Anti-ableism and the coronaverse

Jeanette Chedda studied Media and Journalism at Erasmus University and writes stories based on her daily experiences. She is an ambassador for the Care4BrittleBones Foundation (seen on the poster for the campaign: 'I am Chedda and I have OI'), and is affiliated with Alien Mag, which is also active in Rotterdam.

Look at 'Dear Society', Jeanette Chedda's speech during the Women's March on March 8, 2020.

Project Wiaspora
Project Wiaspora is the podcast for revolutionary futurists and decolonized minds. The recordings take place at special locations, where Richard Kofi and Simone Zeefuik discuss the local social impact of art, culture and activism. For this they invite rebellious artists, musicians, writers and other creatives who fight free from the expectations of the mainstream.

Transcription

(Part of Chedda's speech at the 2020 Women's March in Amsterdam)
My name is Chedda. I am a disabled Woman of Colour. My parents are from Suriname, in the South of America. I have a mother from Saramacca and I had a father from Paramaribo who died three years ago. May he rest in power. I have two brothers and one sister. I'm the oldest. I'm a daughter and I'm a proud sister. I have two cats, I am a proud cat mother. I have a grandmother, I am a proud granddaughter. I have cousins, a lot of cousins ​​actually. I am one of the oldest. I am a proud cousin. I have nieces, nephews. A lot of nieces and nephews, actually. I am a proud (puha), a proud (mousy) and a proud aunt. I have friends, I am a friend. I have a lover, I am a lover. I have one night stands, I am a one night stand. I have sex, I love having sex. I have a job, two paying jobs actually. I am an employee, I earn money and I pay taxes. I am a volunteer. I speak on behalf, I am an ambassador. I play wheelchair hockey, I am wheelchair hockey player and also a referee. I am human.

Richard Kofi: Welcome to a new episode of Project Wiaspora, made in collaboration with exhibition space TENT in Rotterdam. We discuss the social impact of art, culture and activism. This time with a real topper. You heard her in the opening. It's none other than Chedda. She's a well-known feminist, an anti-racism and anti-ableism activist. She has been involved in various awareness campaigns for a while, but her breakthrough came when she gave this speech during the Women's March in 2020.

(Part of Chedda's speech at the 2020 Women's March in Amsterdam)
Dear society, I have a brat. Dear society, I am sitting here before you today to prove my humanity to you because that's what you have driven me to. You deny us the right to education, you deny us the right to fitting housing. You deny us the right to a career and accessible work spaces, you deny us the right to an adequate income. You deny us the right to proper medical and mental healthcare. You deny us the right of independent living. You deny us the right to marry. You deny us the right to love and have babies. You deny us the right to safe transportation. You deny us the right to representation. You deny us the right to safety. You deny us the right of…. No, you deny us access to public spaces and you deny us the right to be human. To feel human. What's next, denying me the right to be part of this society? No disabled allowed? (She makes a woo-ing sound) Dear society, I am sitting here before you today to tell you that I am done with your bullshit, ableist, sanist, toxic behavior against me and all people like me.

Richard: She's tired of society's bullshit. Of course, a lot has happened in the world since the Women's March that has questioned our notions of damage, illness, recovery and physicality. Has our understanding of what freedom, independence and accessibility is also changed? We think it is important to forward voices like Chedda's at this moment because I think that as a society we still see the healthcare system too much as an abstract concept. On the one hand, we take its availability for granted, on the other hand we assume that it has our best interests at heart, while choices are also made there about who gets to live and who doesn't. Chedda reminds us to be critical of the way in which we identify with the Medical Industrial Complex. Is it a human system and to what extent is it a translation of forms of exclusion that we allow in our daily lives? So yes, which forms of exclusion do you allow in your daily life?

