Autistic overload dismissed as "white tears"

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Ok so the linked video is quiet long. It is a press interview with Mark Schierbecker who was the photo journalist at the university of Missouri trying to cover the concerenedstudent1950 anti racism protest. His video of him being denied access to the protest (in a public space) went viral (link below also). He held a press conference hosted by Skepticon and one bit made me absolutely furious. At one point he says he is openly autistic and will probably go home and cry for an hour after this because this is more social interaction than he normally has in a week. At which point the audience member just says "oooh white tears" . I find it utterly disgusting that those supposedly for social justice are so utterly ignorant and prejudiced against autistic people and will dismiss their issue just because of the color of their skin. I understand that black people have issues and are subject to racism but lets face it their issues are not as severe as those of autistic people.

The skepticon vid is below the offending part is at 1:11:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfXKQyHuleA


Mark original vid of the incident is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S3yMzEee18

"white tears" is such a telling sign that an opinion can be discarded.

One person made this stupid, racist comment.

One person.

This post seems to take that as the basis for two bad ideas. One is that all people in the protest are represented by that one statement. The other is that it's useful, meaningful or true to pit the disadvantages of one minority group against another.

Let's face it, that's complete rubbish.

There is no way a "which group has more severe issues" contest makes sense, has validity or serves any purpose other than stirring up bad feeling and division.

What I learned from this video is that a person in the audience is a jerk. That's it.

How would you know? Also, you can be Black and autistic, too. Quite often I find skin color triumphs disability. Many minority children and adults never get diagnosed with autism and miss out on the therapies and assistance offered.

"White Tears" is a pejorative term used by non-whites to discredit emotional trauma inflicted on whites. It is a racist term.

It is similar to the term "Crocodile Tears", which is used to describe the tears that a crocodile sheds when it eats its victims, and which implies an insincere display of regret for causing the victim's death.

See also: "The Walrus & The Carpenter"

Employment stats - far lower for autistic people than black people or indeed pretty much any minority
Educational stats - still far lower than pretty much any minority group
Suicide rates and mental illness- far higher amongst autistic people than most other minority groups
Media portrayal - still BLATANTLY biased and stereotypical against autistic people.

On the whole the outcomes are worse for autistic people and this is almost entirely because we live in a society that is ignorant of autism and the needs to autistic people. It may not be hatred or fear that autistic people face but ignorance can be just as damaging as the stats indicate.


True but irrelevant to the point being made


Well the outcomes in general are worse for autistic people than pretty much any other minority group so the stats tell us autistic people face more discrimination in today's society.Its probably comparrable to the s**t black people got in say 1970's America.


True as well but again not strictly relevant to the point being made.

The very fact that someone can in today's society listen to an autistic person tell them about problems with an overload of social contact and then utterly dismiss that as "white mans tears" should tell you all you need to know. Can you imagine the s**t storm if any other minority was treated in that way? Imagine if a black person recounted some tale of racial prejudice and was just told to shut up and stop moaning. The person telling them so would be immediately, and quite correctly, labeled a bigot.The fact that they were not tells me that autism rights lags way behind other minority rights issues.

Can you posts the numbers and links to the studies for these stats?

Yes


I did not do that. I am talking about one persons actions.


I merely cited this to demonstrate the hyprocracy of the person in question.


Kind of but this kind of jerky behaviour is very common amongst SJW types. What one can also learn is that being "white" seems to automatically be associated with "privilege". If one is male and white then one is automatically seen as privileged by social justice warrior types. The person is not seen, only the skin colour and the sex is seen and then they are assigned to a class rather than treated as an individual. What this means is that despite Mark telling her about his disability and the way that it affects him she could not see past his skin colour and sex. All he was to her was a privileged white man crying white tears. This is the problem with identity politics in general. It dehumanises everyone. Everyone becomes part of a group rather than an individual.

Now I take the point that arguing about which group has it worse is probably futile and counter productive. But none the less autism rights is at a very early stage, Most people in society do not even know there is a problem, unlike racial problems which are well acknowledged by the wider public. So there is a need to highlight the issues faced by autsitic people.

