Yes, “Model Minority” Can Apply to Disabled Folx Too.

When someone from a low-income community is thriving and/or giving back to their community, they are often idolized as the “example” for other people of the same economic status to follow. When someone who has a history of addiction remains clean after treatment, the same people who idolized the person mentioned before place the recovered person on a pedestal above people who have not recovered from an addiction, simply on the basis that they believe addiction is a choice (News flash: It’s not and there is research that supports this!). For people of color who obtain a college degree, white society separates them from people of color who do not have degrees (although we need to note that regardless of education level, systemic racism is a very real problem).

What do all of the folx above have in common? Well, yes they are widely marginalized groups, but the ones being idolized in particular are considered “model minorities”.

A model minority, simply put, is a high achieving individual in a group that is highly disadvantaged by society. On the surface, this can sound like a compliment. However, when we really dissect the idea, it becomes clear that privileged, mostly white conservatives are subconsciously thinking “wow, I wonder how *insert marginalized group* were able to get this far”. Due to ignorance, intentional or not, many of us don’t realize that we very well may be the ones who created the barriers, or that idolizing only certain subsets of populations is actually a backhanded compliment. It makes the person on the receiving end feel like they were not believed in to begin with, and it fucking sucks.

Okay, now that we are on the same page, who did I leave out? If you guessed people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, you’re damn right!

Ever heard that stupid phrase,“pull yourself up by the bootstrap”? Whether you have or have not, it might strike you as contributing to the model minority narrative, or just plain ableist. Besides, have you tried standing up holding a bootstrap that is physically on your foot? I don’t even think the ableds can do that…

Anyway, let’s not get too derailed here. The main point there is that people with disabilities who have jobs, go to school, and/or do not receive government benefits are seen as people to be looked up to just because they happen to have the ability to do so. Not everyone has that privilege, but I do and I have to keep that in check, and being seen as a model minority is frustrating because everyone is telling you how inspirational you are. This even happens when you’re only at the store because you forgot the one God damn item you went in for at Target hours before! I’m not saying that I don’t see myself as a boss bitch, it’s just that this anti-compliment makes me feel like I am disabled first and a human second (I will talk about this more in future posts). This is not drastically different from how calling a person of color who you have never met inspirational for doing an essential activity is weird, and frankly dehumanizing. If a subgroup of people in an oppressed group is seen as superior, that makes those of us who exert all of the energy we have into existing and fighting inequities feel like we aren’t already doing a lot, when the reality is that we are doing more than the average privileged white person just to get by.

The bottom line: People with disabilities, like people in many other disadvantaged groups, are bad asses who are doing their best in the utterly screwed up society that we live in. We ALL slay and are here to stay!