Intersections of Disability and Race in Camphill Conversations and Initiatives

After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the United States observed an immediate rise in Black Lives Matter protests, anti-police state rhetoric and collective antiracist effort. These events and political responses have also had a less obvious impact on the felt social responsibility of corporations and non-profit organizations, such as Camphill communities. This impact has led to an awareness of and commitment to anti-racist work within the strategic planning and everyday work life of Camphill communities in the United States. This paper will explore these anti-racist efforts that Camphill communities have taken up in the last 18 months, and will draw on a combination of the author’s lived experience and select semi-structured interviews to better understand the diverse anti-racist agendas across and among communities during COVID-19; whether the work is ‘sufficient’ (and who determines that in predominately white spaces); the accessibility of anti-racist education materials for all members of Camphill communities; and the relationship between Camphill’s mission, its white European background, and the current political climate in the United States. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased visibility of race crimes, it is paramount to understand how intentional communities are grappling with fraught race relations in the middle of a rapidly shifting ethnoscape.