I think probably because they're scared.  They fear that which they don't understand, and they definitely don't understand our way of looking at the world.  Different races, colours, cultures, languages and religions all have a common basis in human experience up until now.  But we AS people have historically been ostacised from the group, or at best, tolerated for what we can give to the society we live within (or on the outskirts of!)
I wrote a story which has been published by Andromeda Spaceways and which I donated to the writer's area of this site, about the last Neurotypical human left on earth, and how frustrated he was with his lonely existence, even though there was a vibrant and energetic AS population living all around him.  I felt quite sorry for him, but still hope that this is what the future holds in store!
Alison

Thats a good point. Its illegal to discriminate against others based on race, religious beliefs etc but it certainly isn't if one is neuro atypical. (aspies/auties). Its one of the last areas of discrimination remaining and they take full advantage of the fact.

I forgot to tell you I'm the only aspie at school.

Hence why we need to be declared a minority group

I recently saw a 'Racial Diversity' poster/wall painting which said "Different on the outside, but the same on the inside".

I immediately thought of an appropriate 'Neuro-Diversity' slogan: "The same on the outside, but different on the inside".

Great slogan, but I just can't copy off it.  That's plagarism.  Perhaps I could tweak it a little bit more so nobody knows where it came from?

Great idea.  Perhaps I could write a "shame on you"-based poster.

It needs to be quickened.  How many more people have to be abused, defamed and suffer "treatment"?

Try this: "There was one aspie who was lonely even though he had a thriving NT community round him. I felt sorry for him but hope this is what lies in store?"

The slogan is a good idea, but with that particular one people might get the wrong idea. They might mistake it for a warning or pity-piece about how autistics are mentally ill.

No! Please no. Having one thing in common does not give people a kinship or make them a community.

There are certain black people who claim there is a 'black community' and 'black culture', even though black people live all over the world in many different circumstances, and have different opinions, values, fortune and culture.

And it's only led to certain groups of black people in America segregating themselves, and black children being bullied by the other black kids if they 'act white'.

We need integration. Closing ranks just can't be an option.

Your classmates do, but it doesn't take a genius to see that the media doesn't, governments don't and a proportion of the general pblic don't. When was the last time you saw a fat person fall in love in a film or on TV, without his or her weight being made into an issue?

I was called: 'disabled', 'mad', 'crazy', 'spaz', and some Black children called me 'White' (I'm Black). It was horrible.

At my old school, we would celebrate Jeans For Genes day, which was to raise money for people with genetic disorders. We would wear our jeans and pay a pound.

I remember telling my LSA that we should do one for people with Asperger's. Ever since, this LSA, Sally, is my only true friend. We could talk about my AS.

You have my permission to use it (just don't copyright it to yourself! Ta). I am fed up with people assuming that everyone else is the same 'on the inside'. It isn't true for us and it isn't even true for NTs. They only think it's true. The mere fact that there is a world of different cultures and religions gives the lie to that particular fantasy.

NTs may think more like echother than they think like us; we may think more like eachother than we think like them. But each of us is an individual with our own individual views, beliefs, experiences and hopes. The worst abuses occur when people with power think that they know what other people are thinking - or ought to be thinking!

I remember seeing a comedy about it, but I can't remember the name.

Defamation is extremely common in the Australian community, especially at school.  And many people around here think of it as a disease that needs to be cured.  I also agree with Bario that they aren't truly cultural diverse if they don't accept people with autism.

Good for you, on starting a campaign for the recognition of neurodiversity!  

Part of the difficulty in Australia may be that so many people here actually believe the crap they're fed by the Murdoch press and commercial television.  The popular media line is still "autism'" = "handicapped children", and we get images of kids in wheelchairs (!?!) and the story of the poor dad who had to invest in a tall fence to stop his autistic son from escaping.

We need more adults, and particularly those who have made a name for themselves, to come out of the closet about their autistic traits.  The legalised persecution of gays (or "poofter-bashing" as some Aussies so charmingly call it) only began to stop when some well-known or at least respected people came out of that closet.

Right now the National Gallery in Canberra is raising money to buy a landscape painting by Paul Cezanne.  Now, of all famous painters, Cezanne is one most likely to have been aspie.  Check out the details of his life; and he never quite got the hang of painting portraits, asking one sitter to 'sit like an apple - does an apple move?'  But above all his paintings are about communicating his particular way of seeing, where every point in the visual field is equally important. Many other artists, from Picasso onwards, took up this vision; but I suggest it was Cezanne who started it.  How would this look in the media - "Taxpayers pay millions for painting by aspie"?

(Re coming out of the closet, my real name's David Cooke and I'm a botanist with the Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, South Australia)

LOL.  We should have taken up football when we had the chance.

Was it called The Girl Most Likely To..?

Umm, touchy subject there, Marcia.  I'm not an immigrant: I was born here, thank you.  So were my parents and grandparents.
Alison

You should take a look at this:

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/hippychixshop_2035_1420448

There is some language, but I think you might find it funny none the less.

I need somebody to take over my job.  Causes too many arguments.  I'm serious enough to not stop it completely, but to pass it on.  Even worse, I'm "growing out" of aspieness and I'm trying to force it back into me!

I just wish to point out that I live in the City of Greater Dandenong, a place where people from over 200 countries live.  It's an immigrant's town and I'm the most bullied person at school (I'm the only aspie around here).

Anyway, Australia only thinks it has respect for cultural diversity. It is sickening the number of times that I have been in conversation with white people who think that, as I am white, it is safe to assume that I am as racist as them. They then spout hateful rubbish expecting me to agree with them. Which I don't. They then react as if I have tricked them into saying such things...

