Theme of Disability in Erevelles' Articles Essay Example

An important trend involved in disability studies is determining the overall impact of outside statistics on individuals. There are many key factors to consider to help identify how to support those within the disabled community. And one of the more culturally significant factors to consider is race. People of different races receive different treatment and face different challenges regardless of their disability. This is demonstrated in detail by "Race" by Nirmala Erevelles and "Unspeakable Offenses" by Nirmala Erevelles and Andrea Minear. In her articles, Everelles uses the focus on more current events in  “Unspeakable Offenses” to demonstrate the impact of joining the issues of disability and race on specific individuals, and how the analytical mindset of historical events “Race” explore the connection between disability and race and how larger groups were impacted, to ultimately demonstrate the historical progression, significant and pointless harm between communities, and the effect on the focused groups and individuals provided. 

To start, a key difference between the two works that tie the overall messaging together is the focus on historical timing. This also plays into the focus on individuals involved in these events. “Unspeakable Offenses” deals with more modern events and trends and specific individuals, like the case of Cassie Smith. “On her first day at DAWN, Cassie tried desperately to fit in … but she was met with wariness.”(Erevelles and Minear 136). The example of Cassie Smith is continued from the historical event of Junius Wilson, but this is ultimately done to enhance the modern significance of what is taking place. Cassie Smith provides a direct example for how disabilities impact minorities. She is judged by the fact she is farther from the set standard appearance than her peers, and she struggles to make connections in school. In contrast, “Race” spends more time providing information on more historical events and broader groups of individuals to try to get the reader to have the reader naturally for connections to the modern day, rather than providing them. “These oppressive overtones continued to echo from within the Enlightenment discourses of the early eighteenth century … extended not only to Jewish Americans, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indian women but also to lower-class white women based on their assumed shared ‘biological’ inferiority.” (Erevelles 146). This example moves away from the specific  example previously provided that took place recently. Instead, we get the historical development of the eugenics practice during the Enlightenment period and the groups of people that were harmed for the purpose of maintaining the white structure of society. Instead of a specific individual being focused on, all races and potential individuals are involved in the effects of the practice. What really stands out is that there are even individuals who were white who were harmed by this racist practice because of their perceived disability, which goes to show that racism can expand to harm the entire disabled community. These examples employ different views on this joint issue, but they come together to complete a full picture. Learning the experience Cassie Smith had in school provides an individual that can be related to by the targeted audience and create a direct emotional attachment for the reader. When referenced with the example of eugenics, readers can infer how long discrimination around disabled minorities has been taking place and that there are more people being impacted than individuals like Cassie Smith. 

The focuses of each work are continued from the opening insights provided to the reader. This is done to provide the agenda that leads to these issues taking place. “Unspeakable Offenses” begins by acknowledging the events that led to the death of Eleanor Bumpurs directly from the summary of Patricia Williams. This is done to provide a direct example of how race and disability cause problems not only within this violent event, but how they are also used divisively to push a viewpoint. “In this quote, Williams recognizes Eleanor Bumpurs’s disability when invoking her arthritis and possible mental illness. However, Williams deploys disability merely as a descriptor, a difference that is a matter of ‘magnitude’ or ‘context,’ what another Critical Race Feminist scholar, Angela Harris, has described as ‘nuance theory.’”(Erevelles and Minear 128). This provides the reader an example of how disability is used in regards to racial issues to push agendas by emotionally guiding people with irrelevant information. Patricia Williams, in her report about Eleanor Bumpurs, references her disabed status as somehow being involved in her mistreatment and death by law enforcement. In scenarios like this, the disabled community becomes connected to the same racial issues being discussed and, as a result, face the same consequences and harm. “Race” has a similar opening for readers to grasp onto, as it references the general use of race and disability in regards to politics. “Disability has often been described as being ‘like race’ and race as being ‘like disability’ in attempts to shift the experience of disability from the debilitating conceptual space of individual pathology to a broader social recognition of disabled people as members of a political minority.”(Erevelles 145). Going off the previous focus, this is not a specific example, rather a general trend that has persisted through historical developments. The comparison of gender and race to push agendas for the other minority group ultimately leads to practices like eugenics having broader and more negative consequences. These examples go to show that race and disability are not used for purely good intentions. They are put in each other’s way to push forward political movements, which hurts more people in the end.

Looking at the progression of each article, Everelles uses her works to provide two separate focuses that correlate in a similar argument. Despite the two having the same author, each has a different focus in regards to the importance of the population being impacted. In “Unspeakable Offenses,” Everelles makes it a priority to highlight specific individuals, unlike in “Race,” where events are also referenced, but there are no specific individual attachments for the reader to take in, instead providing a wide arrange of groups. The examples of Eleanor Bumprus, Junius Wilson, and Cassie Smith are all situations specific to the individuals that can be expanded to others. This is a direct approach towards the pathos of the readers as there is empathy for the individuals portrayed. There is also concern due to the recency of these events and the broader implications they could have on others. “Race” applies the broader implications from “Unspeakable Offenses” to historical events and trends. Instead of specific individuals, Everelles instead references the groups involved that are impacted by the connections of disability and race. Everelles expands this approach to create a wider disadvantaged group to create a strong appeal to logos, explaining that connecting minorities to disability hurts all disabled individuals which, in this case, would be disabled white people, particularly women. The historical connection to the specific individuals of the current day also indicate that the harm of disabled individuals has been occuring throughout history, which completes the appeal to logos by forming a complete progression over history of how disabilities and race are connected, as well as pathos by creating empathy for people who are suffering from the problems that have not been mended. Everelles provides a similar, if not the same, argument in both works, but provides two different understandings of race in disability. The focuses of each work align with each other despite prioritizing different information and applications.

It is intriguing that one author can provide two different focuses. With “Unspeakable Offenses” and “Race,” Everelles is able to provide two different methods that work well with each other. The specific modern examples combine with the broad historical trends to fully appeal to the reader. This ultimately leads to Everelles providing a full and sophisticated understanding of the relationship between disability and race and the issues that stem from the joining of the two.