Journalist – Historian – Speaker
The New Yorker has a piece on formerly incarcerated people going to UC Berkeley. It’s long and interesting, with many good tidbits about life in prison, life in college, structural obstacles, but also genuine opportunities. But I want to quote a few bits on how awesome books are. This is Murillo. At first, he read the …
This will be used against students of color, disabled students, and especially disabled students of color. https://t.co/JcK9S3V1vv — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 21, 2016 The State of Missouri has passed a new statute that will treat school fights as a felony. With credit to the journalist Sarah Kendzior (see the tweet above), here’s how …
Here’s a nice story about Craig Blackburn, a man with Down syndrome who plays Santa. It could so easily veer fully onto the Inspiration Porn side of the disability news spectrum (it’s not an either/or), and the title does go that way. “Metairie man with Down syndrome spreads cheer now and throughout the year” suggests …
I am pleased to announce that I will be joining Pacific Standard as a regular internet columnist on politics and culture, starting in January. I will be producing reported features, opinion columns, interviews, and other pieces, focusing around history and disability rights, both construed as broadly as possible. Here’s my editor: .@PacificStand is pleased to …
Like many good pieces of journalism lately, I think this one slipped out of notice for far too many people. BuzzFeed reporter Rosalind Adams has put together an excellent expose of the way that psych wards trap individuals in order to maximize profits. Summary: Healthcare for profit is good for profit and bad for health. Which …
Two men who worked at the Judge Rotenberg Center in MA have been charged with repeated abuse of one of their clients. Some graphic details follow. Notice how the suspects use “he was dangerous” to justify their abuse. From MassLive, my emphasis. Police say video surveillance footage from the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) shows two …
Bakersfield CA police shoot 73-year-old man with dementia. No gun recovered. #DisabilitySolidarityhttps://t.co/IqoZTVnmIA pic.twitter.com/NmPxSjP3Sv — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 13, 2016 I’m working on a piece on elderly individuals killed or beaten by police. Here’s four stories from NY, IL, CA, and AL – which is to say spanning the country. Francisco Serna: Dementia, 73, …
1) Don’t taunt students. 2) Everyone is due a clear process. 3) Being an asshole is not challenging orthodoxy.https://t.co/KZUrMnFKG3 — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 14, 2016 I’m beginning to collect pieces on campus speech issues for a future essay. Johns Hopkins suspends an adjunct for racist jokes. Does so using a process that does …
Here’s a major feature on caring for two intellectually and developmentally disabled children in Australia. The parents wanted people to “know what it’s like, to advocate for more resources, more good housing options, and so forth. The critiques of this piece could be many, but here’s the one I want to focus on: The parents, …
Nancy Mairs: A great writer on disability, physicality, sex, pain, meaning, and more has passed away: Here’s the NYT obituary. Ms. Mairs was a budding poet in her late 20s, suffering from agoraphobia and depression — she had once attempted suicide — when she was told that she had M.S. The inexorable progress of the disease …