Abstract
This chapter utilizes autoethnography to explore the relationship between race, gender, class, and disability. As a person living with Type 1 Diabetes the author has had specific experiences being Black, male, and poor/working class. Some of these issues include misperceptions of his disability, cultural perceptions of body size and health, and financial roadblocks to health care. It is essential to spotlight the connection between invisible disabilities and race, particularly when it comes to diabetes. Our reactions to this disease and the realities we create to accommodate it are contingent upon cultural factors that intersect with race, gender, and class. The author pairs his experiences with the research around race and invisible disabilities through vignettes that provide an everyday context of intersectionality to understand these issues.
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Spikes, A.L. (2023). On Being a Diabetic Black Male: An Autoethnography of Race, Gender, and Invisible Disability. In: Jeffress, M.S., Cypher, J.M., Ferris, J., Scott-Pollock, JA. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14447-9_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14447-9_10
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