Disability and White Supremacy

Abstract:It is widely known that Black Americans are significantly more likely to be killed by the police in the United States than white Americans. What is less widely known is that nearly half of all people killed by the police are people with disabilities. The aim of this article is to better understand the intersection of racism and ableism in the United States. Contributing to the growing literature at the intersection of philosophy of disability and critical philosophy of race, I argue that theories concerning white supremacy should take more seriously the ways in which it functions as a process and apparatus of making abled and disabled. I conclude by discussing why understanding white supremacy in this manner is a valuable coalitional tool in fights for social justice more generally.