inherent knowledge that bigotry is wrong

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I grew up in a lot of small midwest towns where there were primarily white people. I heard a lot of racial slurs growing up, even in my own family. I always knew that this was wrong and not only that but I felt very hurt and upset when I heard people use these words to describe other people. It was the same with people who had some sort of brain disorder....the hurtful words that were used for these types of people were equally hurtful. I still get sick and upset when I hear these words of hate and ignorance. I still have to deal with bigotry and ignorance in my own family and it is very difficult for me. To me people are simply people and it is illogical to judge a person as bad because of the color of skin, type of religion or learning disability or brain disorder. There are good people and there are not so good people but I judge people by their actions only.
After my diagnosis a few years ago (Im 43 now) I thought that it was an Asperger's thing. That I had the ability to see these things as wrong or maybe that I was treated so bad as a child that I understood. However, I have found that there are many Aspies who are also very bigoted. So my question is, are most Aspies like me or not?

I don't know if most autistic people are like you. It seems to me that they run the gamut.

I do hold similar views, though. There are others who post here who also hold similar views.

I have more thoughts on this, but I can't properly assemble them right now.

Edited: I've seen excellent anti-oppression/bigotry analysis and discussion from autistic people on every part of the spectrum. One whose writing shaped how I personally talk about these things is definitely not Aspie.

Last edited by Verdandi on 02 Feb 2011, 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As far as I can remember, I've always had the knowledge that bigotry was wrong. I don't know where it comes from, as my parents only ever paid lip-service to tolerance and are actually pretty discriminatory themselves. Maybe it comes from the fact that I was often bullied as a child (when you yourself are victim of blind ignorance and hatred, you tend to recognise it more easily), or maybe because I'm gay (and thus have always felt I was different than the others, even when I was a little child. When you feel that you are so different from others despite being superficially just like them, superficial differences just haven't got much meaning then).
It may also come from the fact that I am actually blind to superficial differences between people (which may or may not have something to do with autism). I tend not to notice differences between people. I see them, but I don't really register them. I remember the case of one of my husband's best friends. After meeting that person about once a week for three months, I was surprised to hear that he had a very obvious handicap: he cannot walk normally, due to leg issues. Until my husband told me that, I had never noticed!

So I understand exactly what you mean, but like you I have no idea where my innate revulsion for bigotry comes from. I can't say it comes from my education, so your guess is as good as mine...

I understand what you are saying and have given it a lot of thought over the years also. It is one of the most positive things that I have always thought about myself and probably the number one thing that upsets me about others. I don't know if I've ever thought of it as an aspie thing, only that, atleast for me, it makes sense in terms of my black and white / logical thinking.

At my current work I am having issues with this at the moment. There are many people there who are racist, homophobic and also say absolutely disgusting things about people with disabilities. In the moment when something is said I have this massive feeling in me that I need to stand up and tell them that they are a disgrace.... But my verbal skills and processing speed are poor and I end up just standing there in disbelief. It happens so frequently at my work that I have begun to "practice" what I will say the next time it comes up so that I am ready.

One more thing. It may fit "rule bound" aspies very well I imagine. These aspies follow the rules, have a strong sense in general of what is right and wrong and find it very hard to act in a way that puts this into conflict. I'm one of these. I made for an exceptionally well behaved child though

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I've got mixed views on this. I wouldn't tolerate anybody being attacked simply for being different, but I have no great problem with separatism, and it's possible that animosity between different groups is an important social glue. I don't know where I'd be without my bigoted views on "the bankers" and right wing politicians and activists. I don't want certain groups anywhere near me, and I resent any suggestion that I should be more inclusive. I compare myself to some of those groups, and tend to conclude that I've got it sussed better than they have.

But some folks take bigotry to another level, and would willingly harm individuals just because they're not on their wavelength, or because the politicians have allowed them into "their" country. It takes a clear head to know the difference between recognising that the government uses immigration to keep our wages low, and thinking that the individual migrant is somehow to blame. I've always been quite shocked at how paranoid some folks can be - back in the 1970s my fiancee was horrified when I suggested we bought a house from a black guy. I had to back down because she was adamant about it and because our friends accepted her point of view. I still don't understand what she thought the danger was.

I think Aspies and Autistic people tend not to be bigots nearly as much as NTs. This observation is based on experience, including my own. My family (particularly my Grandma), came from a time when bigotry was (sadly) the accepted norm, and they tried to instill that in me. However, it backfired because I went to an all-Jewish elementary school, and a nearly all-Black high school. Most all of my friends were either Jewish, Black, or later Gay, as I was one of the few who accepted Gay people as normal just like me. Being logical-minded, I couldn't see all these alleged faults that I was told were there, so I dismissed them, and I find it very wrong to be bigoted. I go by experience, and in all my years, the only people who cheated me or did me wrong, were straight white men. Just saying...

Charles

I'm not sure I'd say it's a general tendency among autistic people. I have seen a lot of prejudice on this board towards disabled people, fat people, women, people of color, gay people, trans people, and lots of others. Sometimes I think autism can make people more frank about their bigotry or privilege when it does exist. Not that all autistic people are like that, just that I've seen all extremes on here and other autism forums.

Based on my experience, I think it can go either way. People with AS seem to have a strong sense of morality, which could lead them to view bigotry as wrong. On the other hand, we tend to think in black and white, which could lead some people to think straight = good, gay = bad, for instance. Then, of course, you need to factor in the persons upbringing.

I am always really disappointed and upset when I hear someone say something bigoted. Especially if the person is some I generally like. Sometimes my dad winds me up by saying something bigoted, because he knows it will get me started on one of my rants. He doesn't really hold those views though, I hope. Although, one of the most bigoted people I know is likely an undiagnosed aspie.

I always thought there was something about me that gave me inherent knowledge of prejudice, intolerance, etc. is wrong.

We grew-up in a largely white area, never saw a black person growing up, and then only saw Indian or Chinese people when we got take-away. My father was very racist, he was German, my mother is English, and he seemed to think we English were too tolerant of non-whites, he once had me parading around with a golliwogg telling people to look at his English daughter who loved 'those blacks', and he was eventually fired for calling an African doctor a "black b*stard". It always struck me as strange that I didn't share those views despite growing-up with that sort of bigoted, ignorant, prejudice, nonsense, to me people are people and we're all very different...and that's more than okay, it's super!

When I discovered asperger's I believed this was an aspie thing too.
I think it's safe to say that most of us are not bigoted or prejudice.

Although there are aspies and autistic people who are ignorant bigoted SOB's I think they're still a little different from NT's. I think NT's are a little more likely to be prejudice because society or the culture they're raised in encourages it, ASD's I think are more likely to be bigoted for other reasons, such as a general hatred of people. Those ASD's who I've seen to shown themselves to be bigoted seem to be that way almost as an anti-social statement, where they seem to go out of their way to be offensive and to distance themselves from others by being so bigoted.

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.