Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve and the Case Against Disability Rights 1st edition by Johnson, Mary (2003) Paperback

by Mary Johnson

Movie celebrity Clint Eastwood fights an access lawsuit. Christopher Reeve insists what's needed is cure. Those who argue for civil-rights protections for disabled people -- rights guaranteed by federal law for over a decade - are all but silent. The Americans with Disabilities Act "defies logic and common sense," The New York Times once editorialized. Salon.com dismissed it as "a surreal ideology." Why are disability rights so disliked? Why do detractors insist nobody knows about it, even as thousands of articles have been devoted to it? Why do they claim it's a bad law?In "Make Them Go Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve & The Case Against Disability Rights," longtime disability-rights journalist Mary Johnson sheds rare light on this issue by examining the case against disability rights in depth. What are its main arguments? Where do they come from? And what is the other side? Can a valid -- strong -- case be made FOR disability rights? It can, says Johnson, who makes a compelling argument that, since the disabled minority is the one minority any of us can suddenly and unexpectedly join, the nation ignores disability rights at its peril.

Genres: Disability, Nonfiction, Disability Studies, Politics

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Mary Johnson was the founder of The Disability Rag magazine (later the Ragged Edge), which was published from 1980 through 1996. Her writings about the U.S. disability rights movement appeared in many U.S. publications during the 1980s and 1990s.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nobody is against the disabled...but..." A good overview of the attitudes & challenges facing the ADA/Disabilities rights. As the book's (or version I read) about 10 years old now, there's probably a lot more that could be said.

At times it was repetitive, but I think it did a good job capturing themes and attitudes.

[Matthew Gilboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

With #ADA25 happening now, this book makes a good reminder of the limitations of not only the ADA as it was framed by the architects and politics leading up to its passage, but also a timely check-in on the progress made since then.

The central thesis of the book is that the ADA was an embattled piece of legislation that was constrained in delivering on the vision of disability justice: (1) the ADA was effective in establishing disability as a criteria for entitlements, or setting up a new category for welfare benefits, (2) it was not effective at establishing protections against - or even a definition for - discrimination against people due to disability, (3) the ADA was not effective at establishing the moral case behind viewing disability discrimination as a civil rights issue.

This book provides a fantastic retrospective of the attacks by Chicago School Economists, Conservative Think Tanks, small business interests and people who would decry being called discriminatory or prejudiced, but would be unable to see the moral turpitude in their own ableist attitudes. As a young person raised through the tumult around 'political correctness' in the 90s, and the general reversal of advances in understanding the politics of identity, this was a fresh presentation of the devastating effect that neoliberal attitudes about identity had in fighting for moral causes and civil rights.

The book is critical of the tepid - at best - support for disability activism given by society, liberals, anti-racist and anti-sexist groups. I found this book really created a prism through which I could better understand my own internalized attitudes of ableism that I still harbored from being raised during the period documented in this book.

[Alison Whiteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is startling to think lawyers are rushing to help the disabled but then leaving with huge settlements for themselves versus the client they are representing. This book was very interesting.

[Stephanie Mccall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make Them Go Away was my first encounter with any disability rights-centered literature. The director of my university's Disability Services Office loaned me his copy after I came to him with the epiphany that disability does not have to be medicalized, nor did I have to accept the permanence of being a disenfranchised person because I had mild cerebral palsy. In the ensuing days, I curled up in my dorm, read this book, periodically wanted to throw it across the room, and learned more than I ever could from a history text or, perhaps, even the best-conceived Disability Studies course.

Mary Johnson's writing on the disability rights issue is deft, raw, probing, impeccably researched, and at times wrenching. Some, especially the personal accounts of persons with disabilities, left me angry, ready to jump from my own skin in the eagerness to do something. I experienced physical sensations akin to heartburn. Some of the stories contained in this book include the account of a woman told she was "selfish" for wanting to use a public bus, just because she needed accommodations to ride said bus, and the story of a man with a disability trapped in an institution whose services he did not need. This person was regularly abused, left to lie on his side in bed, afflicted with untreated scabies, and had a full catheter forced into his mouth for imagined noncompliance toward an aide.

Along with this, Mary Johnson deconstructs arguments against disability rights, especially from celebrities like Clint Eastwood (never liked him, never watched his movies, and will NEVER read/watch/listen to anything he is connected to again). She rightly points out several flaws within the ADA (or in Britain, DDA). Among these are the "escape clause" that other reviewers have mentioned, which says a business does not have to be accessible if doing so causes "undue hardship" (and who defines that? I'll give you a hint--not anyone with a disability). Johnson also goes over pitfalls like the broad definition of "disability" under the ADA--a definition that lumps people with legitimate disabilities into the same group with people who, say, complain that they have the right to sue their workplaces because they have a temporary bad back. Her arguments are piercingly logical, and it boggles my mind that more people are not listening to, absorbing, and sharing them.

There are a couple of minor issues with Make Them Go Away. As other reviewers have mentioned, one is the title. The title makes this book sound anti-disability, not pro. While this was probably a publishing decision, it wasn't the best one. Nor was it a good decision to include celebrity names on the cover, as this usually indicates endorsement from one or both sides.

I also personally found it disturbing that in places, Johnson seems to indicate conservative Americans are the ones keeping persons with disabilities from functioning as full, contributing society members. In contrast, liberal Americans are sometimes painted as "heroes" who somehow "rescued" disability rights legislation and the associated citizens it was written to help. Now of course, in every political group, you will find people who believe PWDs are "failed normal," that the best we can do is to "help the handicapped" in whatever minimum-effort fashion is most cost-effective. But in my personal and painful experience, it is actually liberal-leaning Americans who keep PWDs dependent, disenfranchised, and discriminated against.

Anyway, that last thing is kind of a nitpick. My recommendation is, read this, even and especially if you have no persons with disabilities in your life. Pace yourself. Be prepared for high emotions and the urge to throw, hit, or rip the nearest inanimate object, because if you're like me, you will find out you have been duped and deceived, and that an entire population is being treated, at best, like special snowflake pets. But please, I am begging you, read it. Get the scoop. And then see what you as a person can do to move beyond "helping the handicapped."

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

15 year-old book on disability rights seems sadly up to date

I took one star off out of personal distaste for including celebrity names in the headline. That was probably a publisher's decision, and definitely not something that really detracts from the book.
I recommend it to anyone who wants to know about a fight in which the only voices you really hear from are those who are against including the disabled, and find lots of legal and "reasonable-sounding" ways to segregate and separate and discriminate against them.
The part I liked best contemplated how life would be better for everyone if our society designed and built, as well as hired and educated, to accommodate a wide range of human ability instead of a narrow one. This vision is worth the book.