(Part of Chedda's speech at the 2020 Women's March in Amsterdam)
We are mothers, daughters, we are granddaughters, we are cousins, we are nieces, we are aunts, we are friends, lovers, we are one-night stands, we are sexual beings, we are artists. We are doctors, writers, chefs. We are sex workers, we are cleaners, we are waiters, accountants, lawyers, singers. We are everything you ask for but still not part of you, dear society? And you are not even questioning why? Dear society, dear audience, dear women in this crowd, dear people at home, I am sitting here before you today to prove my humanity to you because that's what you have driven me to. But I am also sitting here before you today to tell you that we are done. We have the right to education, we have the right to fitting housing, we have the right to a career and accessible work spaces. We have the right to an adequate income, to proper medical and mental healthcare. We have a right for independent living, to marry. We have the right to love and have babies. We have a right to safe transportation, we have a right to be in public fucking spaces. We have the right to fucking safety, we have the right to feel fucking human, to be fucking human.

Richard: You might have guessed it… this episode is packed with information, packed with awakenings… at least for me. We kind of saw it coming so Gyonne from TENT, Simone and I take turns talking to Chedda and then, at the end, we open it up.

(Part of Chedda's speech at the 2020 Women's March in Amsterdam)
Dear feminists, modern feminism doesn't always include disabled people. We are excluded most of the time. That means that people like me are still left out, are still excluded from feminist and activist spaces. Despite our own activism, we still have to activate you to not exclude us. By excluding us, you are not an intersectional feminist. (crowd woo's in agreement) If your feminism doesn't include disability, it's bullshit. Disability is an intersection, you need to realize that we are represented nowhere. Not in politics, not in media, not in advertisement, not in fashion. We are nowhere to be found unless it's something highly inspirational or very, very sad to be pitied. We will no longer be your inspiration, your scape goat, your victim or your token.

Chedda: Hi, yes, I am Chedda. I am a web editor by profession so I try to make all complicated subjects as understandable as possible and I am also a volunteer at various foundations. One that is committed to a better position for people with a disability on the labor market and Stichting Care4BrittleBones and I also call myself anti-ableist activist.

Gyonne: Alriiight. I also started thinking about our preliminary talks. Apart from the fact that we met once at a brainstorming session of Alien Mag in Rotterdam and then we actually went straight into the depths. (laughing) There were even tears, so to speak.
And then we got to know each other pretty well, I feel, even though it was only an hour and a half, two hours that we were together. Yes, there was an immediate click because you have a lot to say in all kinds of different ways. What is important to you in how you live your daily life, apart from Corona, how do you actually experience hope and connection or how do you fill that in for yourself?

Chedda: Well, first of all I think I was born with a pretty strong drive and that has helped me quite a bit in life. Hope is for me a kind of light in the distance that I would like to go to and that lets me know that it is achievable. I grew up Islamic and I get a lot of peace and quiet from… Actually I find it a bit complicated to answer, actually. I had thought about what hope means to me. I know for myself that I have to keep moving a lot, for example; that is why I find it a bit difficult now during the Corona crisis because I am confronted with myself in a new way. I have been working on developing myself personally for quite some time, which I think is a life lesson that always continues, but every time I think “Oh, now I get it a bit”, I am confronted with all kinds of things again and now in the Corona crisis, because I am at home quite a lot. I miss those stimuli a lot, so I also get my hope from interaction with other people, so I also look at how other people do things. That's why I think, so to speak, when I first became acquainted with the disability community in the Netherlands, because I had been looking abroad for years, America, England, I got so much new hope and that was in early 2019 when I went to the Women's March. I think that was one of the most tangible ways in which I found new hope again. Namely by looking at what others are doing.

Gyonne: You just said, you have a strong drive as a person. In what way do you mean that exactly?

Chedda: Well, I had a burnout in 2012 and that's when my kind of journey of self-development started. I can look back on that now. It's eight years later now so I can look back on that now. Once I was in that moment I didn't know that. I have then for example, I never really gave space to certain parts of my identity, but I just had a very clear picture very early on that I wanted to achieve certain goals. In 2012 I had achieved all those goals and then I didn't know.

