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A review by pangnaolin
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Wow. And I thought I knew a lot about being Disabled!
Okay, I'm joking. I do know a lot about being Disabled, simply because I am, but this brought so many new ideas to light for me. I adored getting to hear so much new information about how disability exited in Native American communities-- the existence of Plain Sign Language, and how true disability was about imbalance of mind, body, and spirit instead of something like an inability to walk, and even how it was often believed that Disability was born of straying from the path you should walk.
So many of Nielsen's stories stick with me, now. I think often of Samuel Coolidge and how he was a community responsibility-- cared for [if you could call it that] and tolerated until he could no longer serve the purpose of working in schools, and then being locked up. I think of those enslaved people on the Middle Passage, thrown overboard for becoming disabled along the way. I think about how immigrants were screened for being likely to become a public charge-- for being queer, Jewish, effeminate in any way [a small penis was enough], disabled, pregnant, poor, and most things, really. I think about the woman who were forcibly sterilized and pushed into insane asylums for the crime of having been raped. I think of the Hiawatha Insane Asylum.
Nielsen taught me so much in such a short read. Her writing is so beautiful and succinct, and her choice in stories really drew it together. A Disability History of the US was never a drag, even when it was difficult. It became clearer to me that Disability is not just about being with limited physical or mental capacity to function, but how much you are perceived as undesirable or difficult. Being 'ugly' is enough to be disabled. Knowing this now, I see it in every day. I see the argument that trans people are mentally ill-- disabled, so to speak. I see much more than I did before.
I don't think I'll ever look at the history of my country, or of my community, the same way. Please, do read this. It's worth what you'll take from it.
Okay, I'm joking. I do know a lot about being Disabled, simply because I am, but this brought so many new ideas to light for me. I adored getting to hear so much new information about how disability exited in Native American communities-- the existence of Plain Sign Language, and how true disability was about imbalance of mind, body, and spirit instead of something like an inability to walk, and even how it was often believed that Disability was born of straying from the path you should walk.
So many of Nielsen's stories stick with me, now. I think often of Samuel Coolidge and how he was a community responsibility-- cared for [if you could call it that] and tolerated until he could no longer serve the purpose of working in schools, and then being locked up. I think of those enslaved people on the Middle Passage, thrown overboard for becoming disabled along the way. I think about how immigrants were screened for being likely to become a public charge-- for being queer, Jewish, effeminate in any way [a small penis was enough], disabled, pregnant, poor, and most things, really. I think about the woman who were forcibly sterilized and pushed into insane asylums for the crime of having been raped. I think of the Hiawatha Insane Asylum.
Nielsen taught me so much in such a short read. Her writing is so beautiful and succinct, and her choice in stories really drew it together. A Disability History of the US was never a drag, even when it was difficult. It became clearer to me that Disability is not just about being with limited physical or mental capacity to function, but how much you are perceived as undesirable or difficult. Being 'ugly' is enough to be disabled. Knowing this now, I see it in every day. I see the argument that trans people are mentally ill-- disabled, so to speak. I see much more than I did before.
I don't think I'll ever look at the history of my country, or of my community, the same way. Please, do read this. It's worth what you'll take from it.