It’s not the job of the oppressed to meet our oppressors ‘half way’. There is no half way. There is no half violence, half stigma, or half isolation.

I don’t need to engage with people who are harmful to me and the people I love, and that absolutely goes for ABA practitioners. I don’t want to hear ‘their side’ of the issue. This isn’t a debate, it is people’s lives and mental health.

Some people treat me and other Autistic people as if we are getting involved in radical rhetoric when we are sharing stories about how we are treated day in day out.

We are not making this up.

Our credentials are either used against us to somehow ‘prove’ we’re not ‘really’ Autistic or they’re completely ignored.

I don’t need to explain how I’ve read a LOT of work around autism and disability studies. I have two degrees in this area and an interest in sharing information on disability issues. This is not play for me, this is my life.

I will never be unbiased in situations of hostility. I’m not going to ‘hear out’ the people, practitioners, legislators or diagnosticians who are a big part of the problem. Their ‘side’ has always been centred.

I will not cower down to those who supposedly hold dominion over me.

It’s not ‘radical’ to want to be treated as a human being. I’m so very tired of having to explain this to certain individuals over and over again.

Privilege is not what you have, it’s what you’ve NOT had to go through. It is not an individual thing, it is collective. So when terms get ‘thrown around’ alluding to the centering of rich highly educated ⚪ men, it might be worth checking why you’re getting frustrated with that term.