Tik Tok user, Imani Barbarin (@crutches_and_spice) is a disability blogger, content creator and public speaker. Barbarin uses her Tik Tok platform to educate Americans (and everyone else for that matter) on how to dismantle their own forms of ableism and become a better allies to disabled people.
Barbarin frequently tackles topics of “inspiration porn” and its harmful impacts, as well as the failures our government has created for the disabled community for many years.
As I’ve been following Barbarin’s content for months now, I came upon the realization that the American Dream is not inclusive as it should be, or as it was designed to be. From the snowstorm failures the south currently living through (due to the lack of preventative infrastructure and accessibility for disabled people) to the destructive effects on disabled people under capitalism, the American Dream was not created for everyone as it should have been.
The disabled community is deserving of dreams that do not boil down to their inspiration to able-bodied people. For the American Dream to really exist in its purest form, there needs to be more effort made by everyone in making it an inclusive concept.