Dara Baldwin Libri

The book offers a critical examination of the disability rights movement, highlighting the exclusion of people of color and multi-marginalized communities. Dara Baldwin shares her experiences as a disability activist and policymaker, addressing the erasure of Black and Brown voices within the movement. She critiques how white disabled individuals often prioritize their experiences, neglecting the intersectionality of race and disability. Baldwin advocates for a collective liberation that authentically includes disabled people of color, urging a reevaluation of both disability rights and racial justice movements.

A searing call out of the systemic racism happening in disability rights and also ableism occurring in other justice movements, told through the story of a Black women activist and policymakerFor over twenty years, Dara Baldwin has often been the only person of color in the room when significant disability policy decisions are made. Disenfranchisement of people of color and multi-marginalized communities within the disability rights community is not new and has left many inside the community feeling frustrated and erased.In To Be a Problem, Baldwin candidly shares her journey to becoming a disability activist and policymaker in DC while critiquing the disability rights community. She reveals the reality of erasure for many Black people and people of color in the disability movement and argues that, in turn, many white disabled people center themselves within the work without addressing their own white privilege.Disability rights groups have been centering white, straight, cisgender people while racial justice groups often fail to center disabled people, leading many Black and Brown disabled people to start their own Disability Justice organizations. Drawing from her unique vantage point, Baldwin calls readers to understand the shortcomings of the disability rights movement while inspiring us to push all movements towards a more inclusive and authentic liberation.