Gyonne: When you talk about those goals… are they social goals, mental goals…

Chedda: I just wanted to be independent of people anyway. So, for example, I wanted to live on my own. I wanted a good education. I also did a lot of volunteer work but I also wanted a well-paid job. I wanted my driver's license, I just wanted to be independent, not dependent on anyone to live and in 2012 I had always worked towards all those things and then suddenly there was time for everything else that goes with it. My entire emotional household suddenly had space and I didn't know what was happening.

Gyonne: I get that. You had it… when you tell this like that about the goals you wanted to achieve and that independence you wanted to achieve, so to speak… and when I hear you from how you just talked about the community you found in early 2019… I recognize in my own way from a completely different context why feeling independent from people is important to me. But, I'm also curious what that urge was for you to have to experience that independence in that way from yourself?

Chedda: Yeah, look, I have a condition called OI, Osteogenesis Imperfecta hot (find the abbreviation) because of that my bones are not that strong so I have since birth… that's what you're born with and that's what I was born with too, broken a lot of bones. Mainly my legs: that's why I'm a bit smaller than the average person. I'm about 1.12m. and outside I use a wheelchair. You can't see that on camera but I'm about 1.12m and so I use a wheelchair. Yes, then, because I have a visible disability, people just treat you differently and in general they don't expect much from you. When I was young I wasn't allowed to do a lot of things because I was so fragile. I wasn't allowed to play outside, I had to be careful. I had special wheelchairs that shielded me from, so that people couldn't bump into me. It limited my freedom of movement; I wasn't allowed to do a lot of things. I really wasn't allowed to do a lot of things and that was purely for protection. That was one side but at the same time I had to make sure that other children were playing in the playground. There was no tag or hide-and-seek for me. I had to look out the window. Looking back on it now… that’s sad. That’s really sad. I’ve spent a lot of my life in hospitals too. Not just because I broke things but because I had operations… maybe I’m becoming very medical now.

Gyonne: No, but for medical reasons.

Chedda: Yes, and that's why I dreamed that I could do everything myself. I dreamed of being able to walk, of not being different from others because I was always treated differently. There was also a whole toxic need to prove myself because it was not for nothing that I also had a burn-out in 2012 because I had tried to perform as if I had no disability until then. Because of that I went beyond all my boundaries and I also pretended that I did not have OI and yes, you can only keep that up until a certain... such a life has a certain shelf life and that was reached somewhere in 2012.

Gyonne: Whatever I think about… okay, so it’s 2020 now and when we met, you told a version of this story too and it was very… that touched me but it also made me realize how ableist this society is. You had it then… and I thought that was super strong… I think we asked you then how do we also connect with each other. Then you said: “Yes, but the fact that people often stand and don't come and talk and sit… let's say…” that that already creates a whole hierarchy.” Then I thought “Yes, you're right!” I find those kinds of insights super important to also create literal forms of connection. I am very busy with that of how you can go beyond certain obvious things in this society in all kinds of different ways to really create that connection in it and it is important that we reflect on that. I just heard from Naod that I am almost at my fifteen minutes so time goes by very quickly.

Chedda: Time, always!

Gyonne: So I want to pass the baton to Simone.

Chedda: I might want to say something. We talked about it in the preliminary interview… When we were all counting down to this interview, we talked about an event that several of us had attended. I always get really nervous at those kinds of events because of the situation you just described, because I’m in a wheelchair and everyone is standing. I can never predict in advance how that evening will go, but in this case I felt safe enough to go. Still, the situation was that everyone was standing and I was lucky that there was someone in a wheelchair there who I could hang out with a little bit. But, uhm… I don’t know what happens in those kinds of situations because I can’t look into other people’s heads, of course. But yeah, it’s always like that for me… it brings a lot of tension because I just don’t know…

Gyonne: Whatever the dynamics are going to be.

