Alison Kopit -- Stuart Hall, "Cultural Identity and Diaspora"

Alison Kopit – Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”

In “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” Cultural Studies scholar Stuart Hall writes about the production of identity, and the difference and dynamism laden in cultural identity in diasporic community, claiming, “The diaspora experience as I intend it here, is defined, not by essence or purity, but by the recognition of a necessary heterogeneity and diversity; by a conception of ‘identity’ which lives with and through, not despite, difference; by hybridity.” He continues to conceptualize the way that diaspora identities are in constant flux, writing, “Diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew, through transformation and difference” (402). Although disability community is not grounded in place/ethnic background, as diasporic community is, in this post, I will take up the idea of cultural identity and consider the way that cultural identity functions within a Disability culture.

Disabled people often have to defend that a “culture” binding them together on the basis of identity even exists. The articulated concept (although not the phenomenon itself) is rather new and only dates back to the mid-1990s. When Carol Gill (1995) first started writing about a “Disability culture,” she was writing about core values and characteristics that she saw at work within the Disability community. Thus, she did not write the culture into existence; she articulated what was already vibrant and living. That said, disabled people are often defending the fact that they even have a culture. Culture is often bound up in pride, or positive identity. Because mainstream culture often doubts that Disability would be valuable to claim and/or to organize around, it can be difficult to conceptualize disability as being a characteristic around which to identify.

Hall identifies the characteristics of cultural identity within the diaspora as containing difference and hybridity at its core; it is necessarily heterogeneous and diverse. Identity is formed through boundaries of difference. Disability community is made up of people with diverse impairments and from diverse lived experiences, but common values—of accommodation, a commitment to “making it work,” shared humor, communication styles—are at work within the community. As in the diaspora experience, disabled people also often exist in liminal spaces: of passing, of privilege and/or oppression, and of inclusion. I have been a part of Disability community in various cities across the United States and in several different countries. In each place, there are certainly nuanced cultural differences, but there are also notable characteristics that are reproduced. Finding disabled people, especially disabled queer people, while traveling has been a way to find semblances of “home,” wherever I’ve been. As an art and culture organizer in the Disability community, I have seen the different ways that Disability Art functions in various Disability communities, and my master's thesis research articulates the characteristics of what I call a "Crip Aesthetic."

In my academic work as well as in my teaching, I approach Disability community as a culture. I teach my undergrad students about Disability culture, through starting with the social model (limiting though the social model can sometimes be). I teach that the social model is empowering to disabled people because it allows us to claim Disability and build coalition with other disabled people on the basis of a shared experience of oppression. I teach them that the social model matters because forming community means that people can unite to effect social change. Is there value in relating Disability identity to Stuart Hall’s concept of diasporic cultural identities? Disabled people are dispersed throughout the world, but because we do not have an actual place of origin, is it a useful comparison? Is it appropriative (or completely off the mark)? What are the differences in dispersed community that has never been grounded in place (such as in queer or Disability community), versus those that have?

Works Cited

Gill, Carol. “A Psychological View of Disability Culture.” Disability Studies Quarterly (Fall 1995): 1–4. Web.

Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, Columbia University Press, 1994, 392-403.