Racial Equity Statement for LINC Inc
LINC, Inc. is an advocacy organization standing strong against discrimination in all forms. In recent months there have been several cases in the news where people of color have been targeted, whether out of fear (Asians and Covid), as a result of inequity of treatment provision (Covid and people with disabilities of all ethnicities), or racial disparities within law enforcement (Brown, Taylor, Floyd, Wright, and many more). LINC Board and Staff parallel our stand against these ongoing injustices with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere”
LINC’s statement on racial equity and intersectionality.
Whenever there is exclusion or oppression of any kind, whether intended or unintended, injustice exists. Some people have asked how racial equity and intersectionality relate to Independent Living (IL) and the IL Movement. You may say that Independent Living (IL) in itself is meant to be inclusive, and you are right. But are we really doing everything we can to ensure that people of color who live with disabilities have access to housing, education, transportation, employment, healthcare, and other community living essentials? Are we actively seeking out and identifying areas where we, or our community, fall short? Are we listening?
These discussions and work are critical and required if we are to be a movement that truly addresses the independence and empowerment of all people with disabilities. The IL Movement itself was established on the tails of the civil rights movement when people with disabilities began speaking up about how they were also being prohibited from fully participating in society. These efforts continue today…over 60 years later!
Intersectionality is a term we’ve been hearing more of lately that describes the social phenomenon of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other social categories being interconnected when looking at marginalized individuals and/or discrimination. One example is that people of color who have disabilities may experience employment discrimination related to one or both areas: race and/or disability.
LINC is committed to bringing the inequities that lie within Independent Living, or even our own organization and the communities we serve, fearlessly out into the open. We are committed to working on solutions that support and lead to the extinction of exclusion and oppression facing people of color living with disabilities. LINC is committed to working toward full community inclusion and having the hard but necessary conversations that allow for continued growth in this area.