The short version of the message is: in the end, you and your vicious attacks will be remembered as pariahs of the Autistic Civil Rights Movement.
Now, the longer version:
I recently watched the movie “12 Years a Slave”, and parts of it were, to me, strongly similar to what I see happening to proud Autistics today, to what I experience everyday.
I am not comparing the details of the abhorrent and inhumane way slaves were treated then with how Autistics are treated now. Slavery is the worst kind of oppression of, and disrespect for, a human life.
I am talking about how a privileged majority can oppress a minority simply to keep a status quo that devalues human lives.
I want to make a point though: many slaves were murdered and there was zero accountability or punishment for the murderers. In the same way that, today, too many Autistics (and other disabled people) are being murdered and the sad trend is to excuse and understand the murderers.
Back to the movie: it reminded me of you, and what you and your organization do.
You and Autism Speaks want to keep the status quo, the fear and the hate because that’s how you make your money and because of your perceived – and false – superior position in society. Just like the actions of characters in the movie who wanted to keep the slaves that made them money and gave them a perceived – and false – superior position in the human race.
I have seen you use your influence, money and celebrity connections to spread a message of fear and terror about autism. You refuse to acknowledge that there is a whole new group of Autistics that will not be silent anymore, while you try to pin on us the false pictures about our lives. You are oblivious to the still young Autistics finding their voices, their identity and their pride. You insist that our lives are miserable because you refuse to see that people like you are part of the reason why things are so complicated and difficult for us. You lump autism and some co-occurring conditions together to finance research that does not address the co-occurring conditions, but that seek to eliminate us. You are also oblivious to the growing number of allies siding with us, with our rights, because they see all lives as valuable and deserving of respect.
You are just like the characters in the movie that refuse to see progress coming, and try to hold on to your biased, even dangerous assumptions, instead of recognizing the humanity of a minority. Then, like those characters, you double down on the attacks.
The way you ignore our humanity has a good analogy in the movie, on a scene when a slave is wailing in pain after being separated from her children and hears from the white woman, supposedly a “nice” slave owner: “you should eat something, your children will be forgotten soon”. The way you and Autism Speaks talk about us, under the guise of wanting to “help” us, ignores how much it hurts and assumes we are incompetent and without feelings.
You, Ms. Wright, have easy access to a bully pulpit, you have power. But, in the end, Autistics and our true allies will succeed in having our rights acknowledged – because those rights are already ours. You deny us opportunities because you know you are the oppressor. You don’t want to see change coming because the status quo benefits your message of horror, and that’s how you raise a lot of money, fear money. Each day though, more people agree with me, and move away from Autism Speaks’ message. As with the long and painful emancipation process, and the still going battle for civil rights of not one, but many minorities, Autistics will also have a breakthrough moment, and then your message will be the one nobody will want to be associated with.
You try to silence us because you know justice and history are on our side. Give me, an Autistic you so assertively calls “tragic”, the same opportunity and a place in the pulpit, and let’s see who has a better message, who sides with human and civil rights. Let’s see with whom the majority of people will side.
Oppression will eventually lose, and so will you and Autism Speaks.
Love, not fear. I live a posAutive life.
This is an important message. Thank you for writing it Amy. I want to see that movie now. I am also proud that in the future, when people look back on things we will be seen walking arm in arm on the right side of history.
Each day the line of us who are walking arm in arm grows wider. Each day when we wake up we can be wondering who will be next to join our ranks marching onward out of oppression, linked together marching onward into a new future where we all will be counted just as human as the rest of the folks.
Amy I am sooooo sooooooo soooooo glad we are walking together. Much love and keep going. <3
Wow….. Oppression is dangerous.. especially when the majority try and use their power to keep you down.
This is a very powerful message aimed at just the right targets. What do you think is the nature of this “status quo” they are defending? Defenders of slavery were defending massive economic power, and also a perceived “way of life” that was based in part on white supremacy.
I wonder if the “status quo” Autism Speaks and its supporters defend is the vision they had for their lives and what their children would be like … and they just can’t accept that their kids, and therefore their lives, turned out differently? They desperately want their kids to be “normal”, and some even seem over time to feel personally insulted that they are not.
Some of them also I believe really think that Autism is like Malaria or Smallpox … a “disease” that could be beaten if only enough money was devoted to the task. I think parents, especially, get sold this model which they are eager to buy because again, they are just so angry that things didn’t go as expected.
I am not Autistic myself, nor am I any other kind of expert on Autism, but I’m very interested in disability rights and I’m fascinated and encouraged by the growing advocacy of Autistics, and how the ideology and practices of Autism Speaks are being exposed so effectively. I would like to know your reaction to my thoughts, and I will read more of your articles.