‘I was never taught about black history at my special school,’ activist and researcher Paul Christian told me.
‘As an adult, this information wasn’t available in a format I could understand. Because of that, I feel I lost a part of myself’.
Christian is among the many people who share their stories of activism and awareness-raising in my book, Double Discrimination: People of Colour with Learning Disabilities Defying Ableism and Racism, influenced by my learning disabled sister Raana. Christian was among the experts who shaped my investigation into how race and learning disability intersect; my book features his work to create a series of black history easy reads with researcher Sue Ledger and George Padmore Institute archivist (GPI) Sarah Garrod – this important work is free to access on the GPI website.
Although Christian’s work predates NDTI’s new strategy focused on inclusion, voice and system change, it clearly aligns with its essential elements:
- people do not have real choices in their lives
- people are not listened to or taken seriously
- systems make it harder, not easier, to get support.
As a journalist and author writing around these issues, and as the sibling of a learning disabled woman of colour, I welcome NDTi’s commitment to ‘actively challenge racism, discrimination and all forms of hate, recognising that many people face more than one barrier at the same time’. And with Black History Month this autumn, it is timely to consider solutions that amplify the voices of people facing racism as well as ableism.
As the work of my collaborators in Double Discrimination make clear, the intersecting layers of prejudice for people of colour with a learning disability often go unrecognised, despite the fact that systemic inequality and discrimination are widely discussed. White privilege, unconscious bias and institutional discrimination are high-profile issues, as I acknowledge in the book, but learning disabled people of colour are excluded from these conversations.
In contrast, Paul Christian’s work highlights how people with learning disabilities should have the same rights as everyone else to hear about news, current affairs and history. He encourages people to claim their right to better understand history and, as he explains in Double Discrimination: ‘By making the news and campaigns like Black Lives Matter more accessible we can be included in the fight to end racism. Understanding the history is important in taking part as a person with a learning disability in work to fight discrimination.’
I agree with Christian that ‘information is power’ and so one of the first steps in tackling racism is talking or finding some way to communicate about it. Knowing more about our histories gives us a sense of our own identities, as Christian also told me. People often see themselves as being ‘less than’, but by encouraging black history to be shared in a more accessible way, more people will be able to be proud of their culture and find out about the past.
This kind of innovative work shows what’s possible in terms of inclusion, accessibility, and in terms of how to be an ally. Real change begins only when we support, listen to, value and act on the voices of those missing from the stories we read, from the communities where we live, from the places where we work or go out.
At a time when, as NDTi stresses, ‘rights are under pressure, services are stretched, and inequality is growing’, any approach that can strengthen the rights of those who face the greatest exclusion, double discrimination, is crucial.
Or, to put it in Paul Christian’s words: ‘It’s important we speak up and claim our right to better understand history and the contributions of the black community, past and present. This gives people pride, strength and power.’
Are you ready to join the conversation?
