In a bid to explain why we should empathize as an autism rights movement with the plight of racial minorities and the LGBTQ in the West, I bring you a rough guide to the ways in which both perceived unintelligence or ignorance and perceived intelligence are weaponized against the "socially awkward" (a construction including those of us on the spectrum to varying degrees), people of color, and the LGBTQ and/or sexually awkward. I understand if it sounds SJW to the cynical, but I've put some shower thoughts on an unexpectedly clear weekend into this and think you may find some important insights. Unless we free society from judgments that twist our intelligence or lack thereof into something negative to be spun and ridiculed, we will ever be held back:
1) Unintelligent stereotypes:
a) socially adept cis white person (SAWCP) = everyman, the Joe 6-Pack and party girl everybody wants to be their friend
b) otherwise negative = idiot, pathologized as "ret*d," racialized as "lazy [insert minority]," or sexualized as "mindless club queen/slut"
2) Intelligent stereotypes, more heavily divided for those outside the SACWP privileged
a) socially adept cis white person (the positive one, rest negative) = hipster, the epitome of the cool elite, sometimes resented but seldom persecuted, the object to which I seek to hone my cultural intelligence if I can "pass" enough
b) nerd = awkward and more mathematical, meticulous, and linear than hipster, pathologized as "sperg," racialized as "Asian/Jewish scholarship grind/black acting white/Latinx not performing machismo/feminidad," or sexualized as "radical feminist/gay pride zealot/hentai pervert"
c) trickster = using deception but in a more nakedly selfish way than the hipster, or at least more easily caught; pathologized as "rude jerk," racialized as "wily Asian/Jew/affirmative action fraud whose birth certificate and credentials must be scrutinized does-this-remind-you-of-anything?," or sexualized as "closeted same-sex flirtation bomb/trans deceiver/creepy acquaintance Nice GuyTM"
d) savage = dangerous, unpredictable source of violation and destruction, pathologized as "psycho killer/shooter" (Adam Lanza), racialized as "thug/Yellow Peril" (Cho Seung-Hui), or sexualized as "pervert/predator/incel" (trans bathroom panic, Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos, Elliot Rodgers)
Trump's genius (here's the politics at last!), like so many authoritarians despite embodying the worst of the latter two categories of negatively constructed intelligence, has been to create a public image for his followers of the ultimate combo of everyman rough-and-tumble and pop culture meme maven from the safe vantage point of a rich straight white man, all the while exploiting every negative trope to his advantage. It is one reason the fate of democracy in America rests on turning out record numbers of people to vote out his lackeys in favor of a Big Blue Wave of scientists, people of color, LGBTQ, and badass women at every level of government below the presidency. Please vote people. [Gets off soapbox]
16 Sep 2018, 3:22 pm
