Social hierarchies are a form of segregating the population. American social and political landscapes have been manipulated and formed by categorizing groups of individuals into specific sets of classifications that act as identifications and divisions from other groups. Marginalized groups, throughout American history, have been dehumanized by being labeled as animalistic, unintelligent, impure, etc.. Inequality has been seen through racial discrimination, sexual orientation, unfair immigration laws, labor practices, and debates associated with disabilities. Disabilities are a justification for inequality not only for individuals who have disabilities, but also for marginalized groups. In Douglas Baynton's “Disability and the Justification …show more content…
For instance, Baynton discusses how disabilities have been used to highlight “inferiority” in different community pillars, and by doing so, assigning disabilities to people who were deemed “unfit” for a white American society. This is seen in the way disability was used as a racial rationale for slavery as well as politically excluding women. Disability was placed on African Americans by saying that high levels of education resulted in deformations in their bodies, as well as emphasizing the lower risks of having disabilities when enslaved. The justification of disabilities enabling racial discrimination made it clear that attributing disabilities to groups were used as terms of controlling social hierarchies. Political hierarchies were shaped in similar ways. By playing with stereotypes on women, political representation was restricted. Women were given disabilities such as hysteria because they were deemed “too emotional” to be in politics. By justifying disabilities as social constructs and not with actual medical accuracies, the connotation of having a disability became an “unnatural”