Re: Sort of new member

[Guest guest]

> <PEDANTIC>

> Note, , that I did not say that autists were not killed in

> his world, only that they weren't killed BECAUSE of they're

> perceived as a threat due to their failure to conform.

> </PEDANTIC>

That's one reason they kill us, among others. However, they tease,

beat up, and kill other NTs for that, too. Autistic people are

generally not in enough of a position of power for anyone to know what

we'd do when given the sort of power NTs have, but from the limited

examples I've seen (autistics gaining power within small contexts),

autistics seem capable of abusing power with the best(?) of them.

Noting that autistics (in general) are capable of creating hierarchies

and exerting them with all the apelike posturing anyone else would, is

not the same as saying that others don't do the same to us.

If you do doubt that we're capable (in general) of creating those

hierarchies, look at the aspie/LFA/HFA stuff. There are people who

are heavily into that sort of differentiation system for reasons that

go beyond idle academic curiosity. For example, an autistic woman

(don't remember her name) wrote to MAAP saying that a member of this

list essentially didn't deserve an autism diagnosis because she was a

" neurotypical-privileged " " middle-aged " " self-diagnosed " person

" looking for her inner autistic " rather than being diagnosed as a teen

in a psych ward or having other " real " problems. People insist that

some other group of autistics either is too autistic to listen to or

not autistic enough to listen to, and the issue is quite often clearly

a power thing.

Similar things happen when autistic people belittle " retards " or

" crazy people " in much the same way NTs belittle us, and insist, just

like NTs about us, that they're not doing anything wrong. And I have

seen some truly ugly name-calling between autistic people (behind

people's backs, no less) over things as simple as playful misspellings

that don't *conform* to everyone else's sense of humor (except to make

the other person a butt of their jokes).

Yes, NTs make life hell for us, but sometimes we make life hell for

each other (or for other groups of people who are not autistic) too,

in similar ways, and the two are unfortunately not mutually exclusive.

I would like to live in a reality where nobody did this to each

other, or where I was somehow a member of a group of people who all

didn't do this to each other, and I do try to work toward making that

more of a reality, but that reality isn't here right now.

[Guest guest]

RAce is a false concept. If you go to the borderlands of places like

China and Russia you can't draw a neat line between " races " , they

don't exist. I look like people who live in Central Asia, sort of

high cheekbones and wide set eyes, olive skin, dark hair. But my

ancestors are mainly from northern Europe and here, some were native

to North America.

I have a friend whose " color " is " khaki " , she's " yellow " from the

ines and " brown " from Mexico and " white " from Europe, but so

far no agency has put " Khaki " as a race category. Me, I'm sort of a

pale pink, mostly white but with a bit of " red " .

The whole " race " thing is so fraught with danger for persecution and

abuse, I really think it ought to be avoided as much as possible,

except to say that all NT's and all AC's are of the human race.

I wish people would read the old Tarzan books if they want to see how

the " blacks are closer to monkeys " social darwinism actually played

out in the real world, in the minds of the average white people.

African tribal people are portrayed as the kind who would eat babies

alive and the brave European explorers who encountered them were

Superior and had Integrity and were entirely right to kill these

savages.

Camille

> >Both races, if my understanding of how evolution occurs is

correct, have

> >diverged since the divergence (if that really was the cause in the

first

> >place) that caused different races. And that this divergence

occurred at

> >the same rate in both races, causing both races to be just as

different

> >from apes as the other one (although possibly in different ways).

>

> My understanding is that all human " races " are so much alike

> that it makes no scientific sense to talk as if they are

> different in any way. The differences *within* " races* are

> larger than the differences between " races. "

>

> Jane