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Thoughts on Curbcutter Arguments
Mar. 28th, 2026 07:17 pmI've been looking for an excuse to scream this somewhere, so I may as well do it here and now:
Yes, it sucks that people need to be convinced and cajoled into supporting marginalized people and defending their rights, usually by pointing out how bad things that target marginalized people usually have a knock-on bad effect on privileged people. Take the curbcutter effect, for example: Cutting curbs to make smoother transitions to the street from the sidewalk had benefits for lots of people besides wheelchair users, but helping wheelchair users should be enough in and of itself.
Unfortunately, sometimes that's what it takes. If you're appealing to someone who hasn't had a chance to think about it very hard, who isn't used to thinking much about how difficult the world can be to navigate, sometimes you have to point out the ways in which helping marginalized and dispriviliged people can also help them and their loved ones. And if that's what it takes, then I'm going to keep on doing it. That's going to be part of my public tool set for as long as I need one.
I can complain about how much it sucks that they hadn't yet learned to care about us on their own with my similarly feeling friends, but until we get the desired result (and possibly even after that as necessary), I'm also going to keep on pointing out curbcutter benefits to anyone who isn't sold yet.
Yes, it sucks that people need to be convinced and cajoled into supporting marginalized people and defending their rights, usually by pointing out how bad things that target marginalized people usually have a knock-on bad effect on privileged people. Take the curbcutter effect, for example: Cutting curbs to make smoother transitions to the street from the sidewalk had benefits for lots of people besides wheelchair users, but helping wheelchair users should be enough in and of itself.
Unfortunately, sometimes that's what it takes. If you're appealing to someone who hasn't had a chance to think about it very hard, who isn't used to thinking much about how difficult the world can be to navigate, sometimes you have to point out the ways in which helping marginalized and dispriviliged people can also help them and their loved ones. And if that's what it takes, then I'm going to keep on doing it. That's going to be part of my public tool set for as long as I need one.
I can complain about how much it sucks that they hadn't yet learned to care about us on their own with my similarly feeling friends, but until we get the desired result (and possibly even after that as necessary), I'm also going to keep on pointing out curbcutter benefits to anyone who isn't sold yet.
