"Try Harder"

This country’s stupid, self-congratulatory bootstraps ideology is damaging to literally everyone, but especially people in historically disadvantaged minority populations and the mentally and/or physically disabled.

“Just try harder” isn’t always an option, and it isn’t often a solution, and it keeps people from the rest, accommodations, and medical care that they deserve. You can’t just try hard enough to ignore your mental illness or chronic pain or the long term effects of systemic racism, and if by some miracle you do, it might come at great personal cost.

Instead of saying “just try harder,” maybe ask “what would help?” or “what are you capable of?” or “what unique skills and perspective does this person bring to this situation because of who they are?” or “why do I think this person’s value is based in their physical, mental, or financially ability?”