Disability Critical Race Theory: Exploring the Intersectional Lineage, Emergence, and Potential Futures of DisCrit in Education

Abstract

In this review, we explore how intersectionality has been engaged with through the lens of disability critical race theory (DisCrit) to produce new knowledge. In this chapter, we (1) trace the intellectual lineage for developing DisCrit, (2) review the body of interdisciplinary scholarship incorporating DisCrit to date, and (3) propose the future trajectories of DisCrit, noting challenges and tensions that have arisen. Providing new opportunities to investigate how patterns of oppression uniquely intersect to target students at the margins of Whiteness and ability, DisCrit has been taken up by scholars to expose and dismantle entrenched inequities in education. I n 2016, Bresha Meadows, a 14-year-old Black girl, killed her father following years of abuse inflicted on her family. 1 Reporter Melissa Jeltsen (2017) wrote of Meadows's case: According to Bresha's family, the young girl had started to fall apart in the months leading up to the shooting. Her grades plummeted. She began cutting herself. And she ran away, telling her aunts in Cleveland that she was afraid her father might kill them all. He beat her mother in front of her, she said, and threatened them with a gun. She said she was scared for their lives. (Para 9) Although the average pretrial length of detention is 22 days (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Program, 2013), by May of 2017, Bresha had been incarcerated for over 250 days and labeled 2 with posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Bresha's story is not only about racial or gender-related violence but also about 759041R REXXX10.

“Just My Being Here is Self-Advocacy”: Exploring the Self-Advocacy Experiences of Disabled Graduate Students of Color

“…DisCrit challenges constructions of both Whiteness and ability as "the normative cultural standards" (Annamma et al, 2013, p. 12) against which difference becomes deficit. The framework builds upon a limited, but significant, genealogy of scholarship that has mapped the ways racism and ableism intersect; particularly how ableist logics and rhetoric are used to justify the marginalization of people of color (Annamma et al, 2018;Bell, 2011). DisCrit purposefully weaves together Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory (CRT) as theoretical frameworks that have independently critiqued racism and ableism as endemic to society, but which have historically resisted "joint thinking" around racism and ableism as "interconnected and collusive" (Annamma et al, 2013, p. 6).…”

“…By contrast, other participants developed advocacy strategies in response to challenges in their home environment. For example, Sam's family fought to keep him in a mainstream classroom after his K-12 school misdiagnosed him, concerned that his being in a segregated, special education would make him more vulnerable to forms of school discipline leading to incarceration (Annamma et al, 2018). As Sam entered college and sought an accurate diagnosis for accommodations, he developed "a dual advocacy" across academic and family spaces -the latter involving "being able to combat sometimes your own family who might not understand a lot of what you're going through.…”

The Role of Educational Leaders: A Case for Inclusion in Institutions of Higher Education

“…Students like John, who are both a person of color and a person with a disability, face even more complex cultural oppression. Annamma, Ferri, and Connor (2018) have developed disability critical race theory (DisCrit) to better evaluate the societal pressures placed on individuals like John. Annamma and colleagues (2018) believe these individuals experience "patterns of oppression [that] uniquely intersect to target students at the margins of Whiteness and ability" (p. 46).…”

“…5. Read the Annamma et al's (2018) article. Using the article, create talking points to discuss how IHEs might collaborate with majority-minority high schools to create enabling environments for students with disabilities who are culturally diverse.…”

Collaboration In The Technical Communication Classroom: Negotiating Team Contracts In A Pwi

“…Drawing from these theories, I build a methodological framework, which I refer to as a Feminist DisCrit (FDC) approach to teaching collaboration in TPC. While this kind of approach has been used in other disciplinary areas, it has yet to be explicitly utilized in TPC research and pedagogical frameworks (Annamma, Ferri, & Connor, 2018;Banks, 2018;Weiss, 2015). In the final portion, I give an overview of the chapters that follow.…”