Bek
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moonyreads.bsky.social
Bek
@moonyreads.bsky.social
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They/them || Pisces || Enneagram 9 || I love reading, questionable reality TV, & my cat 📚✨️
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moonyreads.bsky.social
This is also why the "gotchas" about what is technically right or hypocrisy will so seldom land with the people who are the biggest perpetrators of the problems we are seeing. So many have never had to care and unless they are looking to learn, they simply won't. (This one is pg 137)
"Unfortunately as members of all oppressed groups discover, most privileged people just won't do that. The states of profound mindfulness, humility, openness to correction and tolerance for uncertainty that such learning demands are far outside of most people's comfort zones. Most human beings simply won't go that far outside of their comfort zones if they don't have to. And privilege means they don't have to. The system is currently set up so that when neurotypical professionals work with autistic individuals, the neurotypical professional is always in the role of greater authority: neurotypical therapist and autistic client; neurtypical Doctor and autistic patient; neurotypical educator and autistic student; neurotypical researcher and autistic subject. As long as this is the case, as long as neurotypical professionals only have regular close contact with autistic individuals in situations that are set up such that the neurotypical professionals hold greater authority in power, the neurotypical professionals will never have to subject themselves to the uncomfortable humility of checking their privilege, will never have to learn real empathy and understanding for the autistic, and will never have to learn to understand and adapt to autistic forms of communication. And if they don't have to most of them won't"
January 25, 2025 at 9:01 AM
moonyreads.bsky.social
This is from Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker (pg 133). The quote that she references explains so much and while her insights are specific to autism in this context, obviously it goes far beyond to explain a lot of what we're seeing.
A page of a book. In italics, it says "Q: How would you address empathy deficits and poor communication skills in neurological people working with autistic clients?" It continues into the essay: "The 20th Century political scientist Karl Deutsh said "Power is the ability not to have to learn." I quote the statement often because I think it's one of the most important truths ever articulated about privilege, oppression, and social power relations. When a social system is set up such that 1 particular group is almost always in a position of social power or privilege over another group, the members of the privileged group never truly need to learn or practice empathy or understanding for the members of the disempowered, oppressed group. Nor do the members of the privileged group need to learn to adapt to the communication style of the oppressed group. Neurotypical privilege means that neurotypical people interact with autistic people -- particularly when the neurotypical people in question are in positions of professional authority--" The page ends and the sentence continues to the next page
January 25, 2025 at 9:01 AM