Crip Hauntology: Marx, Derrida, and the Specter of Disability

Well... this is by far the longest amount of time I've ever invested into a video-- I think 2 months have passed since my last video, but it still feels like its been much longer than that. A hellish summer semester later, and I was finally able to complete this video after multiple setbacks. This is something a bit new for me in terms of engaging with Derrida, so I hope you enjoy the project of this video.

And what is the project of this video? Well... it's my first attempt at trying to draw out what ableism does to the able-bodied individual, and how the systemic and institutional control of people with disabilities actually additionally acts as an ideological control of the able-bodied individual. We see this happen through what I'm terming "crip hauntology", or the constitutive framing of the disabled subject and aspects of disability as specters or ghosts (I'm using abstract language here, but it should make more sense within the video). Here, disability is related to the state of being unproductive-- not in an ableist sense of "people with disabilities just stay inside!", because fuck that line of thinking, but moreso in the sense that there's a natural tension between people with disabilities and the capitalist mode of production, and that people with disabilities often stand in opposition to the motivation of capital to make people's work life thir entire life. Thus, we see ideology's reaction to this tension and contradiction from the person with disabilities to the logic of capital--- to construct the person with disabilities as a ghost, as what Derrida calls a "hauntology", and by constituting the person with disabilities as a ghost that occupies the liminal space in between being and non-being, productivity and a portrayed "idleness", ideology turns the person with disabilities from a subject into an object of fear by which the able-bodied worker rejects through a total immersion in work and being a productive, obedient worker for the benefit of capital, which of course works directly into the hands of our American economic system.

Anyways, this is turning into a bit of an impromptu essay in the description, which wasn't my intention, but I think I illustrated an outline of what I wanted to get across in this video, and I hope you get something valuable out of the project I created here. From what I saw, there was very little work done on this subject, so hopefully this can engage in new ways of thinking... or it can just wither away in the ether of Youtube video essays, either one is fine.

Anyways, as always, love and solidarity, and enjoy the video,
First as Tragedy

[andrewmaclaren]

Very interesting video. I'm Autistic myself, and am very glad that there are people like you putting in the effort to publicise the political side of disability.

I would just like to make one critique - I don't know about the disability movement in the US, but in the UK the social model of disability as developed by UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation), or as they called it the "social definition of disability", was far more radical than how you outlined the social model in the video. They saw disability itself as a form of oppression. That all they had was an impairment, disability though was oppression by society not taking into account and/or excluding in one way or another people with certain impairments. Hence "physically impaired" instead of "physically disabled" in the organisations name. At least with how you outlined it, you unintentionally undercutted the radical idea laying behind this by implicitly talking about people just as disabled.

That was the main thing that jumped out to me. Other than that great video!

[kajlucaslamebriel]

enjoy your work and your disability studies lens. im disabled as well and think you may benefit from a disability justice lens, if that's something that you're not already hip to. disability justice writers approach these same ideas from different models, like spiritual models (that are still in capitalism) and also push toward change and alternatives. this theory work is cool, just its also something that already exists in the writing of other disabled folks! seeing them referenced would be so cool.. talila lewis writes about ableism in a very powerful way that taps the things you're working on.

[atelierzhaozhou]

Great video! I'm currently exploring the visual sense within our contemporary public space. Text is polluting the space and designed for people with 20/20 vision. Cities and public space are designed for either the disabled (blind) or able-bodied, but not the ones in the gray. They've to comply with bodily extensions(glasses) to meet this standard. While this is only a starting point, I was wondering if you know anything I could look into that is related?

[obamaibnbahish]

This premise is only true if you see Capitalism as all that there is, nothing beyond it and nothing before it. Being effective in a workplace is equally as alienating for those without disabilities simply because the work we do serves no purpose (majority of the time) other than continue a system of exploitation.