Alexia Leclercq | Austin, Texas
This interview was conducted by Aletta Brady in 2020.
Alexia Leclercq is a 21 year-old community organizer working at the intersection of climate justice and disability justice based in Texas. This is their story.
Key Facts
Disability Justice activists and scholars affirm that people with disabilities have the right to be rescued, “a legal right to have their unique needs accounted for and addressed in emergency planning” (The Right To Be Rescued: Disability in an Age of Disaster).
I am French and Taiwanese and grew up in many different places, but I moved to the U.S. when I was eight. I am currently a community organizer at PODER, a social and environmental justice non-profit in East Austin.
Somtimes people don’t see the connection between different movements, anymore from queer liberation to disability justice and the climate movement, but they are actually all related. The climate crisis disproportionately impacts people of color and also people with disabilities. In disaster relief plans, people with disabilities often aren't included. If there's a hurricane who gets to evacuate? It is in these times that we see whose lives are being valued and whose lives the government deems worthy of protection, and it's definitely not people with disabilities. You see it in everything from transportation systems that aren’t accessible to the lack of plans for people who need medication to survive. As someone with a disability, where would I get meds if suddenly there's a natural disaster? So when you really dig down to the systemic level of climate and disability justice, you see they are very much intersectional and cannot be seen as separate. All these issues need to be taken into account when thinking about the climate crisis.
“The climate crisis disproportionately impacts people of color and also people with disabilities.”
Key Facts
Studies have documented that both the frequency and intensity of typhoons and hurricanes in Taiwan have increased and will continue to increase as we see uncontrolled ocean warming due to climate change (Nature).
Nearly 150 Taiwanese scientists have signed on to a climate emergency declaration, urging the government to take strong and immediate action on the climate crisis (Taiwan News).
Research on both the observed and projected impacts of climate change in Taiwan notes a significant warming trend that has led to rises in daily and annual temperatures, contributing to an increase in heat-related deaths on the island (ResearchGate).
As a young person, the climate crisis is definitely something that’s always in the back of my mind. Especially having family from Taiwan, the climate crisis is something that is very present and is already impacting the island. There's been an increase in hurricanes and earthquakes for the past few years. The last time I went back to visit, I was there for a month, and there were two hurricanes. My family has had to evacuate several times, and we know the conditions are only going to get worse in the future. Intense heat and high temperatures have also significantly increased and death by heat is actually very common, especially in older populations. Over the years I’ve seen how polluted the island has become, even down to the creek that runs behind my grandparents’ home.
In Austin, pollution has definitely impacted the city, especially East Austin which is a working class community of color. From the tank farm, to the Holly Power Plant, to continuous gentrification, there is huge inequity between White and POC neighborhoods. While some major polluting industries have actually all been kicked out due to a lot of activism, they've definitely polluted East Austin and caused long-term impacts from accumulated toxin exposure.
At first, I didn’t see how being neurodivergent was directly connected to the climate crisis. It wasn't until college when a friend invited me to organize with her around disability justice that I understood this intersection, that they’re really part of the same issues. Colonialism and capitalism are the same system exploiting land, people of color, and labor and oppressing disabled people by creating this myth that our value is tied to productivity and the ability to work under capitalism. Another aspect we see violence under these oppressive system is via the police. We see them hurt and exploit Indigenous people protesting against pipelines and fighting for the environment. We see Black people being murdered by the police. That same system is also causing people with disabilities or people experiencing mental health crises to be killed by the cops. In terms of abolition, psychiatric institutions are part of the carceral state.
For me, being in psychiatric institutions, experiencing racism, and all the complications with medical debt and everything that comes with it have been a struggle. On top of that, I’m expected to function as a human being and do what is expected of me, keeping up with school obligations and work under capitalism. It has been a very long journey for me. When I learned that my experiences were not unique, I realized just how connected the disability justice movement is to all other justice movements, including climate justice.
