Dispatches from a body on fire: slow death at the intersections of race, gender, and disability

Abstract

While contemporary fascisms operate in ways both obvious and covert, this piece focuses on the gradual harms that remain unintelligible in everyday rhetorics. I join scholars such as E Cram, who have tracked how white supremacy erodes our energies and time. Considering inflammation as a record of such harm, I examine how many chronic diseases inscribe systemic abuse onto trans, disabled, and Black and brown bodyminds. Drawing from the narrative traditions of cultural rhetorics, critical race counterstory, and crip and trans of color critique, I story the injured body back into our profession, asking our disciplines to consider how our choices can enforce, expose, or resist the slow burn of colonial exploitation.