Why is it so rare...

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Why is Asperger syndrome so rare amongst black people? It could also be equally rare amongst Native Americans and Pacific Island races. Is this an indication that AS has its origins in genetics because certain races either don't have the genes for AS or are immune to the condition?

That mountain of political correctness known as the NAS continually rants that AS affects all races equally but the cynic in me says that if they speak the truth then they will lose most of their government funding. One of their counterarguments is that there is a lot of unreported AS amongst black and ethnic communities in Britain and a lack of knowledge and reporting in sub-Saharan Africa.

Is it? Did not know that.

Where do you get this information from? I have not seen any official statistics of AS distribution by race.

Current thinking is that there are both genetic and environmental elements, but until the cause(s) is (are) identified then it is still a grey area.

A lower number of cases seen in a specific race could be due to genetic or cultural differences.

It's safe to assume that in countries where health services are focused primarily on treatment of diseases and physical ailments, then AS cases will go unreported if they exist there.

I think this can be applied easily by demographic in the U.S. where social healthcare isn't the norm. It's a sad microcosm really.

Last edited by cberg on 07 Aug 2013, 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

What do you mean? I'm friends with TWO black guys on here and they have autism.

cberg - Which part?

Any part that is poor and either doesn't qualify for Medicaid, doesn't go through the trouble to get Medicaid, and doesn't get health insurance from their job.

From the time I was a small child until last year I had no insurance and my only health care was occasional visits to the emergency room when I was sick.

Sorry, I meant which part of my post can the reply be applied to. Probably a processing failure on my part but I do not understand what cberg is trying to say.

Experience obtained from many years of involvement in the AS community.

I also know a black teenager with an official diagnosis of high-functioning AS. He says that there are a number of black people around with classic Kanner type autism but high-functioning AS is a very rare condition amongst black people in Britain - and possibly other countries as well.

That is subjective, just because you have not met them does not mean they don't exist.

Actually Rdos, the owner of the neanderthaler theory explains this because of the neanderthaler genes.

You misread me. I didn't say that they don't exist. I said that it is rare.

If there are loads of black people with high-functioning AS in hiding then how do they manage to conceal themselves? Their AS traits would have been picked up at school in exactly the same way as with white kids and the psychologists and SEN officials informed of their presence. I'm in contact with a clinical psychologist who says that only once in a blue moon is a black kid with suspected AS ever referred to him or any other member of his team. The percentage of black people in his city is only slightly lower than the national average so it is unlikely to be the result of a lack of 'raw material' to start with. Even he questions whether AS affects some races more than others.

The teenager has lived in areas with a significant black population - including Leicester and Brent in London - and there were plenty of black kids in schools he attended. This results in him having experience relating to them on a day to day basis providing insight into the black community and its psychology. He denies any claims that AS traits are not picked up in black kids because of social factors. In fact he thinks that it's harder to be a black kid with high-functioning AS in a school with a significant number of other black kids than it is to be a white kid with high-functioning AS in the same school because the AS traits stand out more in their presence. His peer relationship with other black kids was generally worse than it was with white kids. His two brothers are NT and have quite conventional childhoods in comparison. He says that black people are on average more extroverted than white people and use more complex non-verbal communication, and these are most likely to be underpinned by genetics rather than social conditioning and expectations.

I replied to your original post with a several different possibilities that addressed the points you raised. You have picked the part that you don't like and ignored the rest. I don't want to continue this conversation as I feel it will not be productive.