Curator’s Statement
Hi! My name is Shayna Thomas and I am a graduating senior and American Studies and anthropology double major at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. As a part of my spring semester course load I am taking a course called “Autistic Blackness”, taught by Professor Diana Paulin.
The aim of the course is to analyze how Blackness and autism come into conversation with one another. The goal of the collection which this contribution is a part of is to develop a digital archive where my classmates and I can both highlight the experiences of Black autistic individuals and analyze the dynamic between Blackness and autism on a more general level.
For my contribution I create the following research question: How do common practices of discipline and child-rearing in Black families affect the lived experiences of Black Autistic people?
The question was inspired by the TikTok created by @thesituationaltherapist that can be found further down on this page. In the video he suggests that one of the reasons that many Black people go undiagnosed is because as children their parents beat any symptoms of autism out of them, leaving those habits repressed.
He states that the actions of these parents effectively serve as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, a very popular form of treatment for autism that has been drawing increasingly more criticism as those who have undergone it have become able to advocate for themselves. Chloe Everett’s TED Talk provides more insight into ABA.
The idea of uneducated and unaware parents is continued in the TikToks included from user @autieoddity. They discuss the resentment that they hold against their parents for failing to get them diagnosed as a child, but simultaneously have to reconcile that resentment with the centuries of history that have fueled a complicated relationship between Black people and the medical field.
Yet despite not receiving a diagnosis until later in life, @autieoddity always felt out of place amongst their family, as their autism prevented them from connecting with some cultural aspects in the same way. They felt ostracized amongst their family who continually highlighted their difference.
Even in scenarios where parents do not receive their child’s autistic traits with any form of negativity, it is still far less likely to be diagnosed as autistic while blank as white people, men specifically, are made to be the face of autism.
To reiterate, I want to look at the impact that these invalidating and violent early childhood encounters have on Black autistic people and the dynamics that inform these circumstances. With this in mind I looked for sources that could both bridge my own gaps in knowledge and provide some more context for some of the narratives presented in the media selections that I chose.
The concept that @thesituationaltherapist discussed was so interesting to me that it was able to guide the search for the rest of my media as I wanted pieces that would work in conversation with that one. In order to make my contribution accessible I attempted to make my writing less academic and slightly more casual. In addition, I also chose to use black and white text and short paragraphs and bullet points in order to make sure that my content is easier to read and digest.
Social Media Selections
Autism and Cultural Assimilation by @autieoddity
- @autieoddity is an autistic Black person named Zee who uses they/he pronouns and mainly creates content related to their lived experiences as a Black autistic person.
- The above TikToks are a 2-part video made by @autieoddity discussing some of the personal struggles that they have had culturally assimilating as a black person due to their autistic traits.
- Despite the fact that they were raised with a lot of exposure to Black culture they still felt a disconnect to it. For example, even though they understands and can replicate AAVE when typing they can’t access those skills when they speak.
- This has lead to a sense of alienation amongst their family who ‘othered’ Zee for their inability to socialize in the way that was expected of them.
- Even though their family would make jokes about it, what was lighthearted for those family members deeply impacted Zee as it highlighted their difference.
- Although it is not mentioned in this video this creator had a later in life diagnosis so their inability to assimilate was looked at as personal idiosyncrasies rather than signs of neurodivergence.
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Black Culture and the Medical Field by @autieoddity
- Here Zee discusses some of the anger and resentment that they holds against their parents because of their late autism diagnosis, despite the fact that they showed clear symptoms from an early age.
- Zee’s late diagnosis contributed to a lot of trauma and they associate that with a sense of irresponsibility on the part of their parents.
- Yet Zee is also aware of the complicated relationship between Black people and the medical field, as well as other forms of disenfranchisement that make Black people adverse to seeking out professional medical help.
- @autieoddity struggles with the validity of their feelings because even though their parents didn’t look into getting them diagnosed, which had a huge impact on Zee’s life, Zee is also aware of the generations of trauma, racism, and disenfranchisement that contextualizes what their parents did and didn’t do and their late diagnosis.
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“Black Autistic People Go Undiagnosed cuz Spanking and ABA Therapy work the same way” by @thesituationaltherapist
- @thesitutationaltherapist is a TikTok user who named Derrick provides his audience with mental health insight. It is unclear whether or not Derrick himself identifies as autistic but he uses his platform to spread awareness relating to autism and mental health.
- He discusses how many Black people may have undiagnosed autism because of the way that autistic traits are often ‘beat out of them’.
- Because of the aggression that those behaviors are met with undiagnosed Black autistic children learn to repress them.
- @thesituationaltherapist says that what these parents have done is basically Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy.
- He ends the video by suggested that to explore this idea further that his viewers try leaning into the behaviors that were trained out of them (leg shaking) next time they are upset and seeing if that provides comfort for them and looking into what that might mean.
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TEDxUNCAsheville: “The Problem with Applied Behavior Analysis” by Chloe Everett
- Chloe Everett, young woman who identifies as autistic, gave this TED Talk at UNC-Asheville, where she was a student at the time of the presentation
- She asks her audience to imagine a world where they were told how to express themselves and punished for reacting and expressing in the way came naturally to them, this is how she describes Applied Behavior Analysis
- Chloe describes the dark history of ABA, which originated from experiments done on rats and pigeons, and the harmful and violent treatment regimes that were used, some of which are still true today
- Rooted in ABA is the idea that there is something wrong with neurodivergent expressions as it effectively trains children into presenting as neurotically as possible
Analysis
To be Black and auttistic means that someone holds two disenfranchised identities, and the way that those identities interact with each other results in an even more complicated lived experience. When it comes to discussions of autism, there is an extreme lack of representation of what autism looks like when it isn’t attached to a white person.
The desire for more, better, representation was apparent when looking for social media materials to use in my contribution. On TikTok, the platform I used most heavily, there is a very active dialogue about the lack of representation and platform that Black autistic people and creators were left to deal with. It is very common for Black people with autism to not receive a diagnosis until later on in life for a multitude of reasons, some of which come from trends in the upbringing of Black children.
When Black children present signs of autism their racialized bodies will often lead to the people piercing those symptoms as presentations of bad behavior, which is then punished. Then, as @thesituationalterapist points out, there are those parents who will ‘beat’ the neurodivergence out of their kids to the point where they no longer visibly present neurodivergent symptoms at all. The physical punishment of children, more commonly referred to as ‘spanking’, is fairly common in the Black community, and a topic of fierce debate.
In 2017 the book ‘Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America’ about the larger social, cultural, and historical context that surrounds the prevalence of spanking in Black families. The data that she found showed that the majority of Black families were in favor or spanking. Yet, it did not come from a place of negative intent, but from a desire to protect their children.
“The popular belief within black communities is that parents must whup their kids because there is no other model for disciplining and protecting them as they grow. The prevailing cultural view is that whupping is essential to keep our children safe, out of jail, or from falling prey to the dangers of the streets.”
(Patton)
As Patton discusses, these parents virtually hurt their children because they believe that it is the only way to protect them from the world and all of the dangers that lay in it for Black children. These parents don’t want their children to attract attention because of how easily that attention could turn negative.
Now let’s circle back to the intersection with autism. Autistic children are more likely to express themselves in ways that draw attention as they deviate from what is considered normal. For black parents who are already scared of what the world has in store for their child, signs of neurodivergence (even if they are not perceived as such) are looked at as something to be torn out at the root for the continued safety of the child. While this by no means excuses the actions, it does serve to contextualize them.
Take a moment to think back to the summer 2019 Elijah McCain murder by police. Elijah is believed by many to have been neurodivergent, and it was his neurodivergent behaviors that ultimately attracted the attention of the police officers who killed him. This represents the worst fear of many Black parents, but especially those with neurodivergent children who know how easily this could happen to their child. It is very difficult to change the world and it seems that many parents have fallen into the trap of trying to change their child instead.
Changing the way that neurodivergent, specifically autistic in this context, children express themselves is the core of Applied Behavior Analysis. Patients are rewarded for expressing themselves as taught and punished for showing any signs of neurodivergence. When it first gained prominence ABA was celebrated as a treatment option for children who had previously been seen as hopeless, as it allowed them to achieve some semblance of a ‘normal life’. Yet since the treatment was developed in the 70’s there has been pushback against what the treatment entails as well as the idea that autistic children need to be trained out of the neurodivergence at all as many former patients regard the experience negatively.
Here lies an interesting comparison between formal ABA and the informal ABA that @thesituationaltherapist says Black families unintentionally utilize: the first typically takes place because of a diagnosis while the other usually contributes to diagnosis being delayed. As @autieoddity explains in one of their own TikToks there is a very complicated history that has led to deep distrust between Black people and the medical field. This is something that Zee contributes to their parents not getting them diagnosed as a child even though there were obvious symptoms.
@autieoddity does not mention any spanking as the result of their neurodivergence, and their later diagnosis means that they did not receive ABA as a child, if ever. Yet the experience of growing up in the specific intersection of being Black and autistic manifested itself in different ways. Because their autism did not allow them to do so, @autieoddity, could not fully assimilate herself with Black culture. It was like a language they could read, but not speak, and her family highlighted this difference.
So while in some cases sociocultural context and upbringing can lead to Black autistic children being forced out of their neurodivergence, in other cases we see that the child’s obvious difference will be ignored to the extent that outside resources aren’t needed, but acknowledged as a matter of personal difference, which can manifest itself in feelings of isolation.
A common thread here is a lack of trust that Black families hold for a racist world that they do not trust with their children, because time and time again they have been shown that they cannot trust.
This is why this collection is so important. Autism and neurodivergence need to be normalized in Black people, and the social media posts my classmates and I have compiled help to do that. Once it stops becoming so normalized for Blackness and autism to be looked at as mutually exclusive then Black autists will be enfranchised in a way that is necessary for any movement relating to autism or Blackness to be successful.
Sources
@autieoddity. Tik Tok, January 18, 2021, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMepGWfAT/
@autieoddity. Tik Tok, February 13, 2021, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMepG7MFT/
@autieodditty, Tik Tok, February 13, 2021, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMepGovQ1/
Chloe Everett. “The Problem with Applied Beahvior Analysis.” Youtube, uploaded by TEDx Talks, April 8, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCqEb0aG7tg
Devita-Raeborn, Elizabeth. “The Controversy Over Autism’s Most Common Therapy.” Spectrum News, Simons Foundation, 5 Aug. 2020, www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/controversy-autisms-common-therapy/.
Keeney Parks, Stephanie. “How Racism Impacts Black Kids With Autism: From the Clinic to the Classroom.” Speak Up, Speak Up, 3 Aug. 2018, speakupparents.org/blog/2018/8/2/how-racism-impacts-black-kids-with-autism-from-the-clinic-to-the-classroom.
ObeySumner, ChrisTiana. “Black Autistics Exist: An Argument for Intersectional Disability Justice.” South Seattle Emerald, South Seattle Emerald, 6 Dec. 2018, southseattleemerald.com/2018/12/05/intersectionality-what-it-means-to-be-autistic-femme-and-black/.
Patton, Stacey. “Black Parents Who Are Sparing the Rod to Save Their Families.” Beacon Broadside: A Project of Beacon Press, Beacon Press, 8 Apr. 2017, www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2017/04/black-parents-who-are-sparing-the-rod-to-save-their-families.html.
@thesituationalterapist, Tik Tok, February 2, 2021, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMepGw431/
