Asking The Wrong Questions About Autism

I think that to consider “all people” of any group as a whole is incorrect. Assuming that all people have the same talents, strengths, flaws, mindsets, personality traits, behavioural patterns and so on… Imagine a highly compassionate person compared to someone on the opposite end of this scale… We would never attribute a personality trait of any type as a human-wide trait when we are dealing with the allistic population, so why do some people attribute these things to autistic people?

The answer, I believe is that Autistic individuals share certain common challenges and strengths in a recurring frequency that is significant. These challenges and strengths that are unique to Autism sometimes mask the underlying personality traits which may be just as individual as the allistic population. You will meet people on the spectrum who are repulsive and you will meet people who are attractive and engaging. The real challenge is to remove prejudice and to see the person. Give enough time for the person to settle and drop their defenses and you may be surprised…

In labelling “all people”, be they allistic or autistic, as a complete “something”, we are falling into the prejudice trap. We often do it to ourselves as people with Autism. In “sticking together” which is natural for a disadvantaged minority group, we are pulling apart from the whole.

I am not proud to be autistic, I AM autistic and I am proud to be kind and compassionate. I am ashamed and saddened for those to whom i have offered less than this. I can appear to be rude at times because my perception of facts is a dominant perspective for me. Facts are often described as cold and hard and the truth bitter. Velvet coating and sugar coating the former and latter are the things many on the spectrum struggle with. This can make us appear cold when we are not. Some of us may be cold, but not all.

Questions beginning with “can autistic people” often make me prepare myself for a myopic view…