Barnes also said that people’s biases also extend to gender and sexual orientation which makes sense to me. He didn’t mention disability specifically but I bet if you asked him he would agree to that too. As a person with a disability I know what it feels like to have all eyes on me and feeling like I don’t belong somewhere etc. It’s something I’ve had all my life and I don’t know any different so it doesn’t really affect me day to day as I’m used to it. There are still times when people’s behaviour towards me makes me feel bad and sometimes it’s when they’re going out of their way to try and be nice. I assume people who face racial discrimination go through some similar emotions but I’ve never had that conversation so I don’t know for sure
I have posted this before, but I feel that it is still relevant, because there is discrimination against the ‘disabled’ , which may not be as obvious as racial discrimination, but it is there nevertheless!
My disability is only obvious because have to use a stick or a rollator.
‘You know your disabled when your opinion mean less than others & some people really do think of you as inferior, even though they know absolutely nothing about you or your disability, to them you’re just a nuisance?
Someone who is too bloody slow at the checkout, or who parks in a disabled space, which Is not fair to ‘earth mothers and fat boys, who should have an entitlement by law to park inside the Supermarket doors, and who feel that the disabled spaces should be around the back of the stores, out of sight so that the disabled don’t frighten the children
However, a disabled person is no different from a fully fit person and as an example , may have a good standard of education, a good degree maybe, perhaps qualified in fields like the law or medicine, or anything else of note, perhaps they had to forgo a chosen career because of disability, they may have been disabled from serving their country, or they simply may be struggling along every single day as husbands, wives, parents etc., but to some, the disabled are mainly just a nuisance , holding them up at the checkout etc.?
How some people react to the disabled is nothing short of a disgrace-
As far as I am concerned, I may not look like George Clooney these days ( although I am still taller) but what disappoints me is that I am often looked upon as ‘just this old git ‘ on a mobility scooter thingy, and I am regularly ‘now ‘ treated as one ‘WHO KNOWS NOTHING’? ( this is by a minority of people however, I must admit )