Hate-Related Phenomena and Disability

Hate-Related Phenomena and Disability: This research focuses on the impact of hate-related phenomena and discrimination experienced by disabled individuals. Charlesworth (2022, “Why disability bias is a particularly stubborn problem”) relays recent and troubling research findings that implicit bias, which can change, has shown only to change for certain groups, including for sexuality and race bias. Disability discrimination and bias remains unsuccessfully challenged with little modification over time. Person-centered interviews with students (undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs) will be conducted to understand how such discrimination affects the targeted individuals with disabilities, how the discrimination is processed, and how it becomes internalized. How does this internalized discrimination against oneself positively lead to empathy for others with disabilities and under what circumstances does it lead to greater discrimination by disabled individuals against others with disabilities? Most disabled individuals are not ‘just’ disabled. In fact, most of the members of the student disability community possess multiple marginalities or marginalized identities and have experienced more than one form of hatred and discrimination, whether racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, homophobia, or sexism. The idea that these identities exist in isolation is inaccurate and as such the study of disability-related hate and hate-based phenomena offers productive analysis for multiple types and causes of hatred in society. The University of California, Berkeley Disability Laboratory (under the direction of Anthropologist and Disability Studies scholar Dr. Karen Nakamura) will be the primary site for research.