Thursday, January 04, 2007

Ablism

A couple of weeks ago I was at the movies in Emeryvile and I saw a young man with a Greek letter fraternity crossing jacket outside the theater. The letters on the jacket were almost the letters of my fraterinty in reverse. So I approach this man and said something in my talker along the lines of "What frat is that?" This young man immediately became replused and abrubtly walking away from me saying "Get away from me." I found his actions extremely insulting but I couldn't do anything about it because he already left.
Instances like these have happened to me more than a few times because of my disability. More than a few times I had to comfront the discrimination that comes from having cerebral palsy. When I first meet people they have the notion that since I do not talk normally that I have some sort of mental retardation. I have to show them that I can engage them in intelligent discussion to prove my self worth. However I find it frustrating that I always have to prove that I am not retarded to every person I meet.
What upsets me more is when parents pass their ignorant ablist views to their children. A prime example of this was when I was at the Warriors game with my dad having a good time. At one part of the game they were passing out shirts to the audience and I was waving to get one but the people handing out the shirts ignored me. Then a boy came up to me trying to give me a shirt. Initially I for a second thought that he was one of the original ones who were passing out shirts and was going to take the shirt. However my dad quickly dismissed the boy and told me that his dad told him to give me the shirt. This angered me because I knew it was a pity gesture and the man thought he was teaching his son to be generous to the less fortunate. However I have a Master's degree and don't need his pity.