STOP SCROLLING: Why Has Japan’s Massacre of the Disabled Gone Unnoticed?

anniethebisexual:

Please reblog to spread awareness for this terrible event and start a conversation.

Summary: on July 26, 2016, a man carrying a knife broke into Tsukui Yamayuriena, a home for the disabled outside of Tokyo and brutally murdered 19 people as they slept, while injuring another 26. Afterwards, he turned himself in to a local police station, with the explanation:

“It is better that the disabled disappear.” 

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It absolutely angers me and makes my blood boil that this tragedy has long gone unnoticed by the world. First of all, people with disabilities, on one hand, are a source of ‘inspiration’ for many across the world – even though they are only achieving things that able bodied people achieve. This has, however, led to the rise of the disability rights movement – the desire to give disabled people the same rights as others. On the other hand, the disabled still face a life filled with prejudice and violence.

There were so many outlets that failed to even mention this devastating attack, and the ones that did described it as a ‘mercy killing.’ This way of viewing the attack is so fundamentally wrong. It fails to recognize that this was an act driven by hate towards a group of people. This was a hate crime.

The sad part is that us disabled individuals live in a world that often forgets that 200,000 Holocaust victims were disabled. I live in a world where disabled people are often sent to separate schools due to their disability. I live in a world where the word ‘retard’ is thrown around as a descriptive word in day to day conversation.

We need to start addressing ableism because it is a real form of discrimination.