I foresee & have been warned, that my continual speak of prejudice is very likely considered unexciting or, at worst, readers may regard it to be derived from a pity-me mentality. The later is certainly not the case and I do apologize if this redundancy is in fact unexciting. Spreading awareness of the covert prejudice engrained in our society, however, is far more important to me than catering to pre-conceived preferences of my audience.
My commitment to sharing of my personal encounters (far from all) with ableism, exist in order to raise awareness of the abundance of prejudice still engrained in our society. After-all, once something is ingrained, it’s particularly hard to dispel! I am very aware that this is nothing new, and has certainly bettered substantially with time, but isn’t it time that we, as a global community, rise above prejudice in totality?! That’s over ambitious, I do realize, but further progression IS extremely reasonable and I aim to assist in catapulting it.
“Sociological and psychological research consistently finds that prejudice is a common human phenomenon. The United Nations considers it a global concern that requires a universal effort to combat”
Spreading awareness is the least I can do to facilitate this awareness and resulting reform. This is easily done, seeing as I’m only sharing a fraction of my personal experiences with prejudice. I’ve referred to single instances of my experience with ableism in past posts, as ableism is a prevalent subset of prejudice inherent within the communities I’ve inhabited amidst recovery. Yes, disability rights have come a LONG way, but there’s still along way to go for us (the disabled) to be shown equal respect.
“Ableism towards individuals with severe brain injuries is a prevalent and often subtle form of prejudice, especially within educated communities
Examples of ableism include:
Negative/discriminatory attitudes towards and lack of knowledge about people with disabilities” – University of New Hampshire
I chose to feature this particular example specifically, as it describes precisely what I’ve experienced & continue to encounter.
A personal example:
A few days ago, I was texting with a long ago (14 years past) friend of mine from the bay about uniting, when I realized, repeatedly, that her answers to my questions were non-sensible. There was such a prevalence of this within said messages, that it became clear, her intention was to misguide me cognitively: an attempt to exemplify & take advantage of my disability. I resultantly called her out (my fire is returning!) nearly instantaneously and then deleted them, having no desire to give anymore thought or credence to her disrespect.
She refused to even acknowledge the prejudice she routinely employed after I called her out, specifically, repeatedly! These messages of mine calling her out went unreturned. They weren’t particularly men, just honest. The reality that she chose to not even acknowledge her own enaction of this ableism, was infuriating to me for a brief time.
Appreciation then overwhelmed this fury as now I know of yet another individual that I have no wish to reconnect with.