We live in a country and a society that is built on racism, and the neurodivergent community isn’t free of that racism, isn’t free of the erasing of marginalized experiences.
TC Waisman says, “When I show up in a room, I’m Black first. That’s what people see. They don’t see the invisible disabilities right away. This informs not only my worldview, but the kinds of things that I want to work on, and the ways I want to challenge the barriers I’m experiencing.”
How can education and disability policy best serve disabled learners, and also support those learners and their families?
Since I was late diagnosed with autism, I feel like the people in my life are still adjusting—because now I am being the ‘real’ me, and not the person they thought I was.
We spoke with writer, public speaker, and autism self-advocate Gyasi Burks-Abbott about growing up Black and autistic in a much less autism-aware era, and how he was able to thrive thanks to the guidance of his intuitive and supportive mother.
“I have to be realistic about the community that I am nurturing in, and the community for my children and for the parents that I help, as a Black autistic woman.”
I guess there’s not many spaces where I feel safe to be myself without great repercussions. If I’m not dealing with racism, it’s homophobia, and if I’m not dealing with that it’s ableism.
HEARD is a Black-led and disabled-led, cross-disability abolitionist organization. With practically no funding, HEARD has been doing vital work that no one else does.
Kerima Çevik theautismwars.blogspot.com The author’s idea of what displaying autism positivity looks like [Image: a Black woman over 50 with braided gray hair wearing Neurodiversity 3.0 by ThinkGeek, a black T-shirt with a world globe design on the upper chest area in the shape of a human brain, colored in physical map fashion i.e., water
Kerima Çevik intersecteddisability.blogspot.com theautismwars.blogspot.com Kerima Çevik, photo courtesy the author [image: Gray haired Afro-Latina woman next to a windowshade, looking to the left.] [Content note: Contains descriptions of involuntary medical procedure, including sterilization, on Black and disabled people.] I am trying to plow my way through Judith Newman’s autism parenting book To Siri with Love: A