“People with disabilities are disproportionately killed by the police.”
I've experienced having the cops called on me and being forced into psychiatric institutions. I've also navigated people’s racist preconceived notions about my culture and who I am once inside this system. In her work, my friend and Black disabled writer Natalie Crystal talks about the experience of people of color, even those who aren't disabled, being seen as disabled because they're associated with “disorderly” action. It’s a very terrifying experience that many people of color go through, and we have actually been killed just by having someone call 911 on us while we’re in a mental health crisis. People with disabilities are disproportionately killed by the police; in fact 50% of people that have been killed by the police have some type of neurodivergence.
Key Facts
People with disabilities make up a third to half of all people killed by law enforcement officers. People with disabilities make up the majority of those killed in use-of-force cases that attract widespread attention from the community & media (Ruderman Family Foundation).
We live in a very ableist system that prioritizes people without disabilities and dictates what is considered normal behavior, which is usually based on your productiveness in society. Capitalism doesn't advocate for everyone, it advocates for everyone contributing the maximum possible to society at the detriment of our own personal health.
“The climate crisis is actually causing an increase in mental disabilities.”
There is also a weird attitude non-disalbed people have towards those with mental and/or physical disabilities. People with disabilities aren't believed a lot of the time. It's something that has happened to me. I think this is fueled by the idea that if you have a disability, you don't know what you need, and someone else needs to decide what is right for you. Much of the time, people with disabilities know what they need.
For non-disabled people in the climate movement, it’s important to understand the intersections between the climate crisis and disability justice while also including a wide range of people with disabilities in these spaces and in leadership positions, especially BIPOC with disabilities. It’s also critical to be really mindful of the spaces we create. This includes making content and events accessible and avoiding ableist rhetoric of overworking yourself and not valuing mental health — things that are sometimes forgotten. We have to make sure not to re-create oppressive spaces when creating our movement.
I've seen more societal acceptance of non-physical disabilities like depression and anxiety, but there's still a lot of stigma around mental disabilities. People often don't accept these “invisible” disabilities as much as “real” physical disabilities, even though a lot of the impacts are similar. The climate crisis is actually causing an increase in mental disabilities. Sometimes it exacerbates already existing mental disabilities. Other times, traumatic events such as natural disasters or even not having access to a healthy environment can cause an increase in mental health crises.
People with disabilities bring a lot of wisdom to the climate justice movement. In my experience, I've learned how to advocate for myself and was kinda forced into wanting to create change. If we're looking to advocate for disability justice within the climate movement, people with disabilities must be leaders.
To me, “Climate Justice Means Disability Justice” shows that these two movements are connected. You cannot have one without the other. If we want climate justice, we also have to include disability justice. And if we want disability justice, we must have climate justice. It’s hard to imagine a world where disability and climate justice are realized, but as we work to make progress, we must continue to imagine the possibilities.
“People with disabilities bring a lot of wisdom to the climate justice movement.”
For me, I don’t necessarily see one global system but many local community-centered systems. So this would look different in Taiwan than in the Congo or in the U.S. The forms would look very different but exist in a world that respects nature and does not see us as separate but as stewards of nature, part of nature. I see a world that values people with disabilities and has a community-centered peer system to support people with disabilities.
Ready to take action? Here’s what you can do:
LEARN THE HISTORY OF THE DISABILITY JUSTICE MOVEMENT! We recommend the Disability Justice Primer by Sins Invalid and Project LETS’ reading list on Disability Justice.
Follow & Learn from Disability Justice advocates, especially young people and people of color. Alexia recommends checking out Alice Wong of the Disability Visibility Project and Natalie Crystal Doggett’s work to get started!
Watch “CRIP CAMP: A Disability Revolution” on Netflix.
Check out Don’t Call The Police, a database of vetted resources that provide an alternative to calling the police. Learn about trauma-informed, community-centered alternatives to calling the police in your town or city.