After more than a decade advocating for Intersectional Disability Justice, I received the honor of being voted the first Co-Chair of the Seattle Disabilities Commission who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color. Ever since, I have turbo-charged my advocacy and study of intersectional disability and fought for the amplification of voices and lived experiences of people whose intersectionality included one or more disability, a non-White racial identity, and other socially marginalized intersections. This work has also brought to light the horrendous lack of awareness or representation of intersectionally disabled people — especially Black Autistic folks like myself.
In eight minutes, Vivian Hua — writer, filmmaker, and executive director of Northwest Film Forum — unwraps Islamophobia in her crowdfunded short film “Searching Skies.” A Christian family has invited a Syrian refugee family to share Christmas dinner. The couple’s college-age nephew does not welcome the guests. The refugee father, Hamza (Kal Maleh), and his wife Amira (Nour Bitar) — both real-life Syrian refugees — suffer the hostility of the young man.
Rainier Beach is the new gentrification ground zero. I have a front row seat. I recently celebrated my seventh anniversary of being a homeowner. I have watched my neighbors get foreclosed on and pushed out. I have watched the house flipping teams come through and trim up the yards, slap up new fences, and paint over bright color with the neutral blues and grays white people seem to prefer. When I walk through my neighborhood now, it’s a lot less like the vibrant diverse place I chose to live in and a lot more like Pleasantville.
At age 9, Pamela Green waited in a grocery store parking lot, watching a house across the street. A few men carried another man — covered in blood — out of the building. A woman followed behind with a machete in her hand.
