The book Job Hunting For The So-called Handicapped by Richard Bolles says that there is two kinds of oppression: internal, and external. For the disabled, external oppression can be hidden in the velvet glove of kindness and people’s wantin g to shield you from difficulty. I wanted to be a nurse–I was five and was watching the British equivallent to General Hospital. My well meaning (and hemaphobic) mother told me that I didn’t want to be a nurse. But even though I was so young I’ve regretted listening to her ever since. Perhaps the physical limitations would have gotten in the way, but if I’d had the opportunity to explore areas of the health/medical field that I could have done, I would have been much more prepared to answer the question “What do you want to do?”
As mentioned above, there is also internal oppression. This has to do with a person’s thinking and beliefs. The disabled are prone to think we deserve these problems and that we are less than others. This results in a big “Can’t” over our lives. We Can’t work, we can’t look for a job, or at least not without help. And that we should be grateful to anyone who even thinks of hiring us. I’ve had this can’t over my life, and it’s almost impossible to dislodge, especially when it’s been ingrained by well meaning family members from childhood. Mine even included things children like to do, let alone making my way in the wold of adult employment.
Once you have begun to think the advice you’ve been given is right, easy to do when you’re five, and become depressed, and never look for ways to prove them wrong; also to do when you have no power.
When we have this in our faces it’s very easy to think (or be told) that assistance is your only option. The problem is that these agencies insist that you prove that you are not able to work-period. This is not true in my case, and maybe yours as well.
Filed under: Disability issues, My Story
