Crip Mammy

Walters, Shannon

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2017.36

Complicating Race, Gender, and Care in The Ride Together

Walters, Shannon

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (2017), 11, (4), 477–493.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2017.36
Language: English
Pages: 17

Abstract

The article explores the mammy stereotype in the graphic-written memoir, The Ride Together. This white American family employs an African American domestic worker, who is portrayed in stereotypical mammy fashion, to care for an autistic family member. Using crip theory, the article advances critical discussions of race, autism, and disability beyond analogy and erasure, arguing that the mammy stereotype, when examined in its historical context and the structural conditions of care, complexly straddles categories of ability and disability. The article complicates notions of dependency work with considerations of race, gender, and sexuality and points toward resistant readings of mammy.

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