Justification Of Inequality

Disability and the justification of inequality in American History by Douglas C. Baynton
The main idea addressed by Douglas C. Baynton is that disability has never been a focused upon and its is often overlooked and used as a justification for inequality in American History. Disability is ignored and not questioned or treated as a cultural construct. It is viewed as personal tragedy, instead of something that produces social hierarchies. The author goes on to describe how disability functions to justify inequality for disabled persons, as well as for women and other minority groups. Disabilities were often questioned and denied. A concept of normality was formed and constructed a problematic determination between what is good and right. . …show more content…
This is a powerful assertion that was argued using a combination of anecdotes and historical contexts. Susan Wendell describes three components to help articulate her argument. She first describes social factors that construct disability. This includes social conditions like war, availability of resources, pace of life, inaccessibility, and culture. Then she described the social deconstruction of disability where she expands how disability is socially constructed by social condition that cause, fail to prevent damage to people’s bodies. Wendell explains that disability is not easily deconstructed, despite efforts of accommodation to some of the needs of people with disabilities because everyone with a disability experienced space and time differently. She begins to describe how one’s environment can be an obstacle for people with disabilities, however people with disabilities may not view them as obstacles. Lastly, she begins to describe obstacles of disability. Susan Wendell argues that “the distinction between the biological reality of a disability and the social construction of a disability cannot be made sharply, because the biological and the social are interactive in creating disability.” She goes on to explain how disability is socially constructed and how it is relative to one’s environment and standards of normality. …show more content…
Eugenics is described to be the racial purification, elimination of human “defects,” and is seen in historical events such as the Holocaust. Racial discrimination and practices are not the same as particular practices for individuals with disabilities. However, eugenics displayed racist ideologies that help understand the cultural construction of disability. The author goes on to describe how eugenics took shape. It is explained as an educational mission to rescue children who were seen as signs unworthy of education and is associated with institutions that would essentially train back to