-based solutions that are able to undermine and destroy hegemony.
We should not engage with political sectarianism, however. It is critical that we understand that the differences that exist within communities and across sub communities, matter. Far from being a weakness, our differences are our strength.
While it is usually thought that commonalities are the source of community, it is the differences that exist alongside our commonalities that in fact create our community—a collaborative potential for work and life, in which each person is contributing something that matters to them, and at the macro-scale and given a critical mass, while we all contribute what we can we create our own coherence.
Differences between deaf and disabled communities, likewise matter. We should not pretend that disability and deaf experiences are the same thing. They differ, even if they share some overarching themes.
As we build a counter-fascist movement, we can be effective coalition-builders across our differences, with the recognition that our similarities also contribute strength and shared purpose to solve the issues arising in the contemporary political field we are enmeshed in.
If you are not yet engaged in mutual aid communities or networks, start now. This entails that we are able to work as a common movement working in solidarity by recognizing shared goals, shared methods and shared purposes meanwhile, not only accepting and tolerating but embracing the many differences within our diverse communities. Mutual aid networks should start small and grow slowly. The first thing you can do is reach out to your people; check in with them, see what they are doing, what they are experiencing, feeling, or thinking. Ask genuine questions about what they need, and if you can, help. Likewise, explain to them what you are doing, thinking, feeling, or experiencing. Talk about what you need, too. There is a high likelihood that within the networks you are already engaged in, there are people who can help you with your problems, and likewise, you can help them solve theirs.
The diversity and inherent differences within our deaf communities is important to understand and recognize. For instance, deaf and queer communities differ in important ways from deaf and Indigenous communities; deaf and indigenous community needs may differ from the needs of Blackdeaf communities, whose needs again may differ based on geography and local political climate.
However, last we be misunderstood, there are far more differences than similarities. And both are sources of strength that can unite us, working toward common purposes. That which divides us internally can be a source of strength, as it creates a space where actual diversity exists. Both similarities and differences across communities are what give us our most potent forms of power.
Now is the time for unabashed socio-political radicalism in deaf communities, in disabled communities. Not only should we strive for radical aspirational politics, for some distant future, but we can and should apply socio-political radicalism in the broad strategies and tactics that we employ in our day to day lives.
One of the most important things we can do today—right now—is simple. Reach out to people in our communities. In the face of fear in the face of hegemonic fascism, we must not despair.
Instead, let us project an ethos of optimism and inspiration. Let us laugh at the danger, let us smile as we work in shared purpose. Now is the time.
Join left hands with us.
From causes, to affects, to response, there are three connotations (expansions and interpretations) for the verb <REVOLT> which apply to waxing authoritarianism and waning freedom.
They are:
Revolting (1) to roll backwards, (e.g., reactionary politics, “status quo, ante”)
Revolting (2) to cause disgust, (e.g., to feel strong disapproval, “a bad taste”)
Revolting (3) to rise up against (e.g., to rebel against oppression, “revolution”)
Let us examine each aspect in turn and situate these ideas in deaf and disabled communities.
Why? Because deaf and disabled people are at extreme risk presently. The risks include from four kinds of unjust systems, all of which exploit hierarchies.
Social, political, economic, and governmental systems are all causing all kinds of deaf and disabled people to be at extreme risks. However, at even higher risk from these unjust systems are the minorities within our communities. Deaf, disabled AND black, brown, indigenous, gender minorities, sexual minorities, those who are poor, un-homed, language deprived. These are who we all must encircle to defend and protect. But that itself is not enough. Deaf people with privileges—those with intact languages, cultures, a sense of belongingness to history, class, race, land—have a solemn obligation to advance our thinking and advance our actions for the greater good.
Revolting (1) to roll backwards
Denotation: To roll backwards is to remove progress, to turn away from new ideas and to affirm “the superiority of tradition.” To do this is to go back to the way things used to be. Reactionary politics are such that go back to a former “status quo” (the way things were) without an appreciation for how things have changed since then. To roll backwards is to act in ways that knowingly hurt others.
Expansion: Reactionary politics prop up hierarchies. Hierarchies by definition are exclusive structures for social stratification. Those higher up the pyramid become fewer in number; in reverse, those lower down become more populous. In this system, harm is not only normal, but increasing in frequency, duration, longevity. Moreover, harm is spread out to affect more people and in increasingly harmful ways.
Interpretations: Justifiably, we should suspect that this system is unjust, unfair, unwarranted, and unkind and that these negatives will increase over time. Deaf and disabled people are never treated well by hierarchies. Hierarchies hurt. They hurt upward and they hurt downward. While alleviating the pain of the pinnacle is not our immediate goal, we do well to know that social hierarchies are universally harmful and destroying them creates benefits for all who are currently under their power. We are right to feel suspicious about social structures that harm us. We are right to feel pain when we know that protections against harm are being removed.
Revolting (2) to cause disgust
Denotation: To feel an overwhelming sensation that leads to strong disapproval of the source. To witness something that is counter to your desires and in close relation to think that it is in “bad taste,” “offensive,” “wrong.” To consider and to conclude that an external stimulus carries a strong risk for you and to help you reduce that risk in keeping.
