Why Shouldn't We Be Angry: Values of the Chicago Disability Rights Movement in the Words of M. Ervin

This thesis uses critical discourse analysis techniques to examine the themes present in 21 short pieces of writing from 1980-2000 and three transcripts (each approximately 30 pages in length) of oral history interviews conducted in 2012 with local activists. The analysis teases out information about the values present in the disability rights movement in Chicago at the end of the twentieth century. The thesis proposes that a naturalized belief undergirded each of seven values present in the movement at that time, and that these unspoken assumptions supported not only those values, but also the interests of those within the movement who wielded power. This thesis also proposes that these beliefs presented ideological complications for the followers of the movement, due to systemic inconsistencies (conflicts between the values), but that these inconsistencies represented the system's attempt to become better able to face variegated social challenges.