DisCrit Mothering: Epilogue

What this special issue on disCrit Mothering cultivates is a path through breathtaking and breath making.the articles in this special issue were breathtaking in the description of violence and heartbreak endured by Black and Brown disabled children and their mothers. 1at times, reading the stories, particularly by the young people featured in this special issue including Emmy, Enrique, Giorgio, Kai, and Knox and also by the mothers, i felt a pressure bearing down on my chest.as someone with a respiratory chronic illness, i know what it feels like to not be able to breathe, and that pressure on my chest is so familiar.as i read stories of accommodations and services withheld (Chen & Yeh), classrooms segregated, seclusion and restraints wielded against Black and Brown disabled students (torres & torres), the weight on my chest increased.the pressure on my chest surged when Black and Brown disabled students traced how each time they asked for help in the ways children do, they were dehumanized, dismissed, and diagnosed-their needs used as evidence of deficiency (White Johnson).When i read about motherhood being put on trial, mothers positioned as problems (Cio-Pea), mothers being told they were broken, as were their children, by the very people who were supposed to offer educational support (Migliarini), the pressure on my chest intensified.When i read the memories of mothers of their own experiences as children themselves being unloved, underserved, and uncared for, the pressure on my chest became almost unbearable.these instances of every day and direct violence described in the education trajectories of Black and Brown disabled students and their mothers were truly breathtaking.Concurrently, the resistance displayed by the Black and Brown disabled children and mothers in this special issue relieved the weight on my chest.i found myself breathing more easily with each description of resistance, and then found joy in those spaces of possibility when Black and Brown ancestors were called on (ocasio-Stoutenburg & Boveda).i took deep breaths and smiled, as some of the mothers told us their keys to survival in these dark times (torres).i cackled when the disabled Black and Brown children told us what they really thought of the adults that positioned them as deficit (torres & torres).i reveled in the art made by mothers in defense of themselves (Gabriel) and their children (White Johnson).i marveled at the wonder that Black and Brown disabled children are as they refused perfection and embraced "what is not normal" (Chen & Yeh).i could breathe again as the pieces in this special issue were also breath making.and breath making spaces are never to be taken for granted in a world where those in power are polluting the air, water, and land, making it harder for Black and Brown disabled folks to breathe.Breath making spaces are especially important for Black and Brown disabled folks who face a myriad of violences, particularly those created by policing forces who seek to choke the breath out of us.Breath making spaces are essential for Black and Brown disabled folks who are being killed at higher rates from CoVid in these pandemic times.Breath making spaces are necessary for Black and Brown disabled folks must live with the knowledge that when white people found out the fact that we were being killed by CoVid at higher rates, they chose to downplay the dangers and push back against community precautions to keep us safe (Skinner-dorkenoo et al., 2022).Breathmaking spaces are essential when empires are creating and funding genocide