An Important Statement from Our Board of Directors

Because disability is an identity that crosses all other identity groups, siblings of people with disabilities are members of many communities. We work with an understanding that people who are members of oppressed groups experience discrimination, violence, and lack of access to quality healthcare, education, housing, and job opportunities more frequently than people who are members of privileged groups. We understand that the safety, happiness, and well-being of our families depends on the freedom from all forms of oppression and this understanding creates a responsibility for solidarity across all struggles for liberation. Siblings of people with disabilities are natural allies. We learn to stand up against hateful comments or behaviors directed at our siblings with disabilities at young ages when we are in school, on the playground, and in our neighborhoods. We must also stand up for our fellow siblings and their families who are experiencing hateful comments or behaviors targeting other identities. Additionally, we must support the voices and leadership of those most directly impacted by oppression.
These words come from the SLN’s 2018 Statement of Commitment to Diversity and Social Justice. The Sibling Leadership Network strongly opposes ongoing fatal police brutality, racism, and racial injustice. We are saddened and enraged by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. The SLN is committed to working collaboratively, listening, learning and engaging to promote justice for people of color and all of those oppressed by structural racism and discrimination.
Statement and personal story from Lisa Matthews, Sibling Leadership Network Board of Directors Member, Chapter Representative for DC Sibs:
From Rodney King, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and so many others, I am emotionally triggered each time stories of injustice become the news headline as it resonates a fear of replacing their name with my brother’s, Michael Matthews.   As a sibling of an adult male who is black, diagnosed with autism and has other mental health issues, I am concerned for his safety now more than ever.   As of late, there have been many encounters with the police where the outcome has been deadly for black men and women, generating conversations around police reform, and yet we are faced with another story which has sparked the latest cry across America as a result of the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
With each story, an awareness is heightened of unjust treatment of systemic racism, violence and inequity plagued across the nation towards black men and women at the hands of the police. With each story, there is a solidarity that rise amongst citizens to take a stand against police brutality and discrimination.  With each story, I am reminded of a time in my life that ignited a personal call for action to address issues on diversity and social justice and its impact for people of color with a disability.
The Day was October 13, 2006.  What started as an evening for my mother to cook dinner while Michael watched TV at their home, ended in a physical altercation which resulted in a 2^nd degree assault charge for my brother.  In the past, my mom had called the police to help defuse domestic issues when Michael is agitated, as he is fascinated by the police and police cars. The routine had been that officers would come to their home, talk to my brother which would calm him down, and provide my mother with resources to consider to avert a crisis situation in the future.
Two officers responded to the call that evening and decided it was best to remove my brother from the home and told my mother they would take him to the local district police station and bring him home at the end of their shift.  Michael did not come home that night.  Panic ensued and the possibilities of the what ifs became the beginning of a nightmare for our family.  Michael has very limited social skills and is naïve to the dangers of the world sparking a realization that we knew he did not know how to contact us so we could come and get him.
What we later learned was that Michael had gone before a magistrate and was being held in the Prince George’s County Detention Center facing a charge of second-degree assault.
While Michael was able to come home after being in police custody and sometime later have these charges expunged, others do not get this opportunity.  The intersection of race, gender and disability are ever-present aspects of our society.  The Bureau of Justice found that 26% of non-Hispanic black prisoners have at least one disability.   I do not want Michael to become part of this statistic.
Because I know first-hand that the system will not always be kind to what it does not understand, I began to position myself to advocate for services for Michael that would support increasing his independence, build his awareness and sense of community, and try to help him understand the importance of how he should respond if approached by authority.
Michael will always be seen as a large black male before he is identified as someone with a disability.  The fact remains that because he may not get the significance of an encounter with the police, his name could easily be added to this growing list of names we continue to mourn, protest and fight for change and acceptance that black lives do matter.  We cannot fix what we are unwilling to face and there is a dire need for change in policies and practices.  We must make sure this includes training for law enforcement to work with the disability community to decipher the differences of all individuals they may encounter.  There also is a need to recognize that as a country we must have the underlying uncomfortable conversations that have caused the initial presumption to suspect, doubt and fear black people.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Lisa Matthews, SLN Board of Directors DC Representative
June 5, 2020