Table Of ContentJust Care
In the series Dis/color, edited by Cynthia Wu, Julie Avril Minich,
and Nirmala Erevelles
James Kyung-Jin Lee, Pedagogies of Woundedness: Illness, Memoir, and the Ends
of the Model Minority
Milo W. Obourn, Disabled Futures: A Framework for Radical Inclusion
Akemi Nishida
Just Care
Messy entanglements of Disability,
Dependency, and Desire
tEMpLE uNIvErsIty prEss
Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo
tEMpLE uNIvErsIty prEss
philadelphia, pennsylvania 19122
tupress.temple.edu
Copyright © 2022 by temple university—Of The Commonwealth system
of Higher Education
All rights reserved
published 2022
portions of Chapter 3 are reprinted by permission from springer Nature: palgrave
Macmillan, Subjectivity, “relating through differences: disability, affective relationality,
and the u.s. public healthcare assemblage,” Akemi Nishida, © 2017 springer Nature.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data
Names: Nishida, Akemi, author.
title: Just care : messy entanglements of disability, dependency, and desire /
Akemi Nishida.
Description: philadelphia : temple university press, 2022. | series: Dis/color |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | summary: “Just Care examines
care as a site where the somatic, the political economy, and intersectional social
oppressions manifest and materialize interactively, while it is also a vision and
praxis for radically collective and affectionate ways to live and transform society”—
provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021059336 (print) | LCCN 2021059337 (ebook) | IsBN 9781439919897
(cloth) | IsBN 9781439919903 (paperback) | IsBN 9781439919910 (pdf)
subjects: LCsH: Health services accessibility—united states. | people with disabilities—
Home care—united states. | Home care services—united states. | Community health
services—united states. | social justice—Health aspects. | Caring—political aspects. |
Caring—Moral and ethical aspects.
Classification: LCC rA418.3.u6 N56 2022 (print) | LCC rA418.3.u6 (ebook) |
DDC 362.2/40973—dc23/eng/20220318
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc. gov /2021059336
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021059337
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National standard for Information sciences—permanence
of paper for printed Library Materials, ANsI Z39.48-1992
printed in the united states of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Notes to readers vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Needing Care and Caring Needs 1
1 Differential Debilitation and Capacitation: Neoliberalization
of the u.s. public Healthcare Assemblage 40
2 My Body pays the price: Necropolitics of Care 76
3 Affective Collectivity: Beyond slow Death and toward
Haptic relationality 103
4 Living Interdependency: Desiring Entanglement in Messy
Dependency 126
5 Bed Activism: When people of Color Are sick, Disabled,
and Incapable 158
postscript: What about covid? 181
Notes 189
Bibliography 223
Index 243
Notes to Readers
Image Description of the Cover
In the center of the cover, the title, Just Care, appears in all capital letters,
large-sized font, and in black color. At the top of the cover, the author’s
name, Akemi Nishida, appears in medium-sized font and in black color.
At the bottom, the book’s subtitle, Messy Entanglements of Disability, De-
pendency, and Desire, appears in medium-sized font and in black color. The
background is a close-up of a mural that may remind people of walls at
schools or parks. It is made up with multiple colors and many overlapping
abstract shapes that are painted on a concrete surface. Orange, blue, tur-
quoise, red, black, cream, purple, and yellow paints fill in shapes including
circles, squares, and other abstract shapes involving many curvy lines.
Notes on Content Warnings
This book in general includes mentions and depiction of ableism and inter-
secting social oppressions taking place during care routines such as daily
personal assistance. This includes interlocking systems of oppression, expe-
rienced by those who are situated as care receivers and workers, and ex-
pands to not only ableism but also sexism, racism, xenophobia, queer- phobia
and transphobia, and (settler) colonialism. In different chapters, there are
mentions of slavery, colonialism, eugenics, various forms of confinement,
forced medical treatment, and police brutality as well. These depictions at
large do not entail vivid, detailed, and visual descriptions of such violence.
please refer to the first endnote in each chapter for further content warnings
specific to the chapter. please prioritize your self- and collective-care as you
read this book.
Acknowledgments
この本を始めるにあたってまず日本とアメリカの家族にお礼を言いたい。日
本でケアまたは世話といえば家族中心というのが当たり前な中、それを無
視して渡米し自分の学業を優先したことで日本の家族には色々と迷惑をか
けたと思う。そうすることで得られた家族の形もあるのだろうけど地球の反
対側で生活をしていくことで心配や面倒をかけてしまったことは否めない。
そんな中で私のことを遠くから見守り、自分勝手させてくれた両親、弟、祖
父母、叔父叔母、従兄弟たち、そして近所の方達には感謝しかない。
そしてアメリカでの家族。この本を執筆するにあたってサポートし続け
てくれたパートナー、ジョーと子供の譲生は常にケアという題材を実際の
生活の中で体現してくれた。ありがとう。この本は日本とアメリカの家族の
助力なしには存在しなかったということは断言できる。I begin this book
with the preceding special thanks to Itsuko, Akira, Akifumi, Joe, and
yuzuki.
I have never said “I love you” and I have rarely used the word love, be-
cause the word to me is so U.S., or more accurately it does not align with the
cultural norms and customs I grew up with. I never heard people around
me say “I love you,” as I grew up in the countryside of Japan. Once, I saw a
seemingly southeast Asian teenager reading a book titled I Love Yous Are
for White People: A Memoir (by Lac su) on the New york City subway. I
almost jumped and screamed “yEs!” Love is certainly not only for or used
particularly by white people, but it captured my sentiment. And yet I catch
myself repeatedly saying “I love you” back to my closest friends nowadays.
Maybe that’s a sign that I am more Americanized. Or it is because I am now
