Scapegoating People with Disabilities

Always a handy position to take—not quite as politically charged as blaming other disenfranchised groups.

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

Back in the dark ages of the early 1990’s, I was part of a group of people with disabilities that formed a Democratic Club called The FDR Democratic Club for People with Disabilities and Seniors. If you do this by the book, you can endorse candidates and send out those annoying post cards to voters around election time. You can also interview candidates (who want your endorsement), and see where they stand on the issues your group cares about.

As one of the founders of this group, I met a bunch of local politicians, from Nancy Pelosi to Willie Brown. (My pals also got to meet Bill Clinton, but I opted out of that event for reasons that elude me today—nothing to do with Clinton personally.)

One of the first politicians I got to see in person was Frank Jordan, who was running for Mayor. I think that occasion was something of an impetus for us starting our club.

This was during a retrofit of Candlestick Park, then the stadium for the SF Giants (and the 49ers, I think.) Jordan had been quoted in newspaper as blaming the accessibility retrofits required by law (the law gets triggered if you are doing other remodeling over $50k) for the inevitable cost overruns that were irritating locals.

Disability activists invited Jordan to meet with the disability community at a meeting scheduled to be held at the Lighthouse for the Blind, which was a central location and known for disability activism.

Jordan was unprepared for the onslaught of questions about what he had been quoted as saying—it was him doing the Out-of-Context-I-Don’t-Recall-Shuffle in front of angry crips of all ages, shapes, and disabilities. I believe that was the year Brown defeated Jordan in the Mayoral election.

Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

The Orange Menace-Let’s Blame Plane Crashes on the Disabled

As part of 47’s I-am-a-hammer-so-everything-else-is-a-DEI-nail mindset, he immediately associated the plane crash with DEI hiring policies at the FAA. He even read a statement from somewhere (not in ANYBODY’S HR manual as he read it!), which said the FAA was recruiting people with all types of disabilities.

Of course, it must be the fault of someone who was completely unqualified and unable to the job! 47 said he knew this because, he told a reporter, “…I have common sense.”

None of this surprised me. I was disappointed that almost no one pointed out that DEI or no, the FAA or elsewhere—just about everything he said in reference to employment for people with disabilities was wrong, false, and ignorant.

For example, an underlying principle of disability rights law in regard to employment emphasizes that a job candidate who has a disability must be “otherwise qualified” to the job. They “must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation” the essential functions of the job.

47 would not pass this threshold test, IMHO.

DEI and People with Disabilities

In my limited (to one employer) experience, the DEI programs almost forgot entirely about the need to include people with disabilities in the creation of DEI policies, practices, and implementation. They hire or appoint people who know little to nothing about the issues of inclusion and belonging confronted by people with disabilities every day.

At my former employer, DEI was also on its way out as a bad job before 47 was even elected.

I know that the real story in 47’s case, was supposed to be about the plane crash, not about employees with disabilities, but please media folks—this tangential shit needs to be fact checked whenever possible. People hear it and don’t know how wrong it is, on so many levels.

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