Expansion: Disgust has two operations that work in tandem, one causing the other, but both supporting the same conclusion. The first aspect is immediate and instinctual, it is caused by senses (taste, sight, smell, touch) as well as the emotions those senses generate (feeling scared, at risk, sad, enraged). While senses and emotions are separate processes, they are both operating below the level of our primary control. The second aspect is cognitive and generates a purposeful idea or series of thoughts. Secondary to emotions, thoughts are subject to higher mental processes, such as analysis, evaluation, or judgement. First, we feel, then we think about what it means. To be revolted is to sense, to emote, then think, and last, to decide to turn away.
Interpretation: Deaf and disabled people are rightfully revolted by reactionary politics because we have felt scared by them, we have felt at risk to them, we feel apprehension about them; we feel angered by them; or we feel that they are simply unacceptable conditions for our lives in. Reactionary politics are revolting because they undermine our freedoms, these include three basic freedoms:
We are right when we feel scared, then angry; however, it is not enough to simply feel fear and anger. We must also think and then act in ways that increase our freedoms and decrease that which causes harm to us. To only feel pain is to abdicate our humanity, whose greatest achievement is our ability to change our circumstances when they become disgusting, scary, or intolerable.
Revolting (3) to rise up against
Denotation: To stand up against injustices. To fight back when we are oppressed. To counteract actual sources of harms. To use our autonomy, agency, and self-determination in ways that allow us to maximize our personal and collective freedoms. To know that we are freer than we feel. To exercise the fundamental need for self-preservation. To protect not only ourselves but to protect the vulnerable lives of those around us.
Expansion: A bison weighs 2,000 pounds. A wolf about 100. When a wolf pack begins an attack against bison, what do the bison do? The bison form a tight circle. They put their bodies on defense and point their horns outward, facing the attackers. Then, encircle those who are most vulnerable—including the calves, who are smaller and without all defensive tools or skills needed to protect themselves. When the wolves come, the bison are not passive. They use their immense weight, they use their strong bodies, which are not impervious but are durable. They also use their horns. They dig into the soil, plant their feet and gore. We are not bison. They are not wolves. But we can learn from this. Defense is good but defense itself is not enough. Counteractions are good. Resistance is good. But it is not, itself enough.
Interpretation: Deaf and disabled communities have an obligation to rebel against the oppressors who intend to do us harm. This is a fight. We must fight to win, not just to survive to fight another day. “Revolution” is an idea that has lost its potency in our lives, and it is time for revolution to return to our vocabularies. We need revolutionary thoughts and revolutionary actions.
Conclusions:
Revolting. Revolting. Revolting. You need to ask yourself, where are you in this chain of events? Are you revolting, are you revolting, or are you revolting?
You may be revolting (Definition 1) if you have thrown support to “anti-DEI” efforts. If diversity, equity, inclusion, and access don’t matter to you now, they never mattered to you at all. You may be in the first stage of revolting if you are feeling scared or helpless. If so, move to the second stage—think and then act. Because additional reaction is not progress; it is the antithesis of progress. You may be revolutionary (Definition 3) if your theorizing of the world in your actions within the world are working against injustice and for greater freedoms.
Acting without thinking is to knowingly hurt others. Neutrality is not an option. Passivity, too, is no longer an option. We must not act without thinking, or only sensing or just feel. So, what next?
Is it REVOLTING > REVOLTING > REVOLTING?
No.
It is not true that revolutionaries are less powerful than reactionaries. We need to take our sense of disgust and act on it in ways that uplift not cast down.
Is it REVOLTING < REVOLTING < REVOLTING?
Yes.
It is true that we have far more power than we realize. We need to consider our situation, make thoughtful analyses, and then choose to act in ways to defend our communities from immediate harm, but moreover to advance our cause beyond the cessation of harm.
Were we safer before the reaction? Yes. But don’t forget, we were not safe then, either. We can and should do better. We must do better. For the good of ourselves and the communities that we belong to.
Not only are we are not going back. We are moving forward.
The land of the free.
They preach fairness from a house built on stolen land using stolen labor,
They preach of the value of life behind the desk that refuses to protect school children,
They preach love and acceptance while rolling back equity initiatives.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Don’t tread on me.
Yet, their own boots find comfort on the backs of others,
Yet, they remain silent when the boots of their neighbors leave imprints on the backs of others.
Law and order.
My body, my choice.
Masks are tyranny, but forced birth is a duty and God’s will.
A shot in the arm is oppression, but a dress on the wrong body is a crime.
Sacred bodies are obedient bodies.
One nation under God.
Love thy neighbor.
Love your neighbor, but only if they pray right, love right, look right, if they fit neatly and quietly within your margins of comfort.
All lives matter.
Violence is not the answer.
They call it peacekeeping, They call it order, but the state was built on blood, on chains, on genocide.They say violence is never the answer, but it has always been theirs.
Rules for thee, but not for me.
The American Dream.
They say the state should not interfere, that it should stay out of our lives, out of our pockets, and out of our bedrooms. Yet, they want the state to tell us what to believe, what to wear, what to love, who to be.
Love it or leave it.
And still, you ask us to be patient and to find common ground with those who would bury us beneath it. You scream, “all are welcome here,” refusing to acknowledge how some must bleed, some must break, and some must die for the illusion to hold. The irony is a razor’s edge, and we are bleeding.