Below is an
article I received online. When someone
with a significant disability speaks about prejudice and discrimination I listen. I know I am on the other end of the spectrum
being a white male, reasonably intelligent and in good health. I have to listen because I have never been discriminated
against personally. I have only
experienced discrimination in the presence of the person being discriminated
against either with black friends or friends with disabilities. Below is the article written by a blind
African American (see his bio at the end of the article).
Regarding the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act - eliminate FLSA 14 C
Most theological
references to people with disabilities portray us as broken people in need of
healing who are dependent on the benevolence of others. Also, most faith
traditions have a moral imperative to seek salvation by caring for the less
fortunate, and people with disabilities, being deemed less fortunate, are
therefore tokens for that salvation. The false perception of brokenness,
coupled with the misapplied moral edict, results in a “compassionate
discrimination” that limits the potential of every person with a disability.
Compassionate
discrimination, like other types of discrimination, springs from ignorance, and
deprives us all of the value each person and group of people has to offer. But
unlike the abusive treatment of slaves resulting from racial discrimination,
and unlike the chauvinistic treatment of women resulting from gender
discrimination, compassionate discrimination is cloaked in sympathy and good
intentions. The segregation of African-Americans in educational, employment,
and living environments is unlawful and universally censured—no questions
asked, no exceptions. Conversely, the segregation of people with disabilities
in school, work, and home is justified as the creation of safe environments
where we are nurtured and protected.
The 20 to 30
percent wage disparity between male and female employees is considered a
discriminatory practice in the workplace. But perversely, the disparity between
an executive’s $500,000 salary and the 22-cent-per-hour wage of the worker with
a disability is considered reasonable. Work at such wages is even promoted as
an opportunity for the disabled worker to experience the tangible and
intangible benefits of work. Given this confused moral perspective, it is
almost understandable why public policies have been developed that continues to
limit people with disabilities from reaching our full potential.
In 1938,
policymakers, acting on a laudable desire to integrate people with disabilities
into the workforce, made a huge mistake when they enacted Section 14(c) of the
Fair Labor Standards Act www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/14c/.
That provision that authorizes the U.S. Department of Labor to issue Special
Wage Certificates to employers, permitting them to pay workers with
disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. As a result of the erroneous
belief, commonly held in 1938 but long since disproved, that people with
disabilities cannot be productive employees, employers are permitted to pay
workers with disabilities subminimum wages that are supposedly based on our
productivity. This denial of fundamental wage protections to workers with
disabilities, although masked as a compassionate offering of a work opportunity
that would otherwise not be available, leaves over 300,000 people with
disabilities employed at subminimum wages, some as low as three cents per
hour.
A person with a
disability is not less valuable than any other person, and although employing
that person may require the use of nontraditional training and employment
strategies, a worker with a disability is not inherently less productive than a
nondisabled worker. Section 14(c) is a poor public policy that perpetuates
compassionate discrimination and harms people with disabilities by denying us
proper education and training opportunities, and by prohibiting most of us from
obtaining competitive, integrated employment.
It is true that
over 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed, but current
segregated subminimum-wage work environments have proven that they are not the
solution to this dilemma. We must understand that it is not the disability
itself that causes this circumstance. It is the lack of understanding about the
true capacity of people with disabilities that results in the misperception
that we cannot be productive. Once this misperception has been embraced, it is
difficult, if not impossible, for us to obtain real opportunities to
demonstrate that we have that capacity. Rather than challenging the mistaken
status quo, society’s “compassionate” remedy is to continue to create “safe,”
segregated living, educational, and work environments for people with
disabilities.
In order to
implement a real solution to the unemployment problem, we must remove the mask
of compassion from the discrimination we face. We must eliminate the “separate
but equal” environments and we must repeal the discriminatory policies that are
founded on the flawed assertion of incapacity. We can achieve this goal.
Congressman Gregg Harper has introduced the Fair Wages for Workers with
Disabilities Act of 2013 (H.R. 831) to repeal Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor
Standards Act.
We are not
broken. Our disabilities are neither a curse from God nor penance for our sins.
They are a manifestation of the life with which God has blessed us, and
although the vessels which contain them are different, we have the same needs,
desires, and abilities as everyone else. People with disabilities are not
passive recipients of benevolence, we are also benevolent. We clothe the naked,
we feed the hungry, we care for the sick and we demonstrate the capacity to
believe, to have faith, and to worship God. We demand to be fully participating
members of society, and we refuse to be reduced to the status of tokens for the
salvation of others.
Anil Lewis was
born in 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia. Lewis was diagnosed at age nine with
retinitis pigmentosa, although his vision was fairly unaffected until
1989. He has a master’s in business administration in computer
information systems and a master’s in public administration from Georgia State
University. He has developed a job placement program for people with
disabilities, represented people with disabilities in a law office and headed
Georgia’s chapter of the National Federation of the Blind https://nfb.org/.
Today, he lives in Baltimore, Maryland and is the Director of Advocacy and
Policy at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute. He works
with the NFB’s government affairs team to eliminate subminimum wages and the
antiquated notion that blind and disabled people cannot be productive members
of society. He is also the proud father of Amari, his bright, ambitious son.