Chedda: Yes, but also what the interaction with people is going to be. I really have to think about that in advance, what I really find annoying because those kinds of events just have to be fun, you know. But I have to be really nervous about the accessibility. Is there a threshold? There was, by the way. Most people I know who have a disability, who for example can't walk, they wouldn't have been able to go there. So many factors that you have to take into account in advance compared to "You walk in and you have a nice evening," you know. I don't see myself as an extrovert and even though I knew quite a few people that evening, I was still nervous about it because I've really experienced enough that I go to those kinds of events and literally with no-one talk. That's quite sad but that's what happens. That people don't dare to talk to you or whatever happens. I have no idea what happens because I can't look into other people's heads. But also because people just ignore you... I don't know what it is! So it's not just accessibility in the physical sense, you know; it's also social. So that's why I sometimes wonder: "Where does my drive from here, why am I still sitting up here?” I just don’t know but I am glad that I have it and that I can see hope and… yes. That I am still an optimistic person.

Gyonne: Yes, you definitely are.

Chedda: Yes, but I really don't know how. (laughing)

Gyonne: But I'm glad you have it.

Chedda: Me, too.

Simone: Yeah, I have to laugh because I have a very subtle message got that i muted was by the host. Someone really made it clear: “Sis, you have to wait for your turn.” (laughing)

Gyonne: It wasn't me… (laughing)

Simone: (laughing) Hhhmm-hmmm… supposedly.
No, I wanted to ask Chedda something and first of all thank you for what you shared and for your stories. You were talking about sort of a distance between people and I was wondering if in this moment, now where we have this distance and everyone is trying really hard to pretend that it's not the case… if that has changed anything for you in terms of kinship or the ways in which people communicate with each other now…

Chedda: You mean during the Corona crisis, right?

Simone: Yes, in the Corona crisis indeed. Or do you have the idea that it sometimes feels like we are making up for everything we actually neglected before. And that only now, for many of us, who have little or no contact with other people, do we feel that we have to overcompensate and what do you do in that time?

Chedda: I don't feel like I'm being overwhelmed by… how did you put that?

Simone: Or you feel like you're being overwhelmed by overcommunication. That people are like, "Oh, now I'm actually cut off from a lot of contacts..."

Chedda: Nee, not really, honestly. No. What this situation does make clear, for the people who behave and keep themselves in quarantine, is that much more is possible than before the Corona crisis. That is becoming very clear now. In terms of accessibility and the possibilities that companies are now suddenly pulling out of their sleeves of: "You can work from home, you can take online classes..." while for many people who asked for it before it turned out that this was not possible and now it is all being pulled out of their sleeves. I am not necessarily overwhelmed by overcommunication. Yes, and that is because I am sometimes not online for hours. And that is because, when I pick up my phone and my Instagram, Twitter... on Facebook I am less on it now but... in that sense I am overwhelmed and I no longer know where to look. So for that overstimulation... I have had to protect myself a bit because I am getting very anxious about everything that is happening around me now. The possibilities you have, the stress of choosing “What should I follow now? Oh, he’s doing something interesting again…” but that’s just not possible.

Simone: I also asked because you said earlier, in the beginning with Gyonne, “I do need those stimuli.” You have less of them at home, so whether it now feels like an overload of stimuli.

Chedda: Yes, those stimuli I'm talking about are really human contact. I mean, it's just different via video and I tend to withdraw a lot, but that's not necessarily very good for me because I find it very difficult to ask for help, for example. That also has a bit to do with the history I just outlined because I convinced myself: "Yes, I can do everything myself." But there's absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help. This Corona crisis teaches me that I can still take a few steps in that direction to do that outreach myself. Is that a bit of an answer to your question?

