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This paper explores the evolution of ideologies of race, poverty, and disability. Three models, identified as biological, cultural, and minority-group, are discussed. Throughout the twentieth century, biological and cultural models presented images of race, class, and disability in terms of deficiency and dependence. Biological models represented some minority groups as genetically inferior. Cultural models represented low-income minorities as trapped in an inescapable cycle of poverty. Both models represented minorities with disabilities as social victims or social threats or both. In contrast, the minority group model presents social and environmental explanations for continued economic disparity. However, this model does not adequately meet the needs of people of color with disabilities. Typically, disability is not included in theoretical formulations of race and class, whereas disability studies does not sufficiently consider the significance of racial, ethnic, and class differences. This paper presents an empowerment framework for considering the interrelation of race, class, and disability within the minority-group model of disability.
Throughout the twentieth century, theoretical models of biological and cultural pathology, such as eugenics and the culture of poverty, have presented images of race, ethnicity, and disability primarily in terms of deficiency and dependence (Baratz, 1969; Baratz & Baratz, 1970; Caplan & Nelson, 1973; Kevles, 1985; Lewis, 1959; Rainwater, 1970). Policies and practices based on these theories project pejorative images on lowincome ethnic and racial minorities and on people with disabilities. Individuals belonging to more than one of these categories-or all three-are especially vulnerable to social stigma.
Such images of biological and cultural pathology have been rejected by many modern theorists who have adopted a minority group model for the analysis of groups disenfranchised on the basis of race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability (Gill, 1998; hooks, 1992). In these formulations, racism, classism, ableism, and other forms of prejudice create barriers that result in social and economic marginalization for disenfranchised groups. At the same time, a minority group model does not always sufficiently account for the interactions among the difference categories. For example, disability is usually not included in theoretical formulations of race and ethnicity (Davis, 1983), while disability studies often does not sufficiently consider the significance of racial, ethnic, and class differences (Charlton, 1998).
This article presents a conceptual history and a framework for considering the...