5SR - July 13, 2023

Qudsiya is the creator and host of the podcast, Down to the Struts, which explores disability, design, and intersectionality. She’s thrilled to announce that the seventh season is dropping on July 18, just in time for Disability Pride Month! You can also subscribe to Qudsiya’s newsletter, Getting Down to It, for updates. When she’s not podcasting, Qudsiya loves organizing adaptive sports adventures through the Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes.

Low And Slow: A Series On Food And Disability (Eater)

I’m planning to dive into this series about food and disability featuring Alice Wong, and several other luminaries of the disability community (with audio narration from the incredible Cheryl Green) with the same zeal that I employ when shoving my face into a steaming bowl of ramen.

Even though a series of health crises resulted in the installation of a feeding tube, Alice reveres and enjoys the rituals of food and eating as an essential aspect of who she is. Having experienced vision loss, I know something of what it is to lose an aspect of your senses, and also what it is to hold past visual experiences close without sadness, taking on the new sensations of a darkened world and allowing life to go on.

Take in this series with whichever senses you’re able—you won’t regret it.

Can Americans Really Make A Free Choice About Dying? (The Nation)

This is a powerful read about the deep history of disabled communities battling against medical aid in dying that is often left out of the conversation about “assisted suicide.”

As we saw during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, disabled people’s lives are routinely devalued and deprioritized by the medical system. They are similarly more likely to live in poverty, experience high rates of unemployment, and lack the care necessary to live in their communities. As such, when faced with compounding health crises, making the decision to live is complicated by the choices available and the quality of that life.

Wherever you stand on this issue, this is a critical perspective that is so frequently obscured by moral and religious-based arguments against medical aid in dying.

Activism, Adaptation, or Awareness? (Disability Thinking Monthly)

As someone who has worked in advocacy and movement spaces, I’ve often grappled with the question of tactics, and where I fit in.

I really appreciated Andrew Pulrang’s discussion of this question when it comes to moving the needle to dismantle ableism. This is a great read if you’re trying to think through how to approach a problem, what you want to accomplish, and the tactics that will best help you get there at any given time.

More Than 100 U.S. Political Elites Have Family Ties to Slavery (Reuters)

This is a long read, but an extraordinary piece of investigative journalism. I can’t say I was terribly surprised at the huge number of political leaders whose ancestry includes individuals who enslaved black people, but I hope this marks the beginning of a true reckoning with the past.

Other countries, like South Africa, have engaged in truth and reconciliation to heal from the sins of the past. So many American leaders refer to slavery as our “original sin,” but we’ve never been able to confront it head on. Perhaps this reporting might present a start to that process.

Debunking Migration Myths: The Real Reasons People Move, And Why Most Migration Happens in the Global South (The Conversation UK)

I’ll close today with a really smart listen. My dear friend, Avery Anapol, confers with experts about the actual trends in global migration—debunking the myth of a migration crisis where floods of people are moving from the global south to the global north.

I love a good debunking session, in this certainly delivers on that score. For example, only a third of overall migration takes place between the global south and the global north. Definitely take a listen for more myth-busting on this often misunderstood topic.