Journalist – Historian – Speaker
What is the NDSS position on using vouchers to privatize special education. Has NDSS taken money from Devos or anyone connected to DeVos? NDSS has a new emphasis on human rights, but every employee on your website presents as white. What is your diversity plan? What is the NDSS position on the Affordable Care Act …
Emmett Till was a disabled black boy murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. An author has found the white woman, interviewed her, and in a widely shared Vanity Fair piece, told a reporter that the woman admitted she lied. This is not a shock that she lied, it is useful that she admits it, …
I’m contracted to write 6 columns a month for Pacific Standard Magazine. I might actually write more or less depending on how long they are, what news cycles require response, or whatever. But for January, I have now published 6 pieces. They are, in reverse order: Maria Town was the disability community liaison over the …
I know it’s all been King Trump stuff lately, but I find it endlessly riveting/completely terrifying. Under the hashtag #NewVersailles, I’ve been watching the various ways in which Trump operates within a court culture, rather than a bureaucratic culture. I intend to write up about the classic “problem of counsel” this will create when things …
Good piece in the New York Times: “For Trump, everything is a rating.” He, like many celebrities, has a long history of lying. Celebrity culture is also filled with paid PR folks maintaining bubbles of celebration. Celebrities have support staff dedicated to maintaining their bubbles. (Even Mr. Trump’s bringing staff members to cheer him at events …
UPDATED with the French and clarifications. Marine Le Pen made an interesting claim for those of us tracking the use of history to bolster European racism: France’s presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has told a far-right conference “2016 was the year the Anglo Saxon world woke up”. The Front National leader was among anti-immigration and …
Google made a Doodle of Ed Roberts, the legendary disability rights activist! Description: A drawing of Ed Roberts, a man in a wheelchair with red shirt and grey pants, speaking into a microphone, oxygen tube in the corner of his mouth (as was true in so many pictures of him!). He’s in a classroom setting, …
Cory Booker (Sen-NJ), after laying out all the lawsuits that Scott Pruitt, now nominated to head the EPA, has participated in on behalf of polluters (against the EPA). Booker asked: Do you know how many kids in Oklahoma have asthma? Pruitt: I do not Senator. It turns out about 400,000. 10%. He’s never “represented” those …
I find the New York Times “disability” column on lives and identities, all written by disabled people, important and fascinating. It’s created a silo for disability on the page, which is better than no place at all, but still shows a lack of more systematic engagement with disability rights. But the NYT byline is a …
When someone says they will be “sensitive” to the needs of people with disabilities, I get nervous. Being sensitive is like “awareness” campaigns. It doesn’t do anything. One: Hassan and DeVos on vouchers and special ed. Hassan – It’s not just ideas, but how they work in practice. Two: Kaine and DeVos (DeVos – Leave …