Autism. What is Autism?
Autism is a disease which effects brain development. A kid with autism does not relate to the world the same way you and I do. But, there are many different types autism. Autism with different advantages, and disadvantages. It makes it difficult for these people to live normal lives. The type of autism I will focus on is Asperger's syndrome. I choose this type of autism to focus on because this is a less severe, and unheard of type of autism.
How does autism effect me?
You may know someone who is autistic, you maybe their friend or neighbor, You may not even know someone who is autistic; nevertheless, from experience I can tell you they are no different than me or you in many ways.
This is why I will comment when someone uses the word 'retard' as a joke. I understand it is used light heartedly, but Unless you know someone who has mental retardation, you honestly don't understand how hurtful this term is. I feel that this term discriminates against them, and makes mental retardation sound like a terrible thing which we should be afraid of.
Are autistic people the same as you and me?
This brings me to my next point. Just like your race, autism becomes part of your identity. Staring funny at people with autism can be compared with staring at someone with a different skin color. Autism should be looked at as just another characteristic in a person. Autistic people aren't exactly like us, but should be treated equally. They may have incredible qualities which you can learn from. Many autistic people are very caring, and fair-natured, and very kind with animals. We can learn from them, just how they can learn from us. We may not be exactly alike, but are equal.
MY research brought me to..
As said before, there are many forms of autism. One type is
asperger syndrome. Asperger syndrome is a less severe type of autism. It begins at a young age, when a child becomes obsessed with a story, toy, or object, and absolutely nothing else. Which later develops into a disease where people have very poor social skills. These people are usually very straight forward/ literal, and do not usually understand sarcasm. Also many people with asperger syndrome have wide vocabularies, but words/ actions are often poorly coordinated.
My personal experience with asperger syndrome is with one of my best friends little brother. He has asperger syndrome, and I didn't know how to approach him at first. Now, when I look back at that I think about how foolish that was. I ended up approaching him as I would with any other person. We ended up having an interesting conversation about prehistoric mammals.
My realization
Then, I realized, what they probably really want is to be treated like you and me. No one wants to be starred at, or made faces to. If autistic people are equal, we should start treating them more equally.
No more said.
I like how you organized this response by question and answer; this made your ideas very clear. This is such an interesting topic and the fact that you have a personal connection to it makes it more meaningful. You made a brilliant connection between autism and race - how both can sometimes be seen as negative differences; both of these are examples of intolerance vs. acceptance. Work on including relevant details from sources. It isn't clear to me whether or not you did research.
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