SF-Bay Area-based twitter user, Star Simpson, posts about the disability activism coming out of Berkeley during the 1970s by citing the widely circulated story about rogue curb smashing. Unless you’re an active Reddit user, you may not know that “TIL” is internet slang for, “Today I Learned”. With the advent social media, stories like this have the potential to go viral and circulate widely, extending its shelf-life for future generations.
Although the truth behind this tale is fuzzy at best, its significance in today’s social and political climate is clear as day. The memory of activists demanding their right to access with nitroglycerin and sledgehammers solidifies disability rights tactics within a larger context of protest-driven sociopolitical movements.
