We formed a line that started in the restroom and snaked out the door. We were waiting to use the facilities at a special disAbility fundraising event. The floors were littered, the toliet paper chained to the cement block walls and missing in some stalls, which also had no doors. As I waited for Grace to finish, several women at the door bemoaned the condition of this public park restroom. "They let the bums use it," said one woman who sported a tee shirt proclaiming her support of a group of people with disAbilities. She went on about that a sentence or two more until I interrupted: "I'm glad they have a place to go." She agreed and then became silent.
My point here is not to proclaim self righteousness for speaking up or to point a finger at the woman. As Mother used to say, there are four pointing back at me. But rather, I'm musing aloud here that our purpose for being there was to raise money and awareness for a minority. And yet, the irony was missed that the homeless, "the bums," too, are marginalized in our culture.
And that's the problem with categories. Each of us can be stuffed into some box and labeled something or other–male, female, girl, boy, children, old people, "disabled," Republicans, Democrats, Christians, Jews, Muslims, even "animals"–and, then marked with the ingredients of the derogatory characteristics we assign each category.
We can feel smug that "we work for a living," or have homes, or our children are gifted or are "normal." We aren't feeble like that old lady pushing a cart at the drug store. We can treat our animals or our earth any way we choose if we believe we are dominant over them/it. But, we aren't. We are all aging from the moment we are born. We will all be old some day if we are fortunate. We could all have an accident tomorrow and have a resulting brain injury.* And then who are we? What are we?
A catgegory.
Photo: Mast General Store, Valle Crucis, North Carolina
*TBI–traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of disAbility.
This post is the second half of a series. See: The Pitfalls of Categories & Categorization, Part I
