Sunday Roundup – Police Violence, Gender Norming, Dissertations

It’s been a busy week of writing and I hope you are enjoying this holiday weekend. Most of the week was spent on the cult of compliance and police violence. I started with a piece on CNN on 4 police killings of people with mental health issues. I argued that we need to think about psychiatric disability … Continue ReadingSunday Roundup – Police Violence, Gender Norming, Dissertations

#CultofCompliance – Living while Black

Here are four stories literally just from last night (they happened at different times, but made news yesterday). They illustrate the way racism enables and is enabled by the cult of compliance. The cult provides an intersectional lens in which race and class dominate the middle, with disability not far behind. When these categories overlap in … Continue Reading#CultofCompliance – Living while Black

Cult of Compliance – Psychiatric Disability with Weapons

“They reacted based upon the training that they’ve been given from the academy. We were thankful that no officer was injured from protecting themselves from risk of great bodily harm.” I have a new piece on CNN today about police killings of people with psychatric disabilities. I argue that we need to view these cases … Continue ReadingCult of Compliance – Psychiatric Disability with Weapons

Slouching Towards Soft Authoritarianism – Cult of Compliance in New York and Brooklyn (magazines)

As most of you know, last week Al Jazeera America published my essay on the “cult of compliance,” something I’ve been working on for a long time. Thanks to everyone who read it and shared it. The response has been thoughtful and wide-ranging, just as I would have hoped. Today I am sharing two pieces … Continue ReadingSlouching Towards Soft Authoritarianism – Cult of Compliance in New York and Brooklyn (magazines)

Dawkins and Down Syndrome – He’s trolling us. Don’t feed him.

Today, the disability social webs are packed with irate tweets, posts, essays, and diatribes against Richard Dawkins. I’m not linking to his twitter account or the reports, but he said that the only moral decision was to abort foetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome, that such wasn’t eugenics, and otherwise ranted on for hours. I’m glad … Continue ReadingDawkins and Down Syndrome – He’s trolling us. Don’t feed him.