Pay no attention the real racists on these colleges, these people are deluded segregationists and idiots. Be grateful knowing that all their degrees are probably worthless.

Well, the bolded is an example of White privilege. Why did he feel the need to share this with everyone? He was expecting others to feel sympathy for him. He lives in a society where his humanness is acknowledged and his feelings are often validated. So of course he was expecting them to feel sorry for him and allow him access. No one cares when a Black person cries or suffers, but as a White person Mark knows and expects others to care about his tears. Unless you are a Black person, you wouldn't know if Black people had it harder than autistics in this society.

All I know is these concernedstudent1950 stuff do not have it hard, a lot of the leaders actually come from prominent wealthy families. Just your typical college crybabies, these people don't speak for blacks or anybody except their own privileged selves. Forcing the university president to resign because of "microaggressions"? Give me a break, I would of called that hunger strikers bluff. Give me free stuff or I'll hold my breath! Wahhhhhhhhh!! !! !! !! !

Sure

Mental health
http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-au ... utism.aspx
Note that 40% suffer from one anxiety disorder compared to 15% of the general population

I can't find reliable stats for the percentage of ethnic minorities that have mental health issues compared to the average for the population but I would be flabbergasted if it were higher than 40%.

Employment
http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/m ... stics.aspx
Please not the 15% full time employment stat

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06385.pdf
The stats on page 3 show unemployment figures for ethnic minorities with black people having the worst outcome at between 11% and 29% depending on age.

I could not find direct stats on autism unemployment figures but we can surmise that with only 15% full time employment figures compared to between 71 and 89% employment figures for the worst performing ethnic minority that autistic outcomes are far far worse. How much worse will depend on what percentage of black people make up the employed but not full time employed group.

Eductional achievement
https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk ... -and-facts
Note that only 26% of autistic kids get 5 or more a-c grade GCSE's comparred to 61% of the national average

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _FINAL.pdf
We see that on page 10 of this report if we exclude the Roma ethnic minority we see that all ethnic minority kids are achieving nearly double the stats for autistic kids. (note: Roma people are travelers and so there are specific cultural issues as to why the formal examination system does not work for them)

These are UK stats as this is my country. I concede things may be different in other countries as racism may be worse (very likely as the UK is pretty tollerant) or autism services may be better (very unlikely as the UK has been pretty progressive on autism since the work of Lorna Wing in the 70's).

These things are both true. That doesn't make the approach you are using here rational or effective.

There is a need to highlight the issues faced by autistic people and it would probably be really good to educate the self righteous jerks at that meeting about these issues, but not by saying "our suffering is worse than yours."

Just stop that.

WP's racist contingent will jump on this topic and instead of seeing this as an issue for awareness of the needs of autistc people, they will just spout their hostility toward people with darker skin. Unless you are one of them, don't give them a platform.

Another thing to consider: you say there is a need to increase awareness of autism rights and highlight the issues faced by autistic people. I don't think you are going to do that with out some degree of what you dismiss as "identity politics."

Because he was answering a question about personal space and was explaining that he understood better than most issues of invading personal space.


Maybe, maybe not, you do not know his motives.


Really? And you know this how?


Was he? Are you a mind reader? How do you know he thought this?


This is simply an untrue satement. It is obviously false


But apparently as a white person his tears do not count it seems.


Well we could look at the stats.
And the stats tell me all I need to know.

Another perspective on the stats:
http://www.thenation.com/article/fate-a ... mentalism/

I;m not sure what this has to do with the educational, mental health and employment stats I listed. All of which are considerably worse for autistic people than for black people. I had not considered looking at crime stats as well but it would be interesting to see what percentage of autistic people end up in the criminal justice system compared to other minority groups. I do not think for one second that autistic people are more criminally inclinded any more than I think black people are but I suspect that the stats will show they are both disproportionaly victimised by the criminal justice system.

Some stats I found from the UK show that autistic people are 7 times more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system as victims, witnesses or alleged perpitrators of crime. Not sure how this compares to other minority groups.