Simone: Definitely. It's more than that, so thanks for your explanation. I do have a question about self-care. You already indicated that you find peace and tranquility in Islam, and for me that is also a religion that I associate with peace and tranquility. How many of you self-care or your community care has spiritual roots?

Chedda: I don't really know, actually. I don't know why I don't know how to answer that question, you know. But self-care It really matters to me the basics. So eat well and on time, sleep well and exercise. Only, since that quarantine I haven't been able to practice the sport I used to do because I play wheelchair hockey but that has been on hold for two months. The training sessions that we have twice a week are not going ahead and the entire competition has also been canceled so we don't have any more matches. I really miss that. For Feminists Against Ableism, for example, not much has changed in terms of how we do things, except that everyone is of course getting used to the new situation. Me too. A very interesting thing is that, for me personally, I have also started to look at productivity in a completely different way. Productivity is quite focused on making money, but there are many more things that are productive than making money. For example, if you just survive in this crisis, that is also just productive.

(transition music)

Richard: What really inspired me was that you said that you have to think differently about productivity. That this interim period, this Corona period, has taught you that a bit. I wanted to fantasize a bit with you about these things. What we can learn from this period but also what can be done differently. I found two things interesting that you mentioned: that connectivity that you started to look at it very differently and that you notice that companies are now making everything more accessible at once. Be it online, be it making the possibilities of working from home more accessible... what can remain in lockdown for you? What does not have to go post-Corona, post-quarantine?

Chedda: Oh gosh… what really needs to stay in post-Corona lockdown?

Richard (laughing): They can keep that.

(Richard and Chedda talk over each other)

Chedda: That doesn't have to go with it until we can all safely go out on the streets again. What may remain is, so to speak, the image of... at one point there were conversations and articles were written and opinions were expressed online and in the media about the situation if the ICU department became full. That they were thinking about who deserves a bed in the ICU and who doesn't. That brought up some pretty painful images that are focused on how valuable someone is to society. So to speak, the elderly and people with a chronic disability, visible or invisible, didn't come out so well. The idea that if you look different because of a disability or if you are chronically ill... the assessment of those kinds of people and the images that exist about the quality of life of someone with a disability and that that therefore does not deserve an ICU bed... Those kinds of images of the value of, say, my life or friends of mine who receive care, for example, they really may remain in lockdown in my opinion. It is really shocking that people think about it that way and that they so explicitly value my quality of life.

Richard: To your contribution, so to speak.

Chedda: Yeah, exactly. That really needs to stay in lockdown. I'm trying to stay off Twitter and all those discussions a little bit because my blood pressure is really going up when I see the reactions of some people, how narrow-minded or a certain way of people like me… what is being said. I know on the one hand that it is all there and I have read those articles but it is just shocking that those kinds of images exist. It is just about me, it is just about friends of mine. So they are not worth saving. That really can remain in lockdown.

Richard: Exactly. Maybe it's also that people quickly fall into that kind of language. It could also come from research that you might come to a critical point where a choice has to be made, but that then there is a kind of popular opinion is… that is very painful.

Chedda: That is very painful indeed but at the same time it also shows how ableist our society is. Ableism is a system. It started somewhere at some point survival of the fittest. That's also very ableist. You know, some of the opinions about who deserves to get an ICU bed or not is also pure eugenics. So, it's really sad to see that that popular opinion can be or has been for a while. Fortunately, there are many people in the Community stood up to make a counter-voice heard, you know. That's why I'm so happy with that disability community in the Netherlands.

Richard: Can you tell us a little more about that? Community ? What does that look like, what are the organizations and key people for us to follow?

