Those of us who are disability rights advocates have campaigned for decades for the acknowledgment of the abilities of disabled people in the United States. I can vouch that as a disabled person, the exercise of disability rights in America remains a challenge for those of us in the disabled community. Arduous efforts taking place over decades have allowed marginalized disabled people to gain a respected seat at the table. In one week, President Donald Trump managed to push the disabled’s image in the United States back to the years at the turn of the 20th Century.
The aircraft accident of January 30, 2024, was horrendous. The loss of life of over 64 people was traumatic for the nation and the world. The President of the United States offered his condolences to those who lost loved ones in the catastrophe.
However, a disturbing event occurred when President Trump blamed the accident on the policies of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In doing so, he identified disabled people as unfit to serve in an FAA capacity. The particular disabilities he targeted were hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.
The words were similar to those of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. when he wrote the majority opinion for Buck v Bell. Buck v Bell upheld the forced sterilization of people with disabilities. Holmes wrote, in 1927,
It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting for waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit for continuing their kind – three generations of imbeciles is enough.
President Trump’s discourse and rhetoric reinforce the antiquated stereotype of disabled people and further marginalize the disability community. Ableists will use such an influential figure’s characterization of the disabled to harass further, harm, and deny the hard-won civil rights of the disabled.
It was a sorrowful note in the history of the United States regarding the treatment of its disabled citizens.
Below is a link a Washington Post article concerning the incident.
George S. Fuller, Ed.D.