An acute case of Asperger's Syndrome

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I wasn't sure where to post this, however I came across this story, and while there is no reason to think this man has Asperger's Syndrome, the situation he found himself in due to cultural difference between his native culture and American culture are a fairly good representation of the things people with AS go through.

To summarize, he was a third generation white African who had immigrated to the US to attend medical school. During some type of humanities course, the professor asked him to define himself, as part of a class exercise. He innocently and truthfully replied "I'm a white African American" to which some of his classmates took offence, and for which he was reprimanded. This occurred not once, but twice, and lead to various hostilities against him where he received threats, had his car vandalized, was formerly disciplined, and his graduation was delayed.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7567291&page=3

Aw man, I thought this be about someone who has the most severe case of AS.

Acute means sharp or sudden. You are thinking of "profound".

Yeah. Sense acute sense of smell or acute sense of taste means very strong as in very good I assumed acute case of AS would be very severe. I guess I had the word wrong.

There are such people as white Aboriginals, so why not white African-Americans?

The way he was treated was crazy and I can see how you mean that it sort of shows what someone with as would go through.

I'm half Australian and half Indian but I just say I'm Australian though I have darker skin. There's just none of the Indian culture in me because I was born and raised in Australia. Kind of like though I don't appear autistic to people I am.

I believe this is why we need to do as much research as possible to the context of our surrounding cultures. For example, if you do research you'll find this to be true about American Society. http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/010 ... tures.html

America is time sensitive. People in American generally constrain themselves to a clock and schedule. Have you all heard of the phrase "time is money?" http://m.wordnik.com/words/time%20is%20money This phrase doesn't have to refer to actual money either even though money is one possibility. American People want as much time as possible. By asking Americans a lot of questions and writing long posts and answers I believe we are insulting them by wasting their valuable time.

He probably did not know the surrounding context and background of the phrase "African American" and the culture of America. They probably felt like he was mocking and insulting black people. He would have to know the context of America and events that took place here with black people like slavery and the civil rights movement,etc.

I hope he wins. Apparently we don't have free speech in this country anymore. Everything must be politically correct. I get quite offended by racist remarks and I speak up whenever I hear them, but this seems to be a clear example of a kind of repression that is quite emphatically un-American. We can do better. Of course we're getting one side of the story here, but it's quite clear to me that even if someone was offended; (which should never be the measure of hate-speech), the university felt they needed to step in. I find it sad that we've got to the point in our culture where when someone takes offense it means some sort of wrongdoing has necessarily been done. If I claim myself a victim, somebody must be at fault. How logical is that? It may be so, but there are procedures that should be followed in determining that. Apparently in this case there were no procedures followed other than to listen to the many complaints. So strength in numbers as well as might makes right. The man as far as one can tell from the article, is not a racist as can be seen in his attitude that we've gotten over black and white in this country. But have we really?

Bottom line is, if I'm from Africa (my place of birth) and I happen to be white, then I'm a white African. If I become an American, then I'm quite literally a white African American. There's no offense intended in this, and none should be taken.

I could see an issue regarding racial statistics if hoards of white Africans start streaming into the country, but that's not an issue of race; it's an issue of redefining what an African American is. I think we all should be happy that we could eventually do away with certain labels, which separate us from one another.

I'd like to point out that MANY of the comments on that article are from people claiming to be students of that university, and that those comments say that there is much more to the story than is reported in the article.

According to those posts, the student in question did not merely self-identify in a way that seemed unusual, he went out of his way to mock the "normal" use of that appellation, and did so in highly derogatory and inflammatory terms. Allegedly (among other examples), when he was selected to post transcribed class notes online, he took the opportunity to further publicize a position which was quite racist. Basically (according to these comments) he was suspended for attempting - with some success - to disrupt the learning environment on campus by race-baiting, and continuing to do so after he was warned that such conduct was unacceptable.

Paints a bit of a different picture, doesn't it?

Poor guy. That's really ridiculous. This is an example of people just looking to take offense. It happens a lot where I live in the US. If he explained he was from Africa, why would this be offensive to anyone? One argument I guess that they (the people objecting) could make is that even being third generation, his family wasn't native to Africa, and therefore he should not be able to refer to himself as African. But that would be pretty unfair, considering that after three generations, it doesn't seem unreasonable to claim a country as your home. I am not sure how tense relations are between black and white Africans currently. But what it really sounds like to me is just plain old discrimination. The article did not mention the race of the students making the complaints, but I suspect that it was a situation of "that's our title, and you can't use it" since the article does mention that the initial complaint was that he couldn't call himself African because he is white.
It's also interesting to note that "African-American" isn't even accepted by all black people when refering to black people, because not all of them are of African heritage.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7567291&page=2
‘ . . . According to the lawsuit, Serodio then wrote an article for the student newspaper, titled "A More Colorful View Than Black and White," in an attempt to explain his self-identification and to call for tolerance at the school.

‘But when complaints started pouring into Dr. I. Thomas Cohen, then the dean of student affairs, the lawsuit alleges that Serodio was called in again and told by Cohen that if he "lay low for awhile" Cohen would see that a record of the incident would not be placed in Serodio's transcript. . . ’

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And that's one way institutions sometimes respond. What helps a lot is to have someone on your side and not fight the battle alone.

Yes, that does paint a different picture.

Perhaps he misread the social environment and thought it was good-natured, back and forth philosophic exchange. Or, maybe he vaguely realized he was needling someone, but thought it was okay since there are other ways students are pushed in class discussions.

I dont get it at all? Why is saying what you are offensive?

Yes it does and in that point, I hope he doesn't win if that was all true.

I'm sure there are other perspectives to be heard. After all, we only know what the article tells us. However I thought the presentation in the article was a good analogy of situations many with AS sometimes find themselves in, and so I posted it for that reason.

This can also be part of the aspie "communication style"

The mode of all sending-no receiving. Talking in paragraphs rather than sentences, downloading a lot of information all at once. Having a unique viewpoint that must be shared, along with a glaring lack of faith in the intellect of others.

So, what is lacking is a process of medium steps and ping-ponging back and forth and giving the other person a chance to come through.

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So, he missed the signs that he had pressed the "joke" or the viewpoint or the discussion too far, even for a free-wheeling class discussion.

And it's not about picking up on subtlities, it's about not getting so much into your own thing that you miss what is patently, glaringly obvious right in front of you.

I learned this playing poker. What I took from Caro's Book of Tells and other sources, is not about super subtlities. You're just trying to avoid burying your head so deeply in your own cards that you miss what is patently, glaringly obvious right in front of you. (I took poker very seriously, still broke even. Please be careful. The downswings are both inevitable and punishing. It hurts to lose 500 for the week, in a number of ways, sometimes more. This hurts more than the upswing sometimes helps.)

In my opinion, the article is just another great example of how terrible news reporting has become. The story is so one-side it's shameful.

Where are the examples of what he actually wrote? READ the comments after the article! The issue had less to do with him calling himself a white African American than it had to do with many other things he said and did that were never mentioned at all in the article.

What the hell has happened to reporter objectivity and getting BOTH sides of a story before publishing it? No, the school could not comment because there is a lawsuit.

How many students go to the school?

Not ONE of them could comment on the story?

Give me a break. The author never even bothered to try and find out.

Cronkite and everyone like him are gone. Too bad. There is no real news reporting anymore.