Disability hate speech: Social, cultural and political contexts By MarkSherry, TerjeOlsen, Janikke SolstadVedeler, and JohnEriksen Abingdon (Eds.), Routledge. 2021. pp. 268

Authors

Abstract

If this book was focusing on a psychology subject or on a form of populist criminology, it would happily take its place among the thousands of others. It is not, however. Instead, it focuses on two niche areas: first, disability—a phenomenon that people fail to understand can occur to anyone, at any time—and second, hate speech. By hate speech, it does not specifically refer, as does the avalanche of recent publications, to a data analysis of Twitter, a platform which has been extensively drilled into, mainly because it is easily accomplished desktop research. No, thankfully this book is different. This edited volume analyses the vocal and cultural attacks that are commonly and frequently launched upon disabled people. The everyday, seemingly acceptable, barrage of abuse that politicians tell us are unacceptable, but do nothing to stop. This book fills an enormous hole. While other volumes refer to hate speech (e.g., see Burch, 2021; Chakraborti & Garland, 2015; Wilkin, 2020), this volume brings together a discussion of the behaviours, techniques, and effects of hate speech on disabled people in an authoritative way and from a myriad of perspectives. To exemplify its difference, after rightly indicating the book has a fundamental place in hate scholarship, it defines disability hate speech as threatening, stigmatising, linguistic, or visual conduct promoting negative feeling in the victims. It cites the disabled victims as being affected through suffering, othering, demonisation, devaluation, and fear. This occurs through face-to-face interactions, the media and online hate. It reveals the microlevel incidents of hate speech, which are perhaps barely perceivable to most, but cause emotional and psychological damage to the victim and their associates, nonetheless. These face-to-face transactions can be passed-off as banter, a joke, or just messing around (sic). The abusers can justify their hateful actions in a way that is plausible and acceptable. The book additionally reveals the macrolevel occurrences perpetrated through the media and online platforms. These propagate otherness and hatred on an industrial scale, speedily transmitted to become culturally acceptable views, working to organise societal thought and divide communities in its purpose to scapegoat disabled people. Creating a halo around the supposedly hard working, tax-paying, tired masses—while emphasising the burdensome and needy disabled. The book then turns to use three distinctive perspectives through which it wonderfully portrays how hate speech works to intimidate disabled people. These tangential approaches reveal the techniques of disability hate speech, the personal impact suffered and the geopolitical view. It is this variety of fascinating aspects which make this volume a scholarly necessity. The ontology, or nature, of disability hate speech and how it is propagated, is portrayed through three key chapters. In Part I, an examination of current legislative frameworks reveals that you need to look really hard to find any context of legal protection which might apply to disabled people. In a globally wide search, Sherry exemplifies that national legislatures cannot be bothered, it seems, to spend valuable time in protecting disabled people from hate crime or hate speech. Moreover, the media show scant regard for disabled people whether it be established broadcasters or social media platforms, they display little intent of protecting disabled people against hate. The concluding chapter in the section focuses on the micro level experiences of people who have been victims of hate and abuse on an everyday scale, the drip, drip, drip of hostility and microaggressions which eventually take their toll on the disabled community and thwart any attempt to live an ordinary life. Moving to Part II, the personal impacts of disability hate speech are further emphasised. The normality and acceptability of this hostility, the abuse, the insults, the violence are all conveyed as it emphasises the ordinariness of the use of terms like retard, idiot, and cripple. This abusive lexicon is frequently employed, easily transmissible and is adopted as acceptable terminology for the differentiation of disabled people on a wide scale. The medicalised psycho-emotional devaluation of autistic people is revealed as applied by the medical profession. From the point of diagnosis, those identified as disabled are destined to lead different lives, to be dissimilar, to be labelled as not normal. In specific case studies, an autistic parent describes how the emotional complexity involved in trying to establish an obstruction-free and productive life for an autistic child is made almost impossible by the system that is in place, a system which works to divide and accentuate difference. The medical authorities wield their power and professional status in their quest to label, differentiate and categorise the disabled patient. In many respects, as emphasised by the medical model of disability, the Otherness starts from here. The devaluation of disabled people and the negative emphasis of difference is beautifully further exposed through a personal experience of dwarfism. The cutting nature and pain of being the butt of someone else's humour has the effect of making the victim wary of life to the point of needing to invent a series of safety measures which they have to adopt just to avoid being attacked—again. The discussion widens in Part III to incorporate the geographical and the geopolitical, a study of people with intellectual disabilities in Norway brings a rare but valuable insight into the intersectionalities of racism and disablism suffered by the Sami people who are additionally disabled. Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania are our next destinations for examination. On the African continent, the more extreme ramifications of disability hate speech become apparent in a context where physical abuse, murder and the trading of body parts are illustrated. The globalised view continues with an examination of the abuse of amputees in postcommunist Poland, abuse by those who provide intimate care in Australia, and an example of the popularity of a disablist radio station in the United States. The effects of austerity and the lack of urgency shown by police in the processing of reports of disability hate speech conclude a chapter which has so much to offer from so many different corners of the world. This book is a necessary addition to the collection of any scholar in disability hate crime, disability studies, or interpersonal violence. Not only does it use a network of established and developing authors from a variety of disciplines, but it offers a diverse range of perspectives through which we can examine an under-researched area. It analyses the range of techniques and media and takes a global view of how hostility against disabled people is promulgated. While doing all of the above, it also makes us fully aware of the painful impacts of being disabled and the abuse that this facet exposes us to. Not only must we have the impairment, but we must be stymied in life by societal obstructions placed in our way, and then, we must also face someone else's bile and prejudice. Those who work with disabled people in the medical profession, social services, and support services as well as those in social policy and culture management should read this volume.

1. Neil Chakraborti , Jon Garland (2015). Hate Crime: Impact, Causes & Responses . SAGE Publications Ltd.

   Type: Book DOI: 10.4135/9781473918108 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1929478136

   Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
2. Leah Burch (2021). Understanding Disability and Everyday Hate . Springer International Publishing.

   Type: Book DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-86818-5 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3214379894

   Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
3. David Wilkin *Autistic author. Learn more… (2020). Disability Hate Crime . Springer International Publishing.

   Type: Book DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-28726-9 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4253548109

   Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations