I was at work with a worker from out of town. I didn’t know her very well, but her personality really resonated with me and I enjoyed being around her the short amount of time she was there. The subject of autism came up and I got interested because I thought that she would have interesting things to say about it. Oh, was I wrong, and how glad I am that I kept my mouth shut about my son and myself, even though I feel like I should have said something.

She constantly complained about how a few students who are autistic acted like they knew everything and are authority opposers. Sure no one likes a know-it-all, but autistics and Asperger’s actually research what they want to know before spouting anything out. How she made it sound was that they were just trying to stir things up and get her angry for no reason. Then she goes off about how they get so angry and “violent” when they can’t “do whatever they want”. No, what’s actually happening is that you are disrupting their patterns and routines and it’s frustrating them because they don’t know how to divert around it and can actually send them into a panic attack. For example, what happens to me when a plan is changed or a spontaneous event occurs that will upset my whole schedule.

Maybe people should do a little research on certain brain types and mental disorders before submerging themselves into their worlds. They already feel alienated enough by people trying to make them “normal”.

I felt hurt, confused, saddened. Wish people didn’t feel the need to defend and were able to listen. Wished people understood racism in its contextual nature, recognizing that stereotyping and feeling violence because of your group membership are different. Made me feel good for addressing it, but potentially hypocritical for not just understanding that people can’t be blamed for what they haven’t had the chance to learn and dissect.

That American spirit includes staying true to the unity and diversity that makes us strong — like no other nation in the world. In this age of instant reporting and tweets and blogs, there’s a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions. But when a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s important that we do this right. That’s why we have investigations. That’s why we relentlessly gather the facts. That’s why we have courts. And that’s why we take care not to rush to judgment — not about the motivations of these individuals; certainly not about entire groups of people.

The thing is: people actually had jumped to conclusions, fueling both suspicion and violence across the country. Multiple social networks and communities on the internet began to conduct their own searches for suspects in photographs. Most of these “suspects” turned out to be brown people with bags. Some people were identified solely by color or by supposed nationality. Some people were identified by name, and their names spread publicly and quickly, without hesitation. Worst of all, real people were attacked. Subtle and open aggression powerfully shaped lives this week.

We know that the creation of unsafe conditions for people of color, immigrants, Muslims – among others – does not appear out of thin air, informed by rationality or reality. They are a product of power and fear. Every geopolitical event of this sort has put whole communities on edge, anxious about the backlash against them. And while hate crimes get documented, the more subtle interactions of fear and hostility can slip through.

All week, from the coming Monday to Friday, we hope to publish submissions of incidents related to the recent attacks experienced by South Asians, Muslims, immigrants, and people of color. For this, we are asking for your help.

If you have experienced an incident of this type, please submit your story to submissions@microaggressions.com. There are no limits on length or format. (Please put “week” into the subject of your email; they’ll be forwarded directly to editors, who will put them up as soon as they can.)

If you have not experienced an incident of this type, we ask that you share this with people you know. Use Twitter, Facebook, and any other social networks to spread the word!

Thanks for everything,
Editors

Some of the places named: India, Scotland, and Africa.

I hope I’m not the only one who finds this problematic.