Gangbanger and Wheelchairs: Intersections Between Race, Gender, and Disability Status

• In Event: Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Special Education, Special Needs, and Disproportionality Related to Race, Gender, and Empowerment

Abstract

This presentation illustrates the technical affordance of in depth case study methodology to include the voice and lived experiences of a low-income, African-American man with physical disabilities. The voice of this population is often undetected and de-emphasized in other research approaches because these participants comprise a minute segment of the African-American population and as individuals with limited access to economic resources they also represent individuals with diminished access to power and privilege. The findings revealed that ethnicity and social-class often merge to erroneously cast-type individuals with physical disabilities as reformed ‘gang banger’ or ‘victims’ of neighborhood gun violence.

Authors

• Joy Banks, Bowie State University

• Kimetta Reynolds Hairston, Bowie State University