Do certain cultures despise Aspies?

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The reason I think minorities are nicer is they know what it is like to be different from other people. Either that, or they're up to something, lol.

Probably because you are female. The people I come in contact with are on the job. Black people have been fired from jobs for s**t they do say to me. One of them was caught rigging a $85,000.00 machine to break when I operated it just so he could laugh at me. I also get harrass by black employees of different businesses I have gone to in stores, resteraunts, hospitals, and when I was in the military. I do not say anything to them they just seem to know to make my life hell. The same with white people I could be sitting there minding my own business when they walk up and f@ck with me. Then they act suprised when I hit them.

Last edited by Todesking on 28 Jan 2012, 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That sounds like the kinds of things that would happen to me in grade school and nearly everyone was caucasion there.

Bit of a risky topic here...

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm simultaneously surprised and unsurprised about what you've heard about South and East Asia concerning attitudes toward autism. Surprised, because earlier threads and posts on WP spoke of the percentage of autistic people in East Asia being relatively high when compared to the rest of the world (for unknown reasons).

Unsurprised, because East Asian cultures are indeed very much concerned with hierarchy, and placing community before individuality, and a fairly sophisticated and complicated set of social rules and cues, both verbal and non-verbal. So, it would follow that someone with autism would struggle and stumble a lot in an East Asian society.

However.

I was born into a Eurasian family (from the maternal side), and most of the values and social interactions that we hold dear originate in East Asia, to be precise, in Indonesia and China. For me, it was very warm and comfortable to grow up in this particular family. And later, meeting other Indonesian-Dutch mixed people, but also full-blooded Indonesians from Indonesia, I find it relatively easy to move among the crowd. Partly because the culture is familiar to me, and partly because I experience that they are not shocked when I'm a bit more quiet and aloof, because I find East Asians in general (consciously generalising here, now) tend to be of the quiet and aloof persuasion, or if they aren't, at least have an understanding and respect for it.

I have experienced much the same in my encounters with Chinese, and perhaps most notably, Filipino's.

I worked at a factory for six months. The factory was culturally and ethnically very diverse. There were Caribbeans, Surinamese, Filipina's, Chinese, Nigerians, Ghanese, Iranians, Pakistani's. I was quiet about my autism with most people, though some -mostly higher-ranked- were aware, and they didn't disrespect me for it. They saw I was putting effort in my work, and judged me on that.
There was another colleague who had a different psychological disorder, and all the colleagues, without exception, treated him with the greatest respect.

But I do believe that it makes sense if cultures that are more community-minded and less individualised, are more easily put-off by autistic 'symptoms'. I have experienced things that indicate this, but it's all too inconclusive to share with you guys here, and it goes against my general opinion that actual prejudice toward anyone who has a disorder or a handicap is not tied to culture.

I wish work effort got more respect where I live. Social skills seem to be prized above everything else, so, someone who stands around talking instead of working is valued over someone who is quiet yet works diligently. I have had jobs where I am the only one working and everyone else just stands around and talks to each other, gossips, whatever. It's really annoying.

Well, it was not exactly ideal where I worked, and I'm also not saying that my autism was entirely unnoticed (though I didn't tell most colleagues it was autism). Some of my colleagues felt put off by me for my unusual quiet and aloofness); but in this case, the divide between those who accepted me for it and those who had problems with me was not along the lines of culture or ethnicity.

But I can get behind your experience with regard to people from different backgrounds responding differently to autism. I think the observation makes sense.

Yeah, I hate those diatonic people.

(Musicians will get it.)

I prefer the quiet atmosphere over the noisy one when concentrating. I feel there is a time for socializing and a time for working and everyone should be working when it is time for work, not wasting time in conversation. Socializing is fine, but not when we are being paid to do a job. I felt like the people talking were not pulling their weight and I was stuck with twice the workload because I was staying quiet and working.

Bush 2 said Australia reminded him of Texas I think he may be right

I'm Korean born and I can tell you for a fact that mental illness is very poorly understood there.
Also it's a very hyper-social culture where everyone feels entitled to get all up in your business. There are all kinds of social protocols that must be followed or you will face severe backlash.
I think any culture that has super high concentration of people living in small geographical space will tend to be extra demanding in terms of social behaviours.

Ah. I see I'm not the only one who's been told by Native Americans that autistics tend to end up with respected tribal roles such as shamans. The groups that tend to make fun of me most tie for the lead: African-American women and Caucasion men. Rarely have Asians ever made me feel bad. Or Native Americans.

I'm a bit perplexed by the idea that autistics (aspergers) would be looked down on in east Asia, as most characteristics we social-oriented Westerners associate with that condition (aloofness, logic, unexpressiveness) is basically the norm over there.
I'd rather think that the average overbearing, forthcoming, aggressive NT would be the one looked down on over there.

Most of them.

They also sit in front of mmorpg's for 300hours straight+

Also their quite useless at sport

Look at Japan it has plenty of snow and mountains and nealry 20 times the population of Switzerland and get less winter games medals than CH.

Interesting, I'm mixed but other mixed people seem to be more nasty towards me.

Not sure if you've ever seen the Hangover Part 2, but the opening scene shows the Thai father of the bride at a banquet near Bangkok, expressing his disdain for his learning-disabled brother - he says something like "he is away from this celebration at a group housing for the learning disabled" with a cruel chuckle.