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Racism and Disability in Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange

It might well be argued that disability and racism are socially-constructed concepts that operate on divergent and versatile levels. Blacks and disabled people alike face challenges, barriers, discrimination, and marginalization. The present study attempts to explore the intersectionality of disability and racism in the British playwright Joe Penhall’s (1967) Blue/orange (2000). The paper draws upon Literary Disability Theory and Critical Race Theory. Literary Disability Theory focuses on how literary representations of disability negatively influence the way disabled people are perceived and treated in society. Critical Race Theory scrutinizes and interrogates race, racism, power relations, and privilege. Blue/Orange draws insightful correlations between disability and racism and unmasks the role of society and institution in discriminating and marginalizing black people with disabilities. Penhall does not present Christopher, the disabled character in the play, in a stereotypical or a metaphorical way; rather he portrays his feelings, hopes, and fears in a way that represents the character as it is and not as a symbol. The paper investigates the challenges that black people with psychological disability face in society, and how institutional racism operates in psychiatric hospitalization, and how psychiatry and medical diagnosis are pervaded by racial ideas about black disabled people. Through the exploration of the intersectionality of disability and racism, this study attempts to present the lived experiences of black disabled people in society.