Chedda: I can tell you where I stand on that. I have always been an activist, but since 2019 I have perhaps become a little more aware than before… also because I did not know anyone in the Netherlands who was involved in that. Feminists Against Ableism is a collective of feminists who are committed to anti-ableism. The whole disability Activism is still in its infancy in the Netherlands because validism really knows… Look, because I am often involved with it and it is discussed a lot in my circle, when I go to events I am very disappointed about the level there, for example, because people then have a eye opener about whether they should put something on the website about accessibility or whether they are so inspired that someone has spoken there about how inaccessible our healthcare system or our society is in general. The level is really very low. I mean more… the system… people don’t know about it, it’s not recognized. It’s slowly starting to come up a little bit so there aren’t many activist organizations there. Except ours. From our group… yeah, I met some really nice people there with whom I can talk for the first time about things that are important to me. And this is not a backlash or a dig at what Community then also. But you know, I tried to pretend for a very large part of my life that I didn't have OI. I didn't want to read about it, I didn't want to have anything to do with it. So when I first joined the patient association between 2012 and 2016, I hoped to feel at home there, but actually that was a bit of a disappointment. I play hockey, I do that with people with a disability. Do you know what the difficult thing is? People with a disability... in the Netherlands, that's two million people. That's a very large group. There is also a large part that just accepts the situation. They don't want to stand out and just want to participate in this society. What is their right is only if you look at the things that are different for us... In many areas, we don't have the same rights as people without a disability and now, let's say in 2019, for the first time in my entire life, which is what I've been looking for for a long time, I feel at home. For me, since then, a lot has also… what do you call that? That has also accelerated my personal development. Because of that, I can look at myself and the world in completely different ways. It also takes me to different places. Since I started to speak out more explicitly in the area of ​​anti-validism, I also meet completely different people, I come into completely different spaces. That's where I met Gyonne. It's also relatively new to me, so to speak, also with the view where I'm going, the disability community in the Netherlands I was really looking at the anti-racism movement in the Netherlands. It has made some really big steps in the past five, ten years with organizations like Nederland Wordt Beter, Kick Out Zwarte Piet… That's where it first started… Look, you know what it is? They are… racism and ableism are both oppressive systems. The effect is basically the same, only in the area of ​​a different part of your identity. It has some common ground anyway, only we as Feminists Against Ableism try a seat at the table to get and you see that it is happening more and more. People also approach us. For example, March 21, that was the international day against racism. Normally there is a physical demo in Amsterdam but this time they organized an online broadcast via AT5. So we were also approached for that. Very late but okay, we were approached for it. So we were there to include ableism in the whole. In our bio of Feminists Against Ableism it also says “We try to claim our rightful place in activist spaces” because you always hear and see, let's say, feminists and activists talking about "Yes, we are intersectional" but very often, let's say, ableism is the neglected child. Often those kinds of organizations are not as intersectional as they claim to be. And there is still a whole world to win.

