*Sigh* What I heard on the radio, within the last hour:

[capri0mni]

I'm afraid this may come across as: "My oppression is more oppressive than your oppression."

That makes me uncomfortable, and I don't want to be the sort of person who says / thinks that. BUT:

The context was a discussion on a call-in radio show (NPR: Talk of the Nation, not that it really matters) about the violence in American football, and the threat of concussion, and early onset dementia that can come from that. And the guest was saying: "American football is supposed to be violent, and that's why Americans watch it, and buy tickets to see games, and I love all the violence, it makes it fun!" (paraphrased, but not much of an exaggeration).

And the question came up of whether American football tackles should be more like rugby, and thus reduce the risk of concussion. And the guest said:

"But that leads to arthritis. And now [retired football player whose name I did not recognize] has arthritis in both knees, and walks with two canes. Which is worse?"

And the show's host just let the question hang there, and did nothing to challenge it.
_________________

And I hate that having a visible disability is such a taboo that people can even think, for a minute, that losing your knees might be worse than losing your mind, and your personality, slowly, over time.

Why is this even a question!?!?

Now if my mother were here, she'd say (regarding the guest): "Consider the source." The person saying this stupid thing is a former athlete, who lives and works among athletes, so for him: his physical ability is his personality.

Except it's not just from him, and his ilk, that we get this ... this... instinctual revulsion, this hatred disguised as charity. It's from writers for TV and Movies, who write: "The disabled get all this money thrown at them with grants" (Last Thursday's CSI:). It's from architects who put the only wheelchair accessible entrance down at the end of dark alleys, because they "Don't want to compromise the visual integrity of the facade." It's from radio talk show hosts who hear: "Which is worse?" and don't reply with at least a: "Wait... What?"

*sigh*

I have a love-hate relationship with my species, right now.

Comments

[jekesta]

I totally don't think that comes across as one-up-man's-ship in oppression stakes. I think it comes across as OH MY GOD.

[megaptera]

I have a love-hate relationship with professional athletes. No wait, I pretty much just hate them.

[capri0mni]

Heh.

Well, to be fair, this was radio, so maybe the host didn't reply because he was too busy facepalming at the STUPID.

But somehow, I doubt it... :-/

[capri0mni]

I try not to hate them, on principle. I mean, they can't really help it if their bodily-kinethetic intelligence is on the genius level, and maybe they verbal, or mathematical intelligence isn't, so they can't do as well with other forms of work. And, in theory, they could be in the same class as actors and visual artists, who are paid to perform for us in a kind of theatrical way...

I try ... And in theory.

But: Power corrupts. And the way our culture puts them on golden pedestals invites many of them to be absolute jerks.

*Sigh*

[jesse_the_k]

Spot on. sigh.

Talk of the Nation's first host might have made some snarky comment at that point -- John Hockenberry turned the "latest news from collapse of Soviet Union" into "daily 2 hour talk show" in 1991. Hockenberry got into public radio a few years after he sustained an SCI, and he's done some excellent reporting on disability issues. Including a very pessimistic prediction of the ADA which looks tragically correct in hindsight. He also wrote a lovely memoir Moving Violations: Wheelchairs, War Zones, and Declarations of Independence .

[capri0mni]

Thanks for the links... the second one is slightly more cheering than the first.

(And yeah, the reliance on lawsuits for enforcement of the ADA is the real kicker. And it felt, 20 years ago, for a minute, like a victory.)

Oh, the irony.