immunism - a working definition // 9.14.2023
Immuno-ableism, or immunism, is rooted in but expands upon the analysis of ableism. As we move through the ongoing pandemic, it has been made clear that not all disabled people are allies to the sick, chronically ill, and immunocompromised. While we can cite lateral ableism, I think that we can delve deeper than that by centering ‘immunity’ in our critical analyses.
More coming soon.
// added 10.18.2023
What strikes me about immunism is what it tells us about relationality - how we are in relation to one another. This became clear to me after reading the following quote in The Viral Underclass by Steven W. Thrasher:
I’m revising my position on viruses living in bodies; they live briefly in spaces where bodies interface, making the war against the virus also a war against moments and spaces of connection.
It is here that immunism and neurotypism collide.