The Whitewashing of Disability: Trolls, #DisabilityTooWhite, and The Fight for Proper Representation | Keah Brown

I am not a stranger to hate on the Internet.

You can ask any person of color on almost any social media platform, and they will tell you the same. I am, however, new to the hate from trolls in mass amounts in a short time period. These new, particular trolls are a result of tweets that I made in support of the #DisabilityTooWhite

Started by Vilissa Thompson (@VilissaThompson), founder of Ramp Your Voice!, disability rights consultant and advocate, and blogger, the #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag was created to outline and showcase the racial disparities in disability representation and care.

In support, I tweeted out the following things:

You know what? One day I will make that movie, I will write that story or TV show' if I don't, who will? #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

When the only disabled representation in most Doctor's offices is a white wheelchair user. #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

When you grow up asking yourself why your black body wasn't even good enough to appear in those exploitive telethons. #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

When the only examples anyone could give you of disabled folks falling in love, were white. #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

When you wish you knew other black disabled folks growing up so you knew you weren't alone. #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

I have to wonder how my perception of myself would have differed if I knew itwas possible for me to be seen&happy, too. #DisabilityTooWhite

— Keah Buy The Secret Summer Promise Brown (@Keah_Maria) May 19, 2016

I woke up this morning to over eighty five Twitter notifications, most of them tweets and likes of solidarity, but an awful lot of them were full of racist, ableist and misogynistic slurs.