I just wondered if I can do things on my own and don't have nobody tell me what I can and cannot do. I know better: Letters to the world from inside of a segregated sheltered workshop

Abstract

The segregation and exploitation of people labeled as intellectually disabled is so thorough that it is rarely academically investigated through the lens of structural violence. This article interrogates the cultural practices and dynamics that are used to oppress based on categories related to intellectual capacity. With the aim of resisting reinforcing the epistemological violence that has silenced the voices and experiences of those grappling under these circumstances of structural violence, the author of the article explores an interrelational method. The words of a woman from within a sheltered workshop (factory like spaces of exclusion claiming to support people with disabilities) are intertwined with the scholar activist stance of the author to explore moral exclusion and structural violence. Along with the excavation of these abusive practices, this article inspired by the insights contained in the letters from the author within the sheltered workshop, envisions desire as a form of resistence and subjects as agents. Rather than seeking conclusions from the themes of resistence elevated from the analysis of the letters, uncomfortable questions are generated about power and academic exploitation in the name of activism.