Disability Friendly

6Overcome Ableism by Recognizing Our Common Humanity

One common human trait is our potential for kindness. We try to live good lives and believe in community values for the most part. While we are each unique, we try to bond with other people and find ways to interrelate. A remarkable trait of humanity is our potential for kindness and ability to adapt as we experience new things.

In the field of social psychology, we have what's known as “pro‐social behaviors.” These are what we do to help others and to assist ourselves to “fit” into our culture. Pro‐social behaviors have individual and group benefits ranging from evolutionary survivalism to altruism (Heinzen and Goodfriend 2019, pp. 304–308). When we express pro‐social behavior, we recognize our actions benefit ourselves and others. These behaviors can help us feel good about ourselves on a personal level. They also help us fit into social norms and expectations and attain a good social status in our neighborhood, school, or work. We subconsciously rely on kinship and commonality when we evaluate who needs help. When we do this, we emphasize the hegemonic social norms, meaning that we consider how we help based on the disparity between ourselves and others. Who is like me? Who is not like me? Who has more? Who has less? How do we assess those things? (Heinzen and Goodfriend 2019, pp. 304–312).

We may wonder how we relate to others, understand them, and help them. We practice sympathy, empathy, and compassion when we want ...