Leroy
Moore
Berkeley, California
“I guess, you know, under this virus the non-disabled community is waking up. It’s like, “Oh, we can work from home.” [Laughs]. Like it’s new. So, it’s interesting that now under this pandemic, a lot of non-disabled people are using disabled peoples’ way of living and techniques and stuff. You know?”
Ryan Roach: What has your experience been like during the pandemic?
Leroy Moore: Uh, very mixed because I live alone and I work at home. It makes me feel almost isolated, you know? Because I work at home. And now it’s like 24/7. I also travel a lot ‘cause I lecture at schools and stuff. So, you know not having that travel and being homebound is new to me. Also, you know being a Black disabled man, getting profiled, you know? It’s happening a lot with the police shootings lately and just being profiled. If you’re out – you know I have my mask on but still police come up to me and they go, “Where’re you going?” You know so, you know that’s heightened now. Doing a lot more on the internet. When it first happened, I lost almost like $20,000 worth of gigs. Like I said that’s how I make my money. And when it first happened they just canceled everything. But now, you know, of course, people are doing zoom and stuff like that. So it’s slowly coming back which is interesting because a lot of people with disabilities have been wanting to work from home since day one. I guess, you know, under this virus the non-disabled community is waking up. It’s like, “Oh, we can work from home.” [Laughs]. Like it’s new. So, it’s interesting that now under this pandemic, a lot of non-disabled people are using disabled peoples’ way of living and techniques and stuff. You know?
RR: During the pandemic, society has been able to accommodate the general public with accommodations, like work from home, that have been asked for previously by the disabled, chronically ill, immunocompromised, and neurodiverse communities, yet these communities were typically denied. Why do you think society has been able to accommodate the general public when these accommodations have been denied previously?
LM: Because it [laughs] affects the general public. That’s America. If it doesn’t affect you then it’s not worth doing. But if it affects you, you suddenly wake up and it’s like, “Oh, we need to do this, we need to do that.” I mean that’s why it’s so easy because it’s affecting everybody. You know?
RR: During the pandemic, the government and media have deemed the chronically ill, disabled, and immunocompromised communities as “vulnerable.” What are your thoughts on the terminology of “vulnerable”?
LM: It’s just talk, talk, talk. Because we know that this happened before with Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Puerto Rico. It’s the same routine. It’s the same talk. But it’s a lack of action. We all know that people with disabilities are the most group of people that get affected. And if you listen to the topic it’s like, come on, what are you going to do? You know? So it’s a lot of talk from the media. It’s interesting now because I’ve been getting more media emails to request to be interviewed, you know? Which before I would try to get media for stuff that I’m doing, you know, books that I put out. And I’d get no response. So it’s interesting that I’m getting [laughs] responses now.
RR: Moving forward, how would you like to see the government and society start responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?
LM: Well, I would like to see people really staying inside. Because it’s not over and, you know, governments reopened cities because it’s all about capitalism. It doesn’t matter if you try to get money and you die in the process. How does that help anybody, you know? So of course this country is – is – is – is set on capitalism. So it’s not surprising that they reopened the cities so early. But, you know, it’s gonna – it has backfired on them. I just don’t understand people. It’s a life and death situation. You know? It’s a catch. You’ve gotta pay your rent. But I say bump landlords, bump everybody else. I would stay in, you know? Because you die only once.
RR: Do you have any accommodations, supports, or outside needs that were interrupted by the pandemic? And, if so, what did that look like for you?
LM: Not really. I don’t have a lot of accommodations in my life, you know, at home. It’s – it’s – its – it’s interesting how society is really picking up the way that disabled people live. For example I said I do a lot of lectures at universities and stuff. And I was trying to push universities years and years to do their payment online. But they’re so old school they have to send you a check, you have to go through the administration, you have to wait, all that. But now it’s like “Oh yeah, we can do that. We can PayPal you.” I’ve been saying that for twelve years. Yeah. So that–that– that’s accommodation big time, you know?
RR: Over the past few months, media correspondents and politicians have continuously talked about “vulnerable” populations, yet rarely invite anyone from these communities to represent themselves or their communities. Why do you think that is?
LM: [Laughs]. That’s what they do, you know? They talk about us for a couple weeks – that’ll pass over, you know. Boom. The thing that we have to do is just bump, fuck them, and just do our own media and put our own stuff out there. Now with the internet you don’t need to follow Fox news or NBC. You can go to an activist’s blog and put up your own stuff. So the thing is that we should be more wide thinking when it comes to media because there’s so much other media that’s out there that’s not mainstream media. People think media and they only think about mainstream media, you know?
RR: In addition to the pandemic, the United States has experienced uprisings across the country in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. Uprisings in physical spaces are not always accessible to all folx. Have you been involved at all with the uprisings over the past few months? And, if so, what has that looked like for you?
LM: I’m 52 years old. I’ve done street protests. And I’ve been doing police brutality stuff since ’87. So I’ve seen groups come and go. And I don’t put all of my eggs in one basket – in Black Lives Matter, you know? There’s other ways to support the protests without being there and I’ve done that for years. You know, Krip-Hop put out a film documentary on police brutality and people with disorders in 2016 with no funding, no help. But we did it. So things like that idea. We have the internet, you know, doing it that way. Writing letters to politicians and stuff like that. You know being out there now it’s risky. I would not put my life on the line. And I know, you know, all these killings are happening. But there’s other ways that people can get involved that doesn’t have to risk your life.
RR: Going through your website and looking at all of your work, we saw that you’re a writer and that you and another author, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, collaborate on a lot of children’s books focusing on topics like homelessness, poverty, police brutality and the Black disabled community, among other topics. Why do you feel like it’s important to address these topics with children? And do you have any advice for educators or parents on how to navigate these conversations with children, especially young children?
LM: Yeah, you know, it’s really important. Poverty scholarship and disability justice they don’t get into the schools. And if they do it’s people with PhDs or people who are high-middle class are [laughs] teaching them. So POOR Magazine and Krip-Hop Nation really want to put these children’s books into the hands of children’s families and teachers and other places so they can get a mirror of themselves, you know? When I was growing up, there was nothing out there for Black disabled youth. So I created Poor Magazine, and they do a book class every year. So we have a group of artists that just come out every year that never get their voice across because of the ableism and classism in publishing. Yeah, I think these books need to get out there – especially now where the kids are at home so they have more time to read, you know?
RR: Leroy that is all we have for today. Thank you so much for taking the energy and time to chat with us. Is there anything else you would like to share before we end the interview?
LM: Check out POOR Magazine – poormagazine.org. It’s doing really kick-ass work at this time. The work has tripled – quadrupled because a lot of nonprofits just closed down. So they’ve been feeding the community. Usually we feed the community once a week and now we’re doing it almost every day. Making sure that landlords don’t kick out people. There’s a lot of landlords that are just kicking out people, you know? Although governors have put a stop of eviction under the virus, but landlords are not listening to those. So because of that, a lot of people are coming to POOR Magazine for assistance from Tiny because a lot of people on the ground don’t know their rights as a resident.