Meghan McDonagh<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5\/2\/19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disability and Literature <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Paper<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are not autistic, chances are, you can not understand what it is like to be autistic. Similarly, if you are not black, you will not understand what it is like to be black, no matter how much you think you understand. Mor\u00e9nike Giwa-Onaiwu can say it best in her article \u201cAutistics of Color: We Exist\u2026We Matter.\u201d She also writes that the people who make offensive statements are often people who are not intending to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are our friends. Our colleagues. Our neighbors. They genuinely care for us and people like us. They want the best for us. And yet their perspectives are so obscured by their intrinsic privilege in regard to race or ability that they don\u2019t understand. Can\u2019t understand.\u201d (Giwa-Onaiwu xi)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What people with privileged identities can do is accept every human they encounter regardless of their race or ability, without forgetting that it is a part of their identity. Autism is part of an autistic person\u2019s identity, and it should be recognized as interwoven within the person just as one\u2019s race, gender, or sexual identity is and not like a disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Autism is commonly viewed by ignorant people as a disease or a preventable disorder that hides the identity of an autistic person\u2019s \u201ctrue self.\u201d Jim Sinclair states in his article \u201cDon\u2019t Mourn For Us,\u201d that autism is not an appendage, and that an autistic person would be an entirely different person without it. To wish to cure is to erase the existence of disability and the person\u2019s identity completely. This erasure can only be viewed as ableist. This mindset comes much more commonly than we think it might. Unfortunately, this narrative is perpetuated by organizations like Autism Speaks and other sources of media or literature that depict autism as tragic or \u201ccurable.\u201d Autism Speaks is not led by autistic people themselves and they have a history of searching for a cure and trying to rehabilitate autistic behavior through harmful means. It is not an organization that strives to accept and improve the lives of autistic people and their families, it is a group that seeks to change or eliminate their autism so it easier for neurotypical people to deal with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another interesting way at looking at autistic identity is analyzing the way we use language. Speaking with an identity first implies that an aspect of them is attached to that person For example, saying autistic person. However, if it is broken up and written as \u201cperson with autism\u201d it separates the individual from their autism and implies it is a disease or add-on condition. If it is part of identity, then it makes sense to use it first. It would be like saying \u201cPerson with gayness\u201d rather than \u201cGay person.\u201d This is debated in the disabled community, but the point is that it is harmful to treat autism as if it can be fixed or removed from an individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most harmful repeated representation is that of a burden. The dehumanization of autistic individuals is perpetuated by resources catering to accommodating parents and caretakers of autistic children as victims and treating autisics as \u201ca ready scapegoat for all their caregiver\u2019s life disappointments.\u201d (Giwa-Onaiwu xv) Jim Sinclair also touches on this is \u201cDon\u2019t Mourn For Us.\u201d He makes the point that the grief of parents with autistic children does not come from the child\u2019s autism, but the loss of neurotypical child that they did not have. He highlights that parents of autistic children usually treat autism as a tragedy, or even a death. The phrase \u201closing a child to autism\u201d or similar phrases are extremely harmful to the community as a whole. If you took someone\u2019s autistic identity away, they simply would not be the same person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jim Sinclair also talks about how parents often think they cannot connect with their children when they have autism, but it is possible with effort, understanding, and most importantly, acceptance. The main issue with the parent\/caregiver victimization is that we are looking at their autistic children as a burden on them rather than human beings who need the care and love of their parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a society, there is an idea we have of autism that is either one-dimensional or untrue due to the lack of representation. Giwa-Onaiwu speaks about the common stereotypes all involving primarily white male-presenting presences. From T.V. savant personalities or introverted gamers, Giwa-Onaiwu could not find her unique identity represented anywhere and that autistics of color are usually invisible or seldom acknowledged unless they are discussed as burdens to society or presented with other troubling data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She describes her existence as \u201cin a minority group within a minority group within a minority group within a minority group!\u201d (Giwa-Onaiwu xiv). Giwa-Onaiwu emphasizes that finding her place in society with her identity as an autistic person of color was extremely difficult. Her article talks about how it is common to be known as defective and a person to be pitied when they are both autistic and of color. When questioned about why race and autism have to be mixed, she answers that they have everything to do with each other as they are both vital parts of herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giwa-Onaiwu writes that \u00a0\u201cAbleism and racism have become deeply ingrained into the collective mindset of humankind.\u201d (Giwa-Onaiwu xi) Both of these things are heavily sources of history that relate to the dehumanization or even euthanization of people because of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAutistics of Color: We Exist\u2026We Matter.\u201d includes a quote from Lydia X.Z. Brown that highlights \u00a0Giwa-Onaiwu\u2019s main argument as well as my own. She says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust as I cannot separate my disabled experiences from my racialized identity and experiences, I cannot recognize ableism without recognizing how it is affected by racism or recognize racism without recognizing how it is affected by ableism\u2026\u201d (Giwa-Onaiwu xvi) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discrimination is discrimination, and race and ability will always be connected for someone like Giwa-Onaiwu who share the experience of having multiple vital aspects to one\u2019s identity. Autism is a spectrum and there is not one singular autistic experience. And despite the stereotypes presented by white americans in popular media, there is also no singular way to be black. Interlacing race and autism is necessary because they may make up one person\u2019s identity, such as Mor\u00e9nike Giwa-Onaiwu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As white people, let\u2019s stop silencing people of color. As allistic people, let\u2019s stop speaking instead of autistic people. As parents, let\u2019s listen to our children. What privileged people like myself need to strive for is to accept autistic individuals, and accept autism as a part of someone\u2019s identity just as we would look at race, gender, or sexuality.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Word Count: 1111<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brown, Lydia X. Z., and Mor\u00e9nike Giwa-Onaiwu. \u201cAutistics of Color: We Exist\u2026We Matter.\u201d All the Weight of Our Dreams: on Living Racialized Autism<\/em>, DragonBee Press, 2017, pp. x-xxii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris, Andrew E. \u201cWhy Language Matters: Identity-First Language.\u201d Massachusetts General Hospital<\/em>,www.massgeneral.org\/aspire\/autism-spectrum-disorder\/identity-first-language-autism.aspx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sinclair, Jim. \u201cDon\u2019t Mourn for Us..\u201d Autonomy, the Critical Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism <\/em>Studies<\/em> [Online], 1.1 (2012): n. pag. Web. 2 May. 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meghan McDonagh 5\/2\/19 Disability and Literature Final Paper If you are not autistic, chances are, you can not understand what it is like to be autistic. Similarly, if you are not black, you will not understand what it is like to be black, no matter how much you think you understand. Mor\u00e9nike Giwa-Onaiwu can say … Continue reading “Autism and Identity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-final-exam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-p5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1582,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/1582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}