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For clarification, I'm not saying disabled people who are or are seen as smart aren't oppressed. All disabled people face ableism to one degree or another.
I'm saying no disabled person is oppressed specifically because they are or are seen as smart. https://twitter.com/twitchyspoonie/status/1349233225810333696
I'm saying no disabled person is oppressed specifically because they are or are seen as smart. https://twitter.com/twitchyspoonie/status/1349233225810333696
When I asked for accommodations in school and they wouldn't give them to me because I'm "smart" (which is a social construct btw), I wasn't actually being oppressed because I was smart. I was being oppressed because I was disabled.
If the school didn't see me as smart, I would've been put into special ed, which is often extremely abusive and really its own layer of oppression. I would've been able to advocate for myself even less and much of my autonomy would've been even more stripped away.
I've experienced only the tiniest slice of what people who aren't perceived as intelligent have experienced and even then there's a marked difference.
People often don't see me as intelligent because they mistake my Tourette's for an intellectual disability or severe mental health issue.
For many, I am immediately more humanized as soon as I can speak coherent sentences and they recognize me as smart.
For many, I am immediately more humanized as soon as I can speak coherent sentences and they recognize me as smart.
There are many people who society never takes seriously or respects. People who have literally no rights because society dehumanizes them so heavily due to lack of or perceived lack of intelligence.
Not all ableism is the same and we are not oppressed for the disabilities we don't have. We are not oppressed when we don't face intellectual ableism.
In fact, if you don't face intellectual ableism, you probably usually act as an oppressor.
In fact, if you don't face intellectual ableism, you probably usually act as an oppressor.
"Smart" is an oppressor class, sorry not sorry. Intellectual ableism is one of the most severe and ingrained types of ableism in this society. And disabled people who are part of this oppressor class will often use this to throw other disabled people under the bus.
All the while crying about how we got so screwed over "because we're smart".
Yet we're often seen clamoring over each other to prove how much we're "not like *those* disabled people".
And I'm just saying we can't have it both ways.
Yet we're often seen clamoring over each other to prove how much we're "not like *those* disabled people".
And I'm just saying we can't have it both ways.