You do see movement slowly coming so there is movement but it is really still in its infancy. You don't see us in politics. We are represented in politics with 0,5%. You don't see us in commercials, you don't see us on TV... nowhere but we are a group of 2,5 million people. That is a very diverse group, that are all kinds of limitations from visible to invisible, mental health issues…that's really the whole range. But representation… we really try to be there in places where it is important from that activist angle. So that is a topic. Language was a topic recently; there is a lot in language. We recently had a discussion about what someone's preference is how you refer to yourself. Is that persons first or identity first. The general opinion is… and we're still very much in the dark about this… I refer to myself as a woman of color with a visible disability. That's persons first because I think that… yeah, I'm a person first. The majority of the group would rather identity first. Identity first is then a disabled person of Color, so disabled is at the forefront. I understand that, but I'm still a bit hesitant because, what is it called... for me, disabled has a bit of an unpleasant connotation because it is often used as a swear word. Somewhere in November we have World Disability Day. The feeling I get from that is: "Today you can give disabled people a nice... give him an extra cookie because it is World Disability Day." But I do understand that people generally prefer identity first, so disabled person, because with that you try to indicate that it is not something to be ashamed of. For me, a very big one has happened relatively recently Switch been in my head. I grew up with the idea that my OI is what is wrong with me. So you can look at me in two ways. “Oh what a shame that she has OI.” Or “Oh what a shame that we live in a society that is not made for her.” I myself had to Switch also make very bad. I was born with a disability so I have internalized a lot of those ideas and I have also started to believe them. Only that switch was so much more important for me because I was over that first one, of "Oh what a shame that I have OI" Sat and that's such a sad life because I can't change a damn thing about it. That responsibility is not mine and there is absolutely nothing wrong with me, but that society is where it goes wrong because it is simply not made for people like me. That word 'disabled' we try to sort of reclaim because there is absolutely nothing wrong with being disabled. You know what else… in English you have the word 'disabled'The opposite of that is enabled. Disabled indicates that there is an external factor that makes it more difficult for you, what do you call it, to move in this society, but there is no good Dutch translation for it disabled because then you end up with handicapped but that is not really a good translation. That is why I always said persons first because I think it is important that you also see me as a person and that does not happen here. If you compare it to when I walk in New York for example… there I am just seen as a person. I do not know how I can illustrate how big the difference is with how I am looked at here in the Netherlands and how a resident, a New Yorker looks at me. He just looks at me. That is just such a big difference. I think that I am a person is just very important and also the connotation that goes with handicapped that I do not really like. Opinions are divided about it but in general people think identity first the most empowerment I can say, I think. And I understand that too, but I have doubts. At the moment I am very much on persons first.

Richard: This is an interesting discussion that Chedda gives us insight into. A very personal one in which she indicates that in defining herself, she has lost her humanity for her disability places. She doesn't want her person to be defined by her disabilityFor others it can be very liberating to be themselves identity first to define. For example, if you disability sees as something that is inextricably linked to your identity. I've been told that this is especially the case with deaf and autistic people... yes, that they prefer this. These are all things that I've never really thought about before and I'm glad Chedda is waking me up to that. I'm definitely going to ask people what their preferences are from now on because we all know how powerful it is to be able to define yourself when it comes to race or pronounce. So it's good to also ask how people define themselves when it comes to other constructs. We'll continue with the interview but first a very nice song by Joya Mooi. The song Sea Of White.

Gyonne: Actually, and this is funny… it is not often that I have little to say, meant positively, but now I am really listening and I think: “Yeah, we have such a long way to go.” And that is from my very privileged position spoken, that I think: “Wow…” So that’s why I’m actually just kind of thinking if I’m completely honest. Everything that you guys just talked about too…

Richard: Is there anything else that needs to remain in lockdown?

Gyonne: Yes…
Richard: Even more to lock up and leave behind.

Chedda: Is there anything you would like to lock down?

Richard, Gyonne and Simone speak at the same time; Simone and Gyonne want to mention at the same time what they want to leave behind.

Chedda: I'm very curious because I don't know right now.

(Simone and Gyonne apologize for talking over each other.)

Simone: What I would like to leave behind us is the term 'lockdown' because when we talk about language... Lockdown is really a term that is associated with detention and we are not in lockdown; we are in quarantine. A number of us who are not hanging out in the park with a glass of rosé and a certain soundtrack…they are in quarantine and it is not comparable to, uh, being in detention. I always hope that we can call it a shutdown if need be, if it has to be a similar term. Uh, but I hope that we can get past the language of equating discomfort with oppression. And none of us… let me not say none but a lot of us are not oppressed by what is happening now but there is a very great sense of discomfort. And you see, for example, when there are protests, people say, “I have to go to the hairdresser and this has to be open now. This is an oppression!” and people holding up pictures of enslaved people… it's not really the same. Apart from the very big injustice, and that's what you also pointed out Chedda, in terms of health care where some of us are just now thinking about what it means to not able-bodied to be and what it means when you are talked about as if… as in “You should be the first to go if there are not enough beds.” That is a realization that far too few of us think about.

Chedda: We are not involved in the plans to reopen society.