Excuse me!? I live in a town where over 80 languages are spoken!  I'm starting with my own hometown.

Tigger_the_Wing Wrote:

Anyway, Australia only thinks it has respect for cultural diversity. It is sickening the number of times that I have been in conversation with white people who think that, as I am white, it is safe to assume that I am as racist as them. They then spout hateful rubbish expecting me to agree with them. Which I don't. They then react as if I have tricked them into saying such things...

Excuse me!? I live in a town where over 80 languages are spoken!  I'm starting with my own hometown.

It is the respect for cultural diversity that is missing, not the actual cultural diversity (except in Canberra). There were children from 153 different cultures in my children's primary school in Adelaide, but precious little respect.

Since I've come to Canberra the racism is even more apparent. The capital cities of most countries is where you'd expect to find the most racial diversity but Canberra is almost exclusively white.

Whereabouts in Canberra do you live, Tigger?  I'm in Gungahlin, and in my street alone, starting in my own house, is my husband: Indian Ocean islander and myself (yes, okay so I'm of Scottish descent originally!)  and our daughter.  

The family next door to us are mixed Aborigine/Torres Strait islander, and their two sons, *big* muscular guys.

Directly across from us are a family from Egypt, with their little boy Omaid who I had in my class at work.  

In the next house up, a family of Tamils from Fiji who were originally from India.  Next to them are a family from India (they tend to be a bit racist, I've noticed, they don't get on with the Fijian Tamils: I was talking to Anusha and she told me they have "barbecues where they cook goats".  I thought it sounded quite tasty and said so, so now she's not so keen on my, either!)

Then there's the nice old couple sharing a house behind us with their married daughter and son-in-law, they're from Nigeria, very quiet and the father-in-law delivers advertising in local letterboxes to make spare cash.  

It's probably safest to say that in this one street alone, the number of people of European descent is pretty low, with only myself and another family down the road who I don't know very well but who have broad "Strine" accents.

I like living here in Canberra.  I had a lot of rascism directed at me in my home town in the Riverina growing up, because I *wasn't* of Italian descent, which the majority there were.  I couldn't get a job because I didn't have Italian as a second language.  It's one of the reasons I wanted to come to the city.  I'm not saying Canberra is perfect, by any means: we've had a few nasty incidents due to being in a mixed marriage, but it certainly is getting better.  We've been together now for 23 years, and attitudes *are* changing for the better, no matter how slowly.

Alison

That's what I'm speaking of.

Tigger_the_Wing Wrote:

Since I've come to Canberra the racism is even more apparent. The capital cities of most countries is where you'd expect to find the most racial diversity but Canberra is almost exclusively white.

Whereabouts in Canberra do you live, Tigger?  I'm in Gungahlin, and in my street alone, starting in my own house, is my husband: Indian Ocean islander and myself (yes, okay so I'm of Scottish descent originally!)  and our daughter.  

The family next door to us are mixed Aborigine/Torres Strait islander, and their two sons, *big* muscular guys.

Directly across from us are a family from Egypt, with their little boy Omaid who I had in my class at work.  

In the next house up, a family of Tamils from Fiji who were originally from India.  Next to them are a family from India (they tend to be a bit racist, I've noticed, they don't get on with the Fijian Tamils: I was talking to Anusha and she told me they have "barbecues where they cook goats".  I thought it sounded quite tasty and said so, so now she's not so keen on my, either!)

Then there's the nice old couple sharing a house behind us with their married daughter and son-in-law, they're from Nigeria, very quiet and the father-in-law delivers advertising in local letterboxes to make spare cash.  

It's probably safest to say that in this one street alone, the number of people of European descent is pretty low, with only myself and another family down the road who I don't know very well but who have broad "Strine" accents.

I like living here in Canberra.  I had a lot of rascism directed at me in my home town in the Riverina growing up, because I *wasn't* of Italian descent, which the majority there were.  I couldn't get a job because I didn't have Italian as a second language.  It's one of the reasons I wanted to come to the city.  I'm not saying Canberra is perfect, by any means: we've had a few nasty incidents due to being in a mixed marriage, but it certainly is getting better.  We've been together now for 23 years, and attitudes *are* changing for the better, no matter how slowly.

Alison

We're in Weston Creek.

Your neighbourhood sounds a bit like the mix of friends I had in Adelaide! Again, a huge White (mainly Italian) contingent. But our current neighbourhood is almost exclusively European / European Australian.

If you are that close, it's a shame you couldn't join us for the Questacon outing! Perhaps next time?

My family is a mix of English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, German, Greek, Canadian, Iranian and South Korean people...

SR, I think that you will have to be patient and wait until you are older before you can do much. It is better to behave in a sensible, mature manner and concede to your parents' wishes just as long as you are in their house. Who knows? Maybe, by being calm and showing that you can do everything you are capable of, you will earn their respect. If you can earn the respect of your family that is a good starting point to earn the respect of wider society because your family will be on your side.

The quickest way to lose the respect of family (and others) is to accuse them of being repressive and not understanding or respecting you! Generations of teenagers before you have found out that rebelling is a shortcut to disrespect. No parent likes to be told, by the children they've sacrificed everything for, that they are 'curebie'!

If you are a minor, it is your father's responsibility to watch over you; if you were to break a law, the fine would come out of his pocket. If anything bad were to happen to you, he could be charged with neglect; and it would be his heart that would be breaking!

PLease try to stop seeing your parents as 'the enemy' but as potential allies instead. Accept your responsibilities with good cheer (school attendance, homework, household chores, personal hygