Book Review: Care Work, Dreaming Disability Justice

“More care, more of the time.”

This book definitely exposed my ignorance as someone who is currently abled. Before this book, I could acknowledge my privilege in this status, but did not recognize the impermanence of it. It is quite common and extremely ableist to view disabilities as something temporary, as something to be overcome. As if disabled, sick, and neurodivergent folks are somehow living less valuable lives than us abled people. This thought process is clearly promoted by media, reality television shows, and healthcare professionals. And it can easily sneak its way into my mind as well, which is why I’m so glad I found this book and encourage all to read it.

As the title indicates, the book focuses on care work; how to build care webs, create networks, be an ally, and not overuse your spoons. It also touches on the history of care work and why some folks may resist it as a model for healing. Below are some notes that stuck out in particular.

• Care work is gendered, classed, and racial. It’s important to ask, Who’s getting cared for? Who’s doing the caring? Who feels comfortable asking for or accepting care?

• Care webs do not have to be huge or professional to be valuable. They can and should incorporate joy!

• Disabled, sick, and neurodivergent folks have their “own cultures, histories, and skills” that abled folks can learn from. Everyone is the expert of their own body and experience.

• Disabled people everywhere are doing care work for themselves and each other. They are not only the receivers of it!

• Healing justice is not about “fixing” or “curing” someone! Breaking news: Not everyone wants to be able-bodied or neurotypical! This is not inherently better.

• Abled people need to “stop forgetting about disability and access… Normalize access and disability. Learn about disabled cultures and histories... Realized you are or will be us…”

“We have ancestral shame to heal. We have disabled lineages to honor. Let’s get to it.”

Book Review: Pleasure Activism

“Ultimately, pleasure activism is us learning to make justice and liberation the most pleasurable experience we can have on this planet.”

This isn’t really a review, more like a few notes from the book that I really appreciated. But for what it’s worth, I’d give this book 5 stars, 10/10, A+ etc. I’m excited to get my hands on more work by adrienne maree brown as soon as possible.

• On radical self-love

  • “Let’s call it: You will not move through this room and not know there is a Black femme in here who loves herself at least as diligently as oppression denies her. You will not have to guess. You will not not see her. She is not hiding from herself.” - Alexis Pauline Gumbs

  • Caring for ourselves is “not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre Lorde

• On boundaries

  • “What would I be doing with my time and energy if I made decisions based on a feeling of deep, erotic, orgasmic yes?” - adrienne maree brown

  • “Your ‘No’ makes room for your ‘Yes.’” - adrienne maree brown

    (mynomakesroomformyyesmynomakesroomformyyesmynomakesroomformyyes)

• On Capitalism and the body

  • “…forced exploitation of regular, everyday capitalism” - Chanelle Gallant

    means we are all selling our bodies. We sell our ability to work, our presence at workspaces, our appearance, our smiles, our professionalism…

  • “The problem isn’t sex work: the problem is that there is no escape for women and femmes from the expectation that we will perform sexual labor for men on demand.” - Chanelle Gallant

  • “Getting good wages is the harm reduction of capitalism, and poor/ working-class women and femmes are entitled to demand money and take joy in their cash.” - Chanelle Gallant

    (PERIOD!)

  • “The body is not an apology.” - Sonya Renee Taylor

    Again, for the people in the back. THEBODYISNOTANAPOLOGY.

Book Review: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

During my last semester at college I had the chance to take a class called Green Indigineity. The class discussed various forms of colonization; settler colonialism, globalization, and neocolonialism all from the perspectives of various Indigenous peoples. In many ways this class exposed me to truths I had never even considered before. Through previous research I had some understanding of how the National Parks System violently displaced Native Americans and stole often the most valuable land and resources, but the class taught me about the ancestral traditions and belief systems that made these offenses so truly abhorrent.

The class increased my interest to learn more about how the United States continues to perpetuate a system of colonial oppression for Indigenous peoples here and around the world. That interest led me to this book. Due to its size and heavy topics, it has the potential to deter some readers. However, I found the book quite useful in learning big picture ideas by not worrying about memorizing every date and name and instead focusing on the details of a few events while holding onto the larger themes of others. Though this book is full of information about the history of the Americas from initial European settlement to now (with a brief intro about pre-European America), below I will list just a few of the takeaways that interested or surprised me most.

• The British colonization of Ireland acted as a model for the colonization of “the Americas” and the slaughter of its Indigenous people. The tradition of scalping was even carried over from European traditions there.

• By sending Black soldiers who had fought in the Civil War out West, the US military avoided disturbing predominantly white East Coast cities with large populations of Black men and also gained force in eradicating Native Americans. These “buffalo soldiers” were meant to continue the displacement of Natives and to squash any rebellions.

• The US military continues to use and exploit Indigenous names and words as military jargon in its campaigns to further neocolonialism around the world. In fact the name for enemy territory used in official military documents is “Indian country.” These misuses are a disrespect almost unimaginable.

Of course there were many things I picked up from this book and I now recommend it to anyone who will listen. Give it a read and pass it on. The subject matter is heavy but knowledge is power.