Comic one of four.
Now the radio talks to all the cops in the ready room. It says, "When medical definitions of disability are dominant, it is logical to separage people according to biomedical condition. However! When a disability is redefined as a social-political category, people with a variety of conditions are identified as people with disabilities, a group bounc by common social and political experience... All unaware, the nation today responds to disabled people with great ambivalence. Whatever antipathy and disdain is felt is in competition with feelings of empathy, guilt, and identification!" Dick snaps off the radio and says, "That's our best lead. Well, boys, we've got a tough case to work. Let's move!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Comic two of four.
Now we're with Dick and a cop in a dark place. He points at a patch of something on the ground and says, "The idea that someone can overcome a disability has not been generated within the community..." The cop asks, "No???" Continued next cartoon panel.

Comic three of four.
"No," Dick answers. "It is a wish fulfillment generated from the outside. It is a demand that you be plucky and resolute and...' continued next cartoon panel.

Comic four of four.
"... not let obstacles get in your way." The chief pipes up, saying, "Obstacles!!??!! Like stairways and fine print and poverty and segregation?" Exactly, says the wrist radio.

 

 

Text on this page is from Claiming Disability by Simi Linton, New York University Press, 1998. Mouth gives her book an absolute rave of a five-star rating. Read more about it in our Attitude Catalog.

 

 

Here's the link to follow Dick's investigation.

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Editor's note:

In Dick Tracy's day, people who are today called minorities had not yet appeared on the comic book scene. We took liberties here and colored the Chief of Detectives. Apologies all round.