Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Sunaura Taylor

Quote by Sunaura Taylor

Work

Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Sunaura Taylor

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Sunaura Taylor. more

You May Also Like

“Sometimes disabled people overcome specific moments of ableism— we exceed low expectations, problem-solve lack of access, avoid nursing homes or long-term psych facilities, narrowly escape police brutality and prison. However, I’m not sure that overcoming disability itself is an actual possibility for most of us. Yet in a world that places extraordinary value in cure, the belief that we can defeat or transcend body-mind conditions through individual hard work is convenient. Overcoming is cure’s backup plan.”

AbleismDisability Studies
Book:Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure
Create image

“Without acknowledging the variety of the human experience, all you get is the perspective of majority representation, which is mostly white and male and straight and able-bodied and cisgender and "traditionally" attractive. None of those things are inherently negative... but neither are their alternatives. So, all deserve some spotlight.”

RacismRepresentationIntersectionalityAbleismCommunity Dynamics
Book:Love's Not Color Blind: Race and Representation in Polyamorous and Other Alternative Communities
Create image

“You ask if I miss having my vision. And I give you polite answers and deflections so you won't worry about me. But I'm not afraid of blindness. I made sure when I was young to see everything. The ocean, the sky, every kind of person on Earth, all the animals that were left before they were gone. I even saw space from inside, the Earth as it trailed away behind us - even if only in my mind. I've seen sunrise on Mars and my own baby, though she's nearly grown up now and doesn't talk to me much. "I'm about as afraid to die as I am of being blind. What else is there to do or see? I've seen it all, and all that's left is reminders that it's gone, all of it gone.”

ExistentialismDisabilityAbleismClimate Fiction
Book:Finding Life on Mars: A novel of isolation
Create image

“In late 1985, the Reagan White House blocked the use of CDC money for education, leaving the US behind other Western nations in telling its citizens how to avoid contracting the virus. Many Americans still thought you could get AIDS from a toilet seat or a glass of water. According to one poll, the majority of Americans supported quarantining AIDS patients. This heightened awareness set off waves of anxiety across the country, which was often express through jokes (Q: What do you call Rock Hudson in a wheelchair? A: Roll-AIDS!) and violence. Between the years 1985 and 1986, anti-gay violence increased by 42 percent in the US. Even in San Francisco, where Greyhound buses still dropped off gay men and women taking refuge from the prejudice of their hometowns, carloads of teenagers would drive through the Castro looking for targets. In December 1985, a group of teenagers, shouting “diseased faggot” and “you’re killing us all,” dragged a man named David Johnson from his car in a San Francisco parking lot. While his lover looked on in horror, the teenagers kicked and beat Johnson with their skateboards, breaking three of his ribs, bruising his kidneys, an gashing his face and neck with deep fingernail scratches.”

PoliticsViolenceAidsLgbtqSan FranciscoHivHomophobiaChronic IllnessAbleismRonald Reagan
Book:Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father
Create image

“Will you be to us, so self-assured of healthy body, a person to be spurned and rejected, doubly disabled by our prejudice and fears? For we rarely open our hearts to people like you, sister. Nor have we crafted our world to accommodate your bent form. So you must creep around our perimeters, seeking access, a way into our spaces. You must double-check entrances, exits, stairs and heights to see if they welcome you or leave you standing helpless, like an infant before a rising cliff. Will we slip past you, embarrassed? Or will we see in you a graced opportunity to stretch our own crippled spirits, recognizing your inherent dignity, and respecting the courage of your endless silent struggle to be part of a world not fashioned for your infirmity?”

Ableism
Book:Soul Sisters: Women in Scripture Speak to Women Today
Create image