Black Disability Culture intersects two identities into one that brings out the histories, artistic expressions and resilience of Black disabled people worldwide that comes from the Black and Disabled communities. It builds on the work of Steven Brown who was the first to write about Disability Culture in the 1980’s. One of Leroy Moore’s last conversations with Brown was that there are many Disability Cultures if you add race and put it on an international stage.

To see and be politically aware of Black Disability Culture within the Black community and in the African Diaspora one must go through the process of decolonizing from the white Western colonial thinking around disability then be re-educated by Black disabled radical activists, artists, educators, and theorists.

A decolonizing white Western disability process is a critical framework aimed at dismantling the “ableist-colonialist” structures embedded in Western, Eurocentric models of disability, which often focus on individualism, productivity, and medicalization. It is a deliberate effort to shift away from treating disability as an individual deficit or pathology toward recognizing it as a social, cultural, and political construct that interacts with colonialism, racism, and capitalism.

Decentering individualism: Unlike Western models that stress independence, a decolonized approach highlights interdependence, community-led care, and collective responsibility.

Black Disability Culture also recognizes Black Disabled Ancestors who had to hide or to display their disability to stay alive and make a living, like many of Black ancestors who worked in freak shows and on the streets of the early Blues era in the US, and music by South African blind musician Babsy Mlangeni who used his music to fight apartheid back in the day.

Black Disability Culture centers on Disability Justice and Sankofa; combined, both terms give a wide, expansive view of disability from a Black/African perspective as follows: as a framework that recognizes how anti-Blackness and ableism are mutually reinforcing systems of oppression; also looking backward to move forward, serving as a guiding principle for Black disabled communities to reclaim, honor, and integrate their histories into their future. It supports Black families with children with disabilities, fostering connection and empowerment.

To continue to build Black Disability Culture, we must:

• Erase Black ableism
• Be local and global
• Become a “we” story
• Change from a deficit model to what we have to contribute
• Continue to create artistic subjects (music, visual arts, etc.)
• Create media, theories, political platforms, curriculums, and books.
• Black disability cultural workers should network with each other globally.

Black Disability Culture is still growing and has grown globally, with many countries still in the beginning stages of seeing themselves culturally, artistically, historically, and politically disabled or as a person with a disability. This is only my attempt under Krip-Hop Nation.