Simone: And also ideas about who belongs. And I am very happy that there is an interpreter when the measures are discussed, but that is one form of translation. What happens if you are low-literate or if you do not speak Dutch but you want to know what is happening. Eeehmm, apart from that… if I could choose one thing, it is that the term “lockdown”… that we stop that in solidarity with people who have actually been in detention.

Gyonne: I would love to hear more about your work and vision as a writer. You write stories, blogs too, right Chedda? What topics do you choose, what tone of voice and who do you want to address?

Chedda: I once started my blog by writing about the things that I experience and also showing more of myself because I am not represented anywhere so I thought: "I am going to represent myself." Somewhere it also had to do with my need to prove myself which I had much more then than now. But, I actually write about very... yes, things that I experience.

Gyonne: So more everyday things?

Chedda: Yes. So what I wanted to say about what Simone just said, about how accessible that information is. So I always try to explain something in the simplest way possible. You can't always write in colloquial language but I do try as much as possible and not to use all complicated words because I want as many people as possible to understand what I'm saying. In general, it's about the things that I experience in my life. You can follow me online, on Instagram. There you can get a bit of an impression of what I write. That speech for example...

Gyonne: Some context: That March 8 speech.

Chedda: On March 8th I gave a speech at the Women's March. As Feminists Against Ableism, we worked together with the Women's March to make the march as accessible as possible, but there will always be a group that cannot participate due to illness and because you can't make Amsterdam accessible in one go. You can't arrange that within a week or whatever, so there will always be a group that has to stay home, but they also have a voice and a story and they actually want to participate, so we arranged two things: that we could participate as safely as possible during the physical march and the second thing we arranged is the online disability march and there we have collected stories from the people with disability so those who cannot come along but can during the march their voices were heard. So they allowed me to give a speech. How that speech came about… on the one hand I have writers' block for my blog and no inspiration about what to write next… I’ve just had that for a while. But that speech, I don’t know where it came from… but you hear, so to speak… I’ve heard all my life about how those kinds of creative processes go, that it comes to you all at once and I always hoped that I would experience something like that one day. So I have that speech… I had it on my mind, in my head and I had forced myself to write and I couldn’t. Then I let it go for a while, then I lay down on the couch and somewhere around 1 o’clock in the morning something came. True story. It sounds like a movie but it really was like that and that's how that speech came out of my fingers. The reactions were also quite overwhelming and I really had the best readers and everyone was in tears. I also talked to Gyonne in the run-up to this conversation about how I find it really hard to center myself: I'm just not used to that. I also really felt like I was so ready to do that. I was also really waiting for nerves in the run-up to it and I thought: "That will come soon. Maybe when I'm on stage, the nerves will come." In the end, they just didn't come. I was more nervous about this than about that speech.

Richard: What a beautiful conversation. A lot of activism, identity and that incomprehensible efficiency thinking about our politics at the expense of human lives… it was all beautifully addressed. But being nervous for us… really? Chedda has certainly made us think and it is high time that voices like hers are heard. We have seen in recent months how vulnerable we are as a society. We have also seen how vulnerable society makes us and that is why we should really make sure that we use the experiences and knowledge of Black anti-ableist activists should help shape developments in healthcare, politics and other issues when it comes to inequality and injustice. Ableism is just like racism, sexism, homophobia 1 of the forms of abuse that shapes our reality and Chedda is challenging their power. That's it for this episode. Thanks to team TENT, LaFam of course! Marcelino from Callias who makes this podcast sound so beautiful and Chedda thanks for the great conversation and Joya thanks for the beautiful music. And you thanks for listening. Until the next one.

(Part of Chedda's speech at the 2020 Women's March in Amsterdam)
We are passionate, we are strong, we are resilient, we are worthy, we are bright, we are beautiful, we are sexual, we are vulnerable, we are enough, we belong and we are here. (The crowd roars) Also, we will not disappear. (The crowd roars and someone says “We love you!”)