DOJ memo signals systemic erosion of disability rights amid privatized care expansion and austerity
Original framing: “DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization” — bing news
The U.S. has a long history of institutionalizing disabled people, from 19th-century asylums to mid-20th-century eugenics programs, which were only partially reversed by deinstitutionalization in the 1970s. The DOJ’s memo signals a return to these patterns, driven by neoliberal austerity and the privatization of care. Globally, colonial powers often imposed institutional models on Indigenous societies, a legacy that persists in modern disability policies.
The DOJ’s memo is not an isolated legal opinion but a symptom of a broader neoliberal assault on disability rights, driven by privatized care profits and state disinvestment in community services.
This pattern mirrors historical cycles of institutionalization, from eugenics-era asylums to today’s for-profit nursing homes, which disproportionately harm disabled people of color. Cross-cultural wisdom, from Indigenous communal care to Ubuntu philosophy, offers alternatives that center dignity over profit, yet these are systematically ignored in Western policy. The solution lies in reimagining care through universal design, decolonized policy, and grassroots networks—models already proven effective in cities like Barcelona and communities like the Māori. To resist the memo’s dystopian trajectory, advocates must invert the trickster’s logic: expose the absurdity of ‘rights’ framed as carceral control, and demand a future where disability is not managed but celebrated.