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I really wonder sometimes about the few autistics who rant and rave about acceptance yet feel free to make overtly racist comments. (For newer readers here, I’m Korean-American.) I get that the whole mind-blindness thing can play a factor. Is that really what it is?
This question was brought up a while back by Turner and Kowalski and it’s been on my mind ever since.
What’s worse is that people have the nerve to talk to me as if they never made those comments, or they are completely unaware that their comments could be construed as offensive.
I don’t come across very many non-white autistic bloggers or Twitterers. That in itself doesn’t bother me because most of my friends are white, but it does create an atmosphere that lacks cultural diversity. And no, liking anime doesn’t count!
From what I can see, these few people think it’s okay to mock or disparage certain ethnicities because they talk differently…or have mannerisms…or have different eating habits.
Wow, doesn’t that sound familiar?
I just don’t get it. /Rant.
(The vast, vast majority of autistics I’ve talked to have been really great, for the record.)
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19 Responses
I know that my auties will say things referencing someone’s ethnicity and not understand how it can be construed in a negative way. They really don’t mean it. That being said I also take pains for them to learn what is and is nto appropriate and hurtful. Like with any other words.
In fact I have made sure that collegeman’s classroom coaches ar of many differnt races and ethnic backgrounds just so he gets exposed to more than his little enclave. We chose his college becuase of its diversity.
I think as parents we are obligated to teach our children to be socially appropriate, but that also means respecting other people’s heritages.
On another note, like the new look.
First time poster.
Those of us on the Spectrum know what it is like to be mocked, stereo-typed, marginalized, and kicked around, so we are less likely to partake in such activities against others. I do not feel it is funny to make fun of someone because of thier culture, thier ethnicity, thier heritage.
I do tease others, but in a good natured way. I would never say anything that could really and truly hurt another person, unless that person has first hurt me, and then when I react in kind, it’s towards the person themself that I give it back to, not where they are from or how they live.
People have a very dark and destrcutive sense of humor these days. They think it’s ok to tear someone down, no matter who they are, for the crowd’s amusement. It is not funny, it is cruel, and has the potential of causing someone emotional damage because someone thought they would get a cheap laugh out of you.
This is why I prefer humor like the Marx Brothers. Everything they di dwas all in good fun. They weren’t out to destroy you for pleasure. They simply were telling society that it take’s it self to seriously. And it poked harmless fun at the establishment. It’s very light hearted.
I wish for a return to that. This dark humor using anything about a person, including where they come from is disgusting, and it is a poor reflection on us as a people.
Theo-
Those on the spectrum who do understand that what they feel could apply to different forms of discrimination and defamation seem to be extremely supportive of other minorities, and I’m grateful for that.
I suppose it just takes some of us much longer to get to that point.
Oops. I got confused by the new design of the blog. Not a first time poster. lol!
I think people with Asperger’s Syndrome can be just as bigoted as people without Asperger’s Syndrome. Autistic people (AD) on the other hand, don’t think in these terms, I believe, though I could be wrong.
Look at your spam filter. For someone with AD and an intellectual disability, the filter requiring basic understandings of mathmatics could also be a form of discrimination though I’m sure that wasn’t what was intended.
There are lots of autistic people that are bigoted against other autistic people because they don’t share the same beliefs or value systems and reject them not from an individual standpoint, but from preconceived notions of “us vs. them”.
I’m sorry you have experienced bigotry.
I use the math spam thing b/c I’ve never met a captcha I could read. It did occur to me that math is not friendly to many people either, so I once did a poll and readers asked me to keep it. But…maybe it’s time for me to look for something more efficient.
I find the math thing easier than the “enter these barely recognizable distorted characters” CAPTCHAs, because at least I can use the calculator on my computer to do the math!
Actually, I have to dig up a calculator and hope I read the answer right and don’t switch stuff to get through your math captcha, so some totally other way not involving numbers or letters may be best, though I know it’s hard to find something that can ward off spammers and not exclude anyone.
And autistic people of all kinds can be bigoted in many ways, don’t be too quick to write it off like ‘oh they can’t help it because they just don’t see any harm or mindblindness or whatever’. Even if there was no intentional menace there is no reason not to get it after it’s been neatly explained.
…and Math Spam is GONE. Muchos gracias to commenters who so kindly pointed out to me what a pain it was!
On my own blog, I use a combination of Akismet and Bad Behavior (the former should be included with WordPress; the latter is easily Googlable) for keeping out spam.
Bad Behavior is actually quite a clever idea: basically instead of asking if you’re human, it determines based on the headers sent by one’s browser whether one is a spambot. (Bots generally don’t use normal web browsers.)
Actually, it’s not that difficult to look (for non-white bloggers/Twitterers).
I regularly correspond with Big Yes Bomb who is a Korean-American like Sandy.
Also there is Lynne Soraya from Psychology Today.
About the only thing you can do when someone makes a bigoted statement is to tell them that it was bigoted and see how they then respond.
Most will argue and tell you that they aren’t bigots.
A few will actually listen and apologize.
The people in the second group are so amazing that it makes it worth it to put up with the first group.
Joel Smith´s last blog ..The Purpose of Marriage?
