A searing critique of the disability rights movement from within, and a call for collective liberation that is pro-Black and centers disabled people of color
For over 20 years, Dara Baldwin has often been the only person of color in the room when significant disability policy decisions are made. Disenfranchisement of people of color and multi-marginalized communities within the disability rights community is not new and has left many inside the community feeling frustrated and unheard.
In To Be a Problem, Baldwin candidly shares her journey to becoming a disability activist and policymaker in DC while critiquing the disability rights community. She reveals the reality of erasure for many Black people and people of color in the disability community and argues that, in turn, many white disabled people center themselves within the movement without addressing their own white privilege.
Disability rights groups have been centering white, straight, cisgender people while racial justice groups often fail to center disabled people, leading many Black and Brown disabled people to start their own Disability Justice organizations. Drawing from her unique vantage point, Baldwin calls readers to understand the shortcomings of the disability rights movement while inspiring us to push all movements towards a more inclusive and authentic liberation.
“Dara Baldwin writes, as she says, from a place of ‘frustration, anger, and continued recovery,’ but she acts out of love for the collective liberation of all.?A tireless disrupter who wears her scars proudly, she knows that movements steeped in whiteness will not get us where we need to go.”
—Laura Flanders, author and host of The Laura Flanders Show
“Dara Baldwin is courageous, committed, the definition of intersectional, and a fierce movement builder. We can learn much from her.”
—V (formerly?Eve?Ensler), author of The Vagina Monologues and Reckoning
“I would regularly see Dara Baldwin in the halls of Congress as she did the hard work of lobbying for disability rights. Her frustration was not just with Congress but also with her own disability movement, which she found to be racist, insulting, and oppressive. Her hard-hitting exposé will hopefully lead to reflection and transformation, not only in that movement but in all of our movements that continue to be plagued by elitism and white privilege.”
—Medea Benjamin, peace activist and cofounder of CODEPINK