An online conversation between Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Elliott Fukui on the intersections of disability justice and transformative justice.
About the session
This webinar was hosted by the Barnard Centre for Research on Women. It took place in April 2020 in coordination with the release of five videos in the Building Accountable Communities series, featuring transformative justice facilitators and organizers reflecting on key questions at the heart of experiments in addressing harm. For an introduction to the concepts watch the shorter video, Intersections of Disability Justice & Transformative Justice.
Disabled folks have never been able to rely on the systems that are in place or those systems have been incredibly harmful to us. – Elliott Fukui
In response to heightened levels of abuse and violence experienced by people with disabilities, disability justice organizers have developed tremendous knowledge and creative approaches to care, safety, and preventing and stopping violence without relying on the state. How do disability justice strategies and knowledge inform transformative justice practices? How are disability justice and transformative justice interconnected?
What would our transformative justice work look like if we put everyone’s access needs at the center? – Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, in “Cripping TJ,” an essay in the Beyond Survival collection.
How is anti-ableism essential to transformative justice? How do we start with the shared values of self-determination and the belief that no one is disposable to build capacity for personal and societal transformation?
Watch
- Live transcript (PDF)
- Slide deck (PDF) by Elliott and Leah featuring important definitions (included below), notes, and frameworks for today’s conversation.
On the screen:
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Elliott Fukui (speakers)
- Darryn Hollifield and Natalie Cuddy (ASL)
- Hope Dector (introduction)
Definitions
Disability
“When we speak of disability we are celebrating the brilliance and vitality of a vast community of peoples with non normative bodies and minds, whether a disability is visible or not. This includes though not limited to, folks who identify as disabled, chronically ill, Deaf, mad, neurodivergent, and more.” – Showing Up For Racial Justice Disability Justice Caucus
Disability Justice
Disability justice is a movement building framework was invented in 2005 by Patty Berne, Leroy Moore, Mia Mingus, Eli Clare and Sebastien Margaret, Black, Asian, poor white, queer and trans disabled activists. It is an intersectional framework that centers the issues and demands of disabled Black and brown/queer and trans people and looks at how ableism intersects with racism, capitalism, and more.
Transformative Justice
Any strategy that works to create justice, safety and/or healing for survivors of violence, without primarily relying on police, legal system, prisons, children’s aid. Can be applied to many situations: sexual assault, CSA, partner abuse, murder by strangers, systemic violence.
Mutual Aid
Working together to build communities that meet all of our different needs
Access Intimacy
“an elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else ‘gets’ your access needs. The kind of eerie comfort that
your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level.” – Mia Mingus Access Intimacy: The Missing Link
Explore Further
- Building Accountable Communities – video series from the Barnard Centre for Research on Women.
- Elliott Fukui – madqueer.org
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha – BrownStarGirl.org
- Sins Invalid – Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Ejeris Dixon & Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
- Transformative Approaches to Conflict Resolution
- Disability Justice Links
- Lessons from the Disability Justice Movement
- Insights from Disability Campaigning from El Gibbs and Elly Desmarchelier