Minority within a minority

Historically, disabled people in general, and black disabled people¹ in particular, have been subjected to systematic and purposeful unequal treatment, victimisation and discrimination, and been relegated to a position of political powerlessness and disenfranchisement within society². Thus, despite the fact that there are approximately 6.2 million disabled people in Britain, they have not, by and large, been a very vociferous or homogeneous group (though there are signs that this has begun to change). Society's oppression of disabled people has consequently created an insular and discreet minority, seemingly powerless to bring about the changes which will empower them. Black disabled people are a minority within that minority, to the point where they are virtually invisible and occupy an inferior status to that of even their white disabled counterparts, who are themselves second-class citizens.