Double Discrimination: People of Colour with Learning Disabilities Defying Ableism and Racism

About the Book

Whilst white privilege, unconscious bias and institutional discrimination have become high profile issues, learning disabled people of colour continue to be excluded from the conversation.
Responding to this crucial need to investigate the inequalities faced by learning disabled people of colour, Double Discrimination shines a bright light on the consequences of ignoring the combined impact of racism and ableism. From author, editor and award-winning social affairs journalist, Saba Salman, this book introduces the historical context of attitudes towards learning disability and race whilst also featuring people's experiences of multiple marginalisation from childhood to adulthood. Building on these perspectives, chapters showcase organisations and individuals leading the fight against racism and ableism, providing readers with opportunities to tackle limiting systems and support the growing momentum for change.
With human experiences at its core, this book reveals the importance of including learning disabled people of colour within the empowerment agenda, forming a powerful call for collective action.

About the Author :
Saba Salman is a British Asian author, editor and award-winning social affairs journalist writing on diversity, learning disability and autism. Her youngest sister, Raana, has the learning disability fragile X syndrome and influences her work. Saba's first book Made Possible was published in 2020. Her journalism appears in Private Eye, The Guardian, The Independent and Byline Times, including reports on the inequalities faced by disabled people of colour. Saba won a National Press Award in 2020 in the reporting diversity category, and she was shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards, Asian Women of Achievement Awards, the European Diversity Awards. Saba edits the learning disability magazine Community Living. She chairs the charity Sibs, the national charity for disabled people's siblings.

Review :
Double Discrimination is a necessary book that illuminates the layered realities of overlapping identities and the systemic biases shaping the lives of people of colour with learning disabilities. Saba Salman's work is a call to action for equity, inclusion, and a deeper understanding of intersectionality, going beyond labels to centre the lived experiences of those most marginalised. This beautifully written, comprehensive and quietly provocative book fills an important gap too many have not noticed. It is a book of stories, or counterstories even, of the lives of Raana, Saba's younger sister and other people of colour with learning disabilities, underpinned by social justice, love, resistance and opportunities. A banger of a much-needed book. Saba Salman brilliantly exposes a rarely acknowledged but enduring scandal which is hidden from public view. This book is both fascinating and deeply shocking, taking the reader through changing attitudes to learning disability and documenting a literally fatal double discrimination. A superb book written from the cutting-edge of social justice. Anyone interested in human difference and diversity should read it. Saba Salman is one of the most interesting and insightful writers and journalists in Britain today. She tackles issues that others don't think about, never mind examine and explore. Her new book is hugely important, making us think about the nature of discrimination in its many forms. Equally importantly, it implicitly challenges us all to think about what type of society we want to live in, and what we need to do to achieve it. For too long the consequences of the intersection of 'race' and disability have been obscured from view. This book gives an insight into the many ways in which discrimination and ignorance lead to a lack of targeted, supportive services for individuals, families and communities.