Caucasians and autism/aspergers

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As there is no such thing as a Caucasian race, there can be no connection between it and autism.

You can't draw a sweeping conclusion like that from purely anecdotal evidence and claim it as being the way things are.

Also, the genetic differences between various human populations are extremely minor.

Um, you all realize that all of humanity originated from Africa, do you?

Anyway, I think black people are less likely to get AS diagnoses because it is assumed that we are the antithesis of aspie behavior and many doctors don't even consider AS when assessing a black kid. The ones with negative traits are more likely to be labeled schizophrenic, conduct disorder, adhd, or simply "bad kids" when taken to doctors.

Black people who do exhibit positive aspie behaviors such as pedantry, shyness, and obsessing about obscure topics, are just seen as being very intelligent and just a little odd. They often don't partake in speaking slang, are good students, and don't get involved in things that are stereotyped as being "black."

I say this from experience as a black aspie woman, by the way, who was always loved by teachers when I was young and considered extremely intelligent by my therapists.

Last edited by nirrti_rachelle on 15 Oct 2011, 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You should read about lewontin's fallacy.

Do you live in an area where most people are white? I guess it depends on where you live and the neighborhood around you. Also, one theory I have is that maybe other non-caucasian cultures tend not to take pride in things that are considered a "disability" and they tend to focus on the strengths of people (or else it brings shame to the family blah blah blah...) and so they are less likely to identify as aspies or join aspie groups. Just a theory though.

What about the Neanderthals?



I was in an academic competition held in Detroit with teams from other schools. I found it infuriating that some of the teams were performing so poorly, and indeed the poorly performing students were having a good time with "high fiving" behavior when they didn't answer a question or got it wrong. Incidentally, these poorly performing students happened to be black.

So here we were, after working hard to prepare and doing our best, finding out that there would be no real competition if we were placed up against these other teams. These other students can't really be that dumb or unprepared, can they? It took me a long time to figure out that maybe there was a lot of social pressure not to perform. To perform well might mean that one is conspiring with the teachers, cooperating with "The Man" who's always been "keepin' 'em down". Indeed, a student might be bullied later if he were to perform anywhere near his true ability.

So maybe there is something to the correlation of black/extreme NT/anti-achievement vs. white/nerd/AS/overachiever, but it's cultural, or a product of cultural expectations. Looking back, I got all the way through the Ph.D. on the expectation that my differences made me smart, but I found out that other people without the differences are also smart, and that there are some things they can do that I can't do. I might not have gone as far with my education as I did if the expectations weren't there. I'm still not sure that I'm really better off now than if I had stopped at the bachelor's degree.

this statment is untrue but true at the same time. it maybe a unwhite ethinc group famlilys may noticed that one of the family members may be acting strange in their eyes but unwilling to get that person checked out by a phycalist and maybe get the person dienosed with something. however that wont go to a docotr about this proplem becouse the family does not want to be labeled by others in ethinc group as the family with a proplem child or person with a werid disoreder

or maybe its the place you live at were there is higher white popultaion.

The statement has some truth in it, but you cannot attribute behavior to the environment only. Behaviors and intelligence and social behaviors are strongly correlated with genetics. That you can see a hundred time in a hundred different environment is probably not caused by the environment only. By the way, in what area did you make your PHD?

Basic logic states, as other posters have said, that in a while majority country the proportion of autistic to non-autistic people will also be majority white. Furthermore, "diagnosis" and even "aspergers/autism" itself as a label have been devised by caucasian westerners. Of course the highest proportion of diagnosed people will be Westerners, as Westerners would have the highest number of psychiatrists/psychologists and diagnosis each year.

Those other non-white autistic people the OP speaks of are simply not diagnosed with "autism" or "aspergers". I'm surprised at all the confusion in this thread.

You might learn that confusion is not always where you think it is. I grew up in a area where the majority where from African and Arabic descent. I know what I am talking about, and in what you say, I just see a wrong good reason point: it has been integrated in the equation a long time ago, you bring nothing new here.

Perhaps autism isnt as accepted or going to a psych when theres a problem isnt as acceptable besides many people of other races might not always have the financial means. I know in asian culture, theres a stigma on going to a psych. In America, theres less of a stigma attached.