7:31am February 7, 2012

“I’m the last person to start a “No representation without communication” movement. But I’ve known enough people who have opposed what nondisabled people have to say on their behalf, and enough people who have opposed what more privileged disabled people have to say on their behalf, to be wary of anyone – anyone – who claims the right to speak on behalf of others chosen in part because of their presumed inability to consent. Especially when the constituency has to be repeatedly gerrymandered to exclude dissenters. Especially when the constituency’s reported interests strongly resemble what’s good for the spokesperson.”

—

Cal Montgomery

I love the description of what people do as gerrymandering(*).

She’s talking about that thing people do to autistic people among others. Where when our views differ from the dominant people’s views, they say “Well you can talk, you don’t have an opinion.” Then if you say you can’t talk, they move the boundaries again. And if you still don’t fit, they move it again. And again. So that we are always considered not autistic enough to have an opinion. Meanwhile nonautistic people, who are not only “not autistic enough” but not autistic at all, are allowed to have opinions. Yes, this makes no sense. Because it’s not about making sense, it’s about gerrymandering. About making sure they always have the power.

Which is also obvious when you see what happens if they don’t manage to kick you out of their definition of autistic enough: They’ll say you’re too autistic. That you lack empathy. That someone else is writing your words for you. That you’re being manipulated into saying what you’re saying. Etc.

Suffice to say it’s aggravating as hell. And it doesn’t just happen to autistic people, or even just to disabled people, it pretty much happens to any group of people who resist being spoken for by others.

(*) A word I had to look up – it means when people deliberately manipulate boundaries of segments of a town as used in political elections, so that the elections will come out in a certain way. For instance, I live in low-income housing, and people here are similar to the working-class neighborhood we live in. But for political purposes they divided us so our votes are counted with – and canceled out by – the rich folks on the hill bordering our neighborhood.

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