This post is spot on. Judging by some of the stuff I read online, I sincerely doubt that autistics are any less bigoted than non-autistics. It’s silly romanticism to pretend otherwise. And usually it’s white (and often Christian, I’ve found) autistics who have never experienced racism/ethnic discrimination who are promoting this view of the non-bigoted autistic. It’s frustrating.
Sarah´s last blog ..More on Baron-Cohen
Urgh, yeah. I’ve run into some very bigoted autistics– many of them oblivious to their own prejudice for the exact same reasons non-autistic people often are. And have also seen autistics who claim they’re “colorblind” and “don’t see race” (which is just fine for those who have the privilege to not be directly affected by racism, but not for anyone else) because they’re autistic, autistics who play the “my oppression trumps yours” game when called on their various prejudices, autistics who cry “reverse racism/reverse sexism” or insist that marginalized groups (except theirs, of course) get “special treatment,” etc, etc… basically, the whole catalog of asspulls/denials that non-autistic people use too.
(And some of the ones who most insist that autism isn’t a disability are horribly dehumanizing towards other types of disabled people, or autistic people they consider “lesser” than themselves.)
And, oh yeah, I sure have seen people using the “being autistic makes me incapable of prejudice” line, going on about how they just see and love individual people, not categories, NTs herd mentality blah blah blah– and then doing one or more of the things listed in the previous paragraph, in other situations. I mean, theoretically, I can obviously see the appeal of believing one’s own group is specially above bigotry and prejudice, incapable of hate in the same way as the hive-minded mundanes or whatever. And it seems to be a popular idea; having spent most of my adult life trying to fit in with one “weird” subculture or another, I can say conclusively that autistic people are by no means the only ones who cry “omg, my group isn’t capable of prejudice or herd mentality.”
In the end, though, it usually just seems to be used as an excuse for people to not educate themselves about these issues, and to flatly deny that they’re doing what they’re doing, when they’re being prejudiced.
Theo said:
“People have a very dark and destrcutive sense of humor these days. They think it’s ok to tear someone down, no matter who they are, for the crowd’s amusement. It is not funny, it is cruel, and has the potential of causing someone emotional damage because someone thought they would get a cheap laugh out of you.”
That’s a really good way of putting it. I guess it always seems cheap to the person delivering it because it’s at someone else expense. Ultimately it’s at everyone’s expense.
Saying that any group of people has attributes of good character is as bad as saying they have attributes of bad character….when how they are identified as a group (race disability etc,) has nothing to do with character one way or another.
It encourages the hierarchy that is at the root of the problem. I agree it’s romanticism. A romance that always ends in a crash landing when people get hurt by the reality that eventually reveals itself.
Ed´s last blog ..The Mysterious and The Disorderly
It’s the whole ‘snark’ phenomenon.
Just because it’s common doesn’t make it right.
I try to think that people are neutral in their character, or at least reserve judgement on my first impressions of traits that may strike!
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I always enjoy a nice rant, and this was a good one.
Many times, people don’t consider Jewish people to be minority people, which completely mystifies me. At other times, I’ve found people using our minority status to dismiss our concerns entirely. I acknowledge that I have the privilege that goes with having white skin and a middle-class upbringing, but some of the ignorance and bigotry I’ve experienced around being Jewish just floors me. And I’ve gotten it from autistics and non-autistics alike. If anything, the incidents with autistic people were the most mind-numbing…Like the time a person on WP told me that since Jews only make up a fraction of a percent of the world’s population, who really gives a shit if someone is anti-semitic or not? As if the fewer of us who survive, the less we matter. Grrrrr…. And then, of course, there was the autistic on a different thread, who said that Hitler wasn’t responsible for the Holocaust, since he never actually operated a train or shoved people into gas chambers.
I grew up with the self-serving myth that Jews are smarter than other people and not as prone to bigotry because of our history, etc etc etc, and that turned out to be, er, not true. So when people start saying that all autistics “get it,” I have the strangest feeling of deja vu, and it’s not a good feeling at all.
Rachel´s last blog ..Struggling with Internalized Disabilism
Maybe the mindblindness inhibits their ability to comprehend the messages people send them that indicate racism isn’t right. Or, maybe jerks come in autistic and nonautistic varieties.
My son, age 7, makes comments that come across as racist but for him I know it is just how a kid’s mind works sometimes; he sees a situation and his mind makes it into a generality.
It’s not easy to explain to him the social subtleties of why saying some of those things is wrong. (But I DO tell him!)
janny226´s last blog ..Why Not Make Him Class Pet?
I do agree that bigotry and intollerance can be found anywhere, in anyone, of any people, for just about any reason. What disturbs me is society’s not only acceptance of, but celebration of it! Watch any comedy special! The things they say about the elderly, women, people with disabilities, etc.! Yet we consider this entertainment!!
We as a society have got to stop this glorification of marginalazation. When we outcast bigotry in all it’s forms as not ok, then maybe we perhaps will come closer from removing it’s ugly stain from the Earth. And how do we do that? One person at a time. I’m watching my self closer and what I say and think. If others begin to do like wise, maybe we could start a trend.
After all, kindness has this ability of being rather infectous.