Show racism the red card

Here's Peter again who asked me if I'm following him when he saw me pop up in the front row of today's Unite Against Fascism conference. I was speaking in the afternoon about disability and fascism, it went well.

It was kind of harrowing doing the research for the talk, finding out more about how disabled people were targetted and gassed to death by the Nazis in World War II through a systematic programme of persecution called Aktion T4. Around a quarter of a million disabled people were killed this way. There were also forced sterilizations of deaf people. People like me. This occurred across Europe with sterilizations taking place still into the 1960s.

But more horrifying in some ways is the invisibility of this and the continued persecution of disabled people today.

Disability hate crime has hit the headlines lately with some horrific examples of disabled people who have been targetted, abused, attacked, tortured and murdered. They were targetted because of their disability and in many cases the contempt and hostility towards disabled people regardless of their individual identity was the motive for the crime. And yet none are being prosecuted as disability hate crimes. They aren't being recognised for what they really are.

Covert hostility and negatives attitudes about disability place disabled people as second class citizens, and the values that lead to the abuse of disabled parking bays sit on the same spectrum as the values that lead to disability hate crime. It is the same lack of regard for the worth of another human being's life that leads people to not care if they are obstructing a disabled person from getting on with their day to day life, and when allowed to escalate, leads to disabled people being terrorised, attacked and murdered.

So little has been done about it, it is only just beginning to find it's place as a political issue. Yes, I'm angry about that. I'm angry about the discrimination that is in my face daily, more angry about the destruction of other people's lives that I see reflected on email forums, in the media and through the stories I hear from people I work with.

Angry that my life and the lives of other disabled people are still seen as being worth less than anyone elses.