NOTHING WITHOUT US: AGENTIC POWER IN #MYDISABLEDLIFEISWORTHY

Abstract

On January 7, 2022 Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the CDC, went on Good Morning America to discuss the state of Omicron. While explaining that more than 75% of those who died after receiving the full series of Covid-19 vaccines were people who had at least “four comorbidities” Walensky concluded, “So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with. And yes; really encouraging news in the context of Omicron” (Dodge 2022). This statement inspired the viral hashtag #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy, started by Imani Barbarin. The goal of the hashtag, like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter before it, was to push back against the rhetoric that it is ok if chronically-ill and disabled people are dying or discriminated against. The hashtag raises awareness toward the high prevalence of chronic illness and disability in the United States while also critiquing discourse which dismisses these lives as expendable. While abled people were quick to argue that this was not Walensky’s intention, the hashtag brings to light how an inattention to disabled life perpetuates a system of harm. In this presentation, I analyze how the hashtag was strategically utilized by chronically ill and disabled people to push back on rhetoric which implies their lives are acceptable losses in a pandemic. This moves beyond the common declaration of the disabled community, “nothing about us without us,” to a new demand of “nothing without us.”