Before school transitioned to being completely online, I was going to be presenting on a panel for\u00a0 the University of Kansas\u2019 Charla de Merienda program, a program through the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies that hosts interdisciplinary discussions about issues and research in Latin America and the Caribbean. With the change to online classes, the panel turned into a podcast, and the title changed from simply \u201cLatinx Bodies\u201d to \u201cLatinx Bodies and COVID-19.\u201d\u00a0 My part of the presentation was over how the current pandemic has illustrated a clear disparity between privileged and marginalized bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n An example: the state of Tennessee has <\/span>policies in place from 2016<\/span><\/a> detailing criteria for hospital admission during a pandemic. Under the section \u201cTriage Tools and Tables,\u201d (pg 21) there is a list of disabilities that will automatically exclude a person from access to healthcare:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (a) EXCLUSION CRITERIA for Hospital Admission: The patient is excluded from admission or transfer to critical care if ANY of the following is present: Option 7: Advanced untreatable neuromuscular disease (such as ALS, end-stage MS, spinal muscular atrophy) requiring assistance with activities of daily living or requiring chronic ventilatory support.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is Tennessee, not Iowa, but the acceptance (even the embracing) of this value system is the same across the country, not just apparent in our government, but also person to person (remember that protest sign on social media and the news, \u201c<\/span>SACRIFICE THE WEAK<\/span><\/a>\u201d?). I found Tennessee\u2019s policy while doing research for the Charla de Merienda presentation. I highlighted \u201cspinal muscular atrophy\u201d and took a screenshot of the page. A few weeks later, I sorted through the images and files crowding the desktop of my laptop and dragged what was no longer of interest to me to the trashcan at the bottom of the screen. For some reason, I let this picture stay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On March 27, 2020, several disability advocacy organizations in the state <\/span>filed a complaint<\/span><\/a> with Tennessee\u2019s Office of Civil Rights charging that these guidelines are discriminatory and a violation of several federal disability rights laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is actions like these that make me incredibly thankful for the disability rights movement and the people who continue to say, over and over, that our lives as disabled individuals are worth living. Seeing my own disease included in a list of criteria for exclusion from hospitals hurts.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the course of recording the podcast, we had a rich conversation about who has the privilege to stay home and who doesn\u2019t, the disproportionate effect the pandemic is having on people of color and people of lower socioeconomic status, and the precarity of choice. For example: if you work as a caregiver, a housekeeper, a farm worker, you do not have the choice to stay home. And the majority of individuals working in these fields are people of color, including undocumented individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Clearly, the illusion of choice is just that\u2014an illusion\u2014for some individuals. Why, then, don\u2019t we have systems in place to support those workers who are actually essential, and other systems in place to support those who need to work, but who should be staying home? Because we have never cared about this before, as a country. Because the terms \u2018welfare\u2019 and \u2018entitlements\u2019 are dirty words in our culture, laced with racism, ableism, and sexism. And because those who have the privilege of making a choice do not recognize this privilege and therefore do not act on it. This, I believe, will be our great undoing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Other things making me angry right now:<\/span><\/p>\n I have noticed a belief among my friends and acquaintances over the past few years that the shittiness of our world is out of our control. But I, for the sole purpose of survival, cannot take this to be true. If everything is beyond hope and beyond repair, then what is the point of continuing to go about our daily lives, shrouded in a naivet\u00e9 born from an \u201cout of sight, out of mind\u201d philosophy? We can create change on a personal and interpersonal level when we dare to honor our anger, our fear, our sadness, AND our hope, specifically hope which stems from discomfort. I want people to see beyond themselves and to have conversations about what\u2019s going on and accept some hard truths about this not-so-great country. There is of course no guarantee that this pandemic is not the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back (piled on top of other horrific happenings like climate change, racial and gender-based violence, and exploitation under capitalism). But I would like to hope that if this is, in fact, the final straw, we will wake up and work together to protect one another, even if we have to make personal sacrifices for the well-being of all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n A friend once told me that it was out of the question for her to talk to her conservative friends about politics. <\/span>I can\u2019t, <\/span><\/i>she had said. This has never been a sustainable outlook, and it sure as hell isn\u2019t sustainable now. If we can do our part personally and by having difficult and honest conversations with one another (remotely), now is the time to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hannah Soyer<\/strong> is a queer, disabled writer interested in perceptions and representations of ‘othered’ bodies. She is the founder of <\/span>This Body is Worthy<\/span><\/a>, a project designed to celebrate bodies outside of societal ideals.<\/span><\/p>\n Twitter: <\/span>@SoyerNotSawyer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Support Disability Media and Culture<\/b><\/p>\n\n
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