as small as a world and as large as alone

6:21am June 1, 2015

slashmarks:

idg why “trying to relate to a minority you aren’t part of” is suddenly sj fail

like, I’ve seen two different posts about how awful it is for abled people to try to relate to disabled people’s posts, and, um, no?

I want abled people’s empathy, I want them to try to relate and try to understand and try to get it. 

They may never succeed, they might do better than you think, but either way I want them to try, because relating to each other, trying to understand each other’s experiences, is how human communities function, and if people aren’t doing that to me they aren’t treating me as a human being.

Agreed. It’s been like this for awhile though. I heard this stuff like ten years ago about how awful it is when nondisabled people try to relate to us. I used to get annoyed by some attempts to relate, and yes people get it wrong and yes it can be aggravating, but I learned a long time ago to appreciate when people try because it’s so much better than when they don’t bother trying at all and act like him some kind of alien. Like they can’t possibly understand my life and that by saying this they’re being respectful (although some of them are probably just afraid of being pounced on if they do try).

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