To Be a Problem

A Black Woman's Survival in the Racist Disability Rights Movement

By: Dara Baldwin, Keith P. Jones - foreword

Narrated by: Arischa Conner

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A searing critique of the disability rights movement from within, and a call for collective liberation that is pro-Black and centers disabled people of color

For 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 listeners to understand the shortcomings of the disability rights movement while inspiring us to push all movements towards a more inclusive and authentic liberation.

©2024 Dara Baldwin (P)2024 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

“To Be a Problem is an essential guide to how race and gender intersect with disabilities. Readers who admire the works of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and Alice Wong will appreciate the issues that Baldwin unravels here.” —Booklist

“To Be a Problem is a revolutionary text from a unique perspective all too ignored in our society. In a time when dehumanization is on the march, to read a book so rooted in our collective humanity is an absolute gift. Dara Baldwin is a special writer, as anyone who reads these pages will find out for themselves.” —Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect and sports editor of The Nation

“Dara Baldwin is a visionary organizer who applies her razor-sharp intellect to the task of building movements that include the most marginalized, not as an afterthought but as the only possible route to winning the world we need. This book is a badly needed intervention in our times of overlapping and intersecting crises.” —Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and Doppelganger