Are We Prejudiced Against NTs?

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I'm Deaf And have Aspergers, so I hate everyone...




Sorry, I couldn't resist. I am officially 50% deaf in both ears though, and have been diagnosed with Aspergers (double the communication difficulties). TBH one of the main reasons I don't become part of the Deaf culture is because I don't like the prejudiced attitudes. And they probably wouldn't accept me anyway since I'm 'partially hearing' lol.

If I thought the Autism world was going to go the same way I'd probably distance myself from that too. I don't have prejudices against anyone really, each person is an individual to be judged individually

Sometimes. The worst case scenarios seem to come when people isolate themselves from the outside world (even online, ironically) and begin to think that a variety of widespread traits, behaviors, etc, are exclusive to one group or definitive of a group. How do you know what anyone else does or is like if you just sit in your little echo chamber all day...?

Here is the video of the experiment. What the researchers say they are looking at is not for evidence of prejudice against blind/disabled people but actually testing the idea that non-disabled people don't know how to act around disabled people. Non-disabled people don't want to make assumptions about the disabled person's ability to cope or not and so do nothing unless it is very obvious the disabled person is having trouble. As you say, blind people generally dislike how sighted people think that blind people are totally unable to observe what's going on around them. In this video, it seems that the patrons are aware of that dislike and so don't want to overstep the boundary by assuming the blind man doesn't know what's going on. This video doesn't show prejudice against the disabled. It shows people trying very hard not to make unwarranted assumptions about somebody disabled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB5UC_ySWg0

I can't have a prejudice against you without knowing of anything I'd be able to judge you on, haha.

It was a simple misunderstanding of what you were saying on my part. I was misreading and thinking you were saying the NT people just didn't care about the food and drink being taken.

Now that I know that wasn't the case, what I said earlier just supports your case, seeing as the NTs were allowing the blind person to take care of themselves until it was shown as very obvious that the 'victim' in this case was not noticing the things being stolen.

Funny how you can write one thing one way and have someone read it another way, haha. I suppose this is the forum for that sort of thing to happen, though, lol.

I did not want to recommend the program by it's title as I feel it is a bit too tabloid. I doubt if there was too much research apart from how to make a viable program.
I feel there is a prejudice here, all that is required "Hello, she is stealing your wine." and the situation would be resolved. I find it hard to justify that they will have a conversation around him like he is not present.

Atomsk - Sorry I should have put one of these on the end of my last post. Maybe I made a little experiment myself.

It didn't look to me like they were talking about him like he wasn't there but rather that they were talking about him like he was out of earshot at another table- which he was. They could have said, "Hello, she is stealing your wine" immediately but that would have presumed that he couldn't tell what was going on, which as atomsk said is something that irks blind people (the assumption they can't tell what's going on). If I was in that restaurant I would have done the same- not done anything until it was quite clear that he didn't know.

Sorry, the woman who features most is asked by her friend "Did he notice", she replies "No, because he is blind." When the 'thief' is challenged the discussion is covering a wider area than the distance between the 'thief' and the blind man. He has been told not to react to any discussion, obviously any reaction on his part would show the method of the 'experiment' to be flawed.

I agree with Atomsk, people with limited sight or hearing are often treated this way and resent this. Most who are blind would know exactly what was going on in their immediate area.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 10 Jul 2013, 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Some Autistic people here and elsewhere are prejudiced against Neurotypicals, yes. However, people speaking from their personal experiences are sometimes mistaken for being prejudiced or bigoted, something that has happened to me in the past.

The majority of Neurotypical teenagers at my school are in some way abusive towards Autistic people. I have observed it, I have been a victim of their behaviour, and a significant number of other Autistic adolescents from a variety of different high schools have told me that they feel they've been bullied and/or excluded by Neurotypical teenagers.

So, would I be wrong to claim that the majority of Neurotypical teenagers are to some degree abusive towards Autistic teenagers?

Hello Kuribo, I do not think that anyone's experiences should be dismissed. The root of prejudice is to prejudge and that is not a feature of actual events that have taken place. The key is whether someone extrapolates that, as some NTs are bad, therefore all NTs are bad. There are some people in this world who are both nice and also happen to be NT.

Personally I take each person as an individual, some are able to behave much better towards other people, some are not. The probability is that as there are more NT types in the world, it is highly likely that you will encounter a larger proportion of NTs with poor social morals.

I also experienced bullying and abusive behaviour at school because I was not 'normal', AS was not common knowledge then, I had never heard of it. I'm afraid many people, either intentionally or sub-consciously choose not to accept those they see as different.

Thanks for responding. I'm against Aspie supremacy and other forms of bigotry, but it's very frustrating when people, both on and off WP, claim that those who draw valid (i.e. not claiming that all NTs are evil, or anything similar) conclusions based on their experiences are bigots.

My feelings:
All opinions are equally important. It's good to know how others think, even if you strongly disagree.
If you do disagree you can challenge them but remember it can be futile attempting to change the personal opinions of others, it may well be much more beneficial to ignore them and do something far more constructive.
People are quite often stubborn in nature, reluctant to change with the additional factor that those with AS are often more rigid in their thinking.
If you are confident that your opinions and actions are reasonable then try to live well, do good things and incorporate more pleasure into your life. This will carry you further than being concerned about the attitudes of others.

Yeah I think there is quite a bit of prejudice or bias in the ASD community towards NTs but that's okay IMO. Why? Because pretty much everyone has prejudices or biases and everyone makes generalizations. Airing it here, on a site for people like us, is a healthy way of dealing with it. It harms no-one, and it lets us blow off steam over bad experiences.
You won't find a single group/subgroup without prejudice towards other groups.

Online I think in terms of Nts and Aspies. IRL I sometimes find myself thinking "NTs!" scornfully when I'm not impressed with someone, but far more often I'll think "what an idiot!" or similar instead when someone says or does something really dumb. I make most real life judgement about individuals individual, but that doesn't stop me from still thinking in terms of groups (generalizations) at other times.

Someone mentioned discrimination earlier on this thread. Whether or not we discriminate is a matter of interpretation. We do in the way that no-one treats everyone the same. People are different and so your dealings with them will be at least somewhat different in each case.
As for real discrimination, no we don't. We can't; simple as that. To discriminate people in that way you must have real power. We don't. We can't make them feel small or insignificant, we can't make sure they don't get hired, we're not in a position to do any discrimination.

I've heard the same said in the U.S., of (actually, by) different races. But, I think anyone can potentially make anyone feel small, can be an employer in a hiring position at some point, etc. For instance I think it likely some people in high positions in tech fields could be Aspie.

I don't know that it happens often, but it possibly could.

The "social experiment" video is interesting to me because why is everyone in the cafe watching the one table and gossiping so intently? For all they know, the two people are friends and he actually does not mind the woman sampling his food or wine. That probably would've been my assumption on first glance but then I am not much for eavesdropping.

It reminds me of an American Tv show called "What Would You Do?" Clips of that are all over you tube. (Far as I know, there are no regional viewing restrictions.) The social experiments on that show are often a bit biased as far as how people are 'supposed' to feel - about immigration for instance. The man behind the show came to the U.S. illegally although he is a legal citizen now. So he tends to be very liberal socially. Like Michael Moore, his views are not hidden and to me, that taints any documentary endeavor.

But many of the social experiment videos from that series are very interesting. There are one or two involving a disability or compassion or someone taking advantage of someone who is blind. I will leave it to others to find those if they are interested.

Dear StarTrekker. It's good to see a young person trying to enquire into this kind of thing. Unfortunately most people are not interested in doing that, or, if they engage in it a little, are not able to go deep. You wrote:

I don't do it, but concerning those that do, I do not think that NT's really care, just as hearies do not really care.Sometimes it is necessary to kind of turn a question around to find the inner meaning and so be able to enquire from a new perspective, and when a person does that, it can change his own brain, and this can affect the entire world.

Good for you. Here is one thing--It is possible to know ones own brain is different without thinking about it as being different, which self-referenciil thinking surely does not allow the brain to function at optimum (in all its glory:-)


I think it is a self-protective device that is ultimately much more harmful to the people who are using it, and that is my concern. It really does not hurt NT"s that much, if at all, and one of the reasons they are in many ways functioning better than many aspies is that they are not going around thinking this kind of ridiculous stuff about other people. Of course there is racial prejudice and all kinds of cruel treatment of other people, but I do not see that this has anything at all to do with being aspie or NT. Some of both will do it. The point is not to do it oneself, and then other people will perhaps begin to learn from it.

The big distinction for me, and what begins to separate the men from the boys or the women from the girls, so to speak, is clear minded compassionate people who know how to think and are not caught up in a world of blaming, judging (including self-judging) and negative emotions. Of course if one is such a clear-minded person he would be more likely to associate with people like himself, as these others would try to drag him down into their pit, Also people with the same kind of brains and or from similar cultures might tend to stick together, as they understand each other, speak the same language, etc., so it is more enjoyable.

In all honesty I think it both sets a groups.

personaly dont think generalized beliefs shoud be applied to any group as wholes because autism does not make people have certain beliefs,but am thinking prejudice towards NTs is probably quite a common counter attack/defense to the abuse,bullying,discrimination etc suffered by autists.

given positive experiences with NTs woud probably bring up peoples individual judgements of them.