Autism and Neurodivergence isn’t your shield from accountability. My latest essay exposes how whiteness uses neurodivergence as an excuse for racism, while silencing Black autistic voices. It's time to confront the racial double standards at play. by Lovette Jallow
“White women are taught to make harm look like confusion. And when that fails, they call it autism” I am so happy that someone was finally able to articulate this! Black people and other POC aren’t given the grace to be ignorant, instead are villainized and punished. Thank you so much for this article. It’s been quite the enlightening read.
I saw your note bemoaning the typos. This is fire; absolutely on point, typos or not.
This focus on racialized handling of autistic diagnosis is especially timely, considering recent attempts to excuse Elon Musk's racism and antisemitism with an autism diagnosis. Your recounting of being demanded to prove your diagnosis over and over again, getting ignored, disbelieved and purposely misdiagnosed, only to persevere to have it noted correctly for necessary support, is something I suspect happens not only with neurodivergence but in mental health diagnostics too.
I'm in the US. During college, some of us students noted that no Black people's declarations of temporary or permanent insanity in court proceedings are successful in obtaining psychiatric treatment, instead of pouring them into the prison pipeline. Every act, especially those resulting in violence, is judged the purposeful, diabolical work of an evil mind, regardless of volume of observed delusional ideas, hallucinations of voices or figures.
It seems that whether it's neurodivergence or dissociative psychiatric disorders, that the assumption is Black people rarely have them, or are incapable of having them. Anything that White professionals observe, is usually considered maladaptive acting out or manifestation of innate evil.
I broke my nail writing the LBee post and haven’t fixed it yet caught a cold for some reason or something. But yes you are right there are some n’s that got caught somewhere I will fix it when I sort out my keyboard.
And funnily enough many mental health conditions were pathologised during the civil rights movement when Black people were protesting so we can see how it can be weaponised or dismissed as it suits the creators and pathologisers of it. 👀
i just posted a note yesterday about how the autistic "sense of justice" symptom is phrased poorly and ignores that autistic people can be bigoted just like everyone else (along with, "why in the world do you want your diagnosis and political affiliation linked!?"). your discussion invites me to add that this idea that autistic people are inherently superhero freedom fighters always pursuing justice not only ignores the actuality of this symptom (extreme rigorousness and sense of self morality), it makes autistic people who follow this dogma, particularly white autistic women, seal off any room for self reflection.
i could have a whole conversation about the everything involved in this mess... antipsych, racist diagnostic criteria, how overlooked low support needs autism is in communities of color, how autism is WAY more common than we think it is, etc... for now though, there's an essay on here about viewing autism as an asymmetric bifurcation (like being left handed). i don't know if you have seen it yet but it's informed a lot of my view now about how autism does (or in our constructed world, doesn't) fit into everything around us. https://open.substack.com/pub/larivierre/p/what-if-the-dsm-5-got-autism-wrong
This is such a good point. That “sense of justice” description is so often romanticized as if it means universal justice, when really it’s just a personal sense of morality often paired with inflexible thinking.
If anyone tends to have a broader sense of justice, it’s Black women. We’re socialized to see systems, not just personal slights. That awareness doesn’t come built in with a diagnosis it’s learned from having to survive and understand layered harm.
Thanks for sharing the link too. I’ll check it out.
This is the one! I wish I had this essay in May because that plausible deniability is treated like a birth right. It feels good to be able to define their bs.
It would seem you have yet another banger on your hands. I feel like this same sort of manufactured symmetry of our situation to neurodivergence in different communities happens with queerness as well and I'm like ... I don't remember the last time gay white women were considered not human, were raped, worked to literal death and mass murdered to the tune of millions of people for 400 + years. All while ~ literally every ~ single society conditioned their people to think they were on the bottom of the "hierarchy of human value" as a universally accepted tradition to justify the theft of everything that is our birthright extending from psyches, minds, bodies, potentials to minerals in our native lands. These false conflations and distorted symmetries reduce the magnitude of our situation and ion like that.
Exactly. This right here. As a queer person myself, I see it too. The false symmetry is so convenient. It erases scale and intent. White women weren’t excluded from “grape,” colonisation, or imperialism, they participated and helped write the playbook. The “shared” oppression claim ignores the specific, systemic project of dehumanizing Black people for centuries. I’m glad you named it.
Yessss, and I love the queer babes it’s no shade to their fight it’s just really disrespectful to make these conflations. Especially considering “no femmes, fats, blacks or asians” was the standard of what was not desirable on Grindr for the past 15 years And the blatant anti-black African standard in the gay community that’s ongoing now - however unspoken. It’s psychological warfare to make these conflations because it totally disfigures reality and makes it harder for people to say what is happening or accurately diagnosis where we are to accurately map a way out.
Yo that’s very real! I’m also demisexual. I think we forget that the human trafficking rapists we call “slave masters” literally had entire side families with our ancestors while still keeping them as hostages (slaves). Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings as one example and I’m pretty sure she was 14 when he got her pregnant. So them having sex with us doesn’t mean they respect us or recognize our humanity. Actually them not considering us human greenlights how they fetishize us, like we’re disposable fleshlights. I lost my virginity to a white man so I’ve come a really long way from where I used to be. Now you couldn’t pay me to fuck a non-black man. If you had told me that white people were pink mayo demons when I was 21 I would’ve scoffed. I used to hate being black and as a consequence our people as a whole. Someone has to answer for the ransacking and contamination of our psyches. But I will read the juan on rejection sensitivity because I 10000% relate as a result of chasing white men in my early 20s and being degraded in the process.
It’s a tough line to walk I like people and I am socialised to actually track behaviour patterns and not tie it to gender or anything then I studied whiteness. So I am open minded to everyone and thing but my boundaries are for me. No one gets past them. 🫶🏾
I have had a terrible week where this was escalated and I had to step in and ensure I document it cos I hate repeating myself. Now when someone tries me I just post this essay and say “I see what you are doing” 💔
“White women are taught to make harm look like confusion. And when that fails, they call it autism” I am so happy that someone was finally able to articulate this! Black people and other POC aren’t given the grace to be ignorant, instead are villainized and punished. Thank you so much for this article. It’s been quite the enlightening read.
I saw your note bemoaning the typos. This is fire; absolutely on point, typos or not.
This focus on racialized handling of autistic diagnosis is especially timely, considering recent attempts to excuse Elon Musk's racism and antisemitism with an autism diagnosis. Your recounting of being demanded to prove your diagnosis over and over again, getting ignored, disbelieved and purposely misdiagnosed, only to persevere to have it noted correctly for necessary support, is something I suspect happens not only with neurodivergence but in mental health diagnostics too.
I'm in the US. During college, some of us students noted that no Black people's declarations of temporary or permanent insanity in court proceedings are successful in obtaining psychiatric treatment, instead of pouring them into the prison pipeline. Every act, especially those resulting in violence, is judged the purposeful, diabolical work of an evil mind, regardless of volume of observed delusional ideas, hallucinations of voices or figures.
It seems that whether it's neurodivergence or dissociative psychiatric disorders, that the assumption is Black people rarely have them, or are incapable of having them. Anything that White professionals observe, is usually considered maladaptive acting out or manifestation of innate evil.
I have an essay on Elon and autism.
I broke my nail writing the LBee post and haven’t fixed it yet caught a cold for some reason or something. But yes you are right there are some n’s that got caught somewhere I will fix it when I sort out my keyboard.
And funnily enough many mental health conditions were pathologised during the civil rights movement when Black people were protesting so we can see how it can be weaponised or dismissed as it suits the creators and pathologisers of it. 👀
i just posted a note yesterday about how the autistic "sense of justice" symptom is phrased poorly and ignores that autistic people can be bigoted just like everyone else (along with, "why in the world do you want your diagnosis and political affiliation linked!?"). your discussion invites me to add that this idea that autistic people are inherently superhero freedom fighters always pursuing justice not only ignores the actuality of this symptom (extreme rigorousness and sense of self morality), it makes autistic people who follow this dogma, particularly white autistic women, seal off any room for self reflection.
i could have a whole conversation about the everything involved in this mess... antipsych, racist diagnostic criteria, how overlooked low support needs autism is in communities of color, how autism is WAY more common than we think it is, etc... for now though, there's an essay on here about viewing autism as an asymmetric bifurcation (like being left handed). i don't know if you have seen it yet but it's informed a lot of my view now about how autism does (or in our constructed world, doesn't) fit into everything around us. https://open.substack.com/pub/larivierre/p/what-if-the-dsm-5-got-autism-wrong
thank you so much for your work!
This is such a good point. That “sense of justice” description is so often romanticized as if it means universal justice, when really it’s just a personal sense of morality often paired with inflexible thinking.
If anyone tends to have a broader sense of justice, it’s Black women. We’re socialized to see systems, not just personal slights. That awareness doesn’t come built in with a diagnosis it’s learned from having to survive and understand layered harm.
Thanks for sharing the link too. I’ll check it out.
This is the one! I wish I had this essay in May because that plausible deniability is treated like a birth right. It feels good to be able to define their bs.
Phew you saw the bs this week too. This essay is needed I think as a reminder for me too that people know what they are doing everyday 😭
You ain’t told no lies, Jallow! Definitely saving this one down.
It would seem you have yet another banger on your hands. I feel like this same sort of manufactured symmetry of our situation to neurodivergence in different communities happens with queerness as well and I'm like ... I don't remember the last time gay white women were considered not human, were raped, worked to literal death and mass murdered to the tune of millions of people for 400 + years. All while ~ literally every ~ single society conditioned their people to think they were on the bottom of the "hierarchy of human value" as a universally accepted tradition to justify the theft of everything that is our birthright extending from psyches, minds, bodies, potentials to minerals in our native lands. These false conflations and distorted symmetries reduce the magnitude of our situation and ion like that.
Exactly. This right here. As a queer person myself, I see it too. The false symmetry is so convenient. It erases scale and intent. White women weren’t excluded from “grape,” colonisation, or imperialism, they participated and helped write the playbook. The “shared” oppression claim ignores the specific, systemic project of dehumanizing Black people for centuries. I’m glad you named it.
Yessss, and I love the queer babes it’s no shade to their fight it’s just really disrespectful to make these conflations. Especially considering “no femmes, fats, blacks or asians” was the standard of what was not desirable on Grindr for the past 15 years And the blatant anti-black African standard in the gay community that’s ongoing now - however unspoken. It’s psychological warfare to make these conflations because it totally disfigures reality and makes it harder for people to say what is happening or accurately diagnosis where we are to accurately map a way out.
Phew. I hope you’ve read my essay on rejection sensitivity and how Black femmes get treated when we say no.
I’ve had some of the worst experiences often from women married to men who still seek me out.
The violence in those reactions is so palpable, as if I’m supposed to be endlessly available in this hypersexualized climate.
And I’m demi-asexual. Can people get off me? I’m no one’s fantasy, and I don’t deserve violence for setting a boundary.
It just shows me exactly what was happening during enslavement. These women weren’t innocent then, and they’re not innocent now.
There is some predator versus alien ish happening. Pardon my french 🤭
Yo that’s very real! I’m also demisexual. I think we forget that the human trafficking rapists we call “slave masters” literally had entire side families with our ancestors while still keeping them as hostages (slaves). Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings as one example and I’m pretty sure she was 14 when he got her pregnant. So them having sex with us doesn’t mean they respect us or recognize our humanity. Actually them not considering us human greenlights how they fetishize us, like we’re disposable fleshlights. I lost my virginity to a white man so I’ve come a really long way from where I used to be. Now you couldn’t pay me to fuck a non-black man. If you had told me that white people were pink mayo demons when I was 21 I would’ve scoffed. I used to hate being black and as a consequence our people as a whole. Someone has to answer for the ransacking and contamination of our psyches. But I will read the juan on rejection sensitivity because I 10000% relate as a result of chasing white men in my early 20s and being degraded in the process.
It’s a tough line to walk I like people and I am socialised to actually track behaviour patterns and not tie it to gender or anything then I studied whiteness. So I am open minded to everyone and thing but my boundaries are for me. No one gets past them. 🫶🏾
As always, a sharp, courageous voice
I have had a terrible week where this was escalated and I had to step in and ensure I document it cos I hate repeating myself. Now when someone tries me I just post this essay and say “I see what you are doing” 💔
I’ve observed this behavior out there, often. It is a real syndrome, and its harm is deadly.
“Plausible deniability” and “using any available tool”
“How the label becomes a shield instead of a tool for repair.”
May it be a “tool for repair”
Thank you, Lovette. 🫀
And misogyny...
This one was dedicated mainly to the women who do misogynoire. Which is against Black femmes like me. There’s another essay on autistic men. 🫶🏾
Thank you for your truth 🤗