A Message from Theo Braddy: The Narrative Remains

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This is Theo Braddy, Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living, bringing you a new message. This one I am calling “The Narrative Remains”.

History cannot be changed; the narrative remains!

Some might have you believe that history can be rewritten — that by telling it differently, the outcome becomes something newly created.

It’s hard to believe that I even need to write about this, but here it is.

There are those who would have us believe that people with disabilities are now the oppressors of those without disabilities — non-disabled Americans.

Some might say this idea is ridiculous, that the statement makes no sense. But I dare to say that in these days and these times, it does.

So, the question you’re asking me is: how can people with disabilities be the oppressors of people without disabilities?

That is the state we are in right now.

But history has not changed. It remains the same.

Let me remind you of a few things:

• It was not people with disabilities who institutionalized people without disabilities.
• It was not people with disabilities who experimented on people without disabilities.
• It was not people with disabilities who created the “ugly laws,” preventing people without disabilities from being seen in public.
• It was not people with disabilities who kept people without disabilities locked in back rooms, stigmatized by society as evil or possessed.
• It was not people with disabilities who abandoned or killed people without disabilities.
• It was not people with disabilities who locked people without disabilities in asylums, where they faced neglect, abuse, rape, and inhumane living conditions.
• It was not people with disabilities who forcibly sterilized people without disabilities.
• It was not people with disabilities who paid people without disabilities sub-minimum wages.
• It is not people with disabilities who say that people without disabilities cannot be employed or are unemployable.
• It is not people with disabilities who prevent people without disabilities from riding buses, using taxis, booking an Uber, or even flying on airplanes.
• It is not people with disabilities who insist that students without disabilities should be placed in separate classrooms.
• It is not people with disabilities who deny medical treatment to patients without disabilities.
• It is not people with disabilities who refuse to enforce laws that provide people without disabilities equal protection under the law.

So, if history cannot be changed and the narrative remains the same, then who is really the oppressor?

Am I now expected to believe that all of this never happened?

Must I now treat everyone as if history never created an advantage for some and a disadvantage for others?

Must I now believe that everything is equitable? That we have a level playing field?

Must I now believe that the wrongs of the past no longer affect my present or my future?

Must I now believe that people with disabilities are no longer oppressed — that everything is right with the world?

Am I forced to believe this? Are we being forced to believe this?

Am I not seeing what I’m seeing? Am I not feeling what I’m feeling?

Do I have it all wrong?

Because this is what I see. This is what I feel.

A slow erasure of our history — of the discrimination and oppression faced by people with disabilities.

No more Section 504. No more ADA. No more Affordable Care Act. No more access.

No need for equitable healthcare.
No need for accessible travel.
No need for employment.
No need for our civil rights to be enforced.

Should I ask the question from that movie: Are we there yet?

We are not there yet.

We are not even close.

History cannot be changed. The narrative remains the same.

Let me say that again, history cannot be changed. The narrative remains the same.

This is Theo Braddy. Executive Director of NCIL. Until next time, be well.

Theo Braddy

Executive Director

National Council on Independent Living

About NCIL

NCIL is the longest-running national cross-disability grassroots organization, driven by and dedicated to people with disabilities. Since its founding in 1982, NCIL has represented thousands of organizations and individuals, advocating tirelessly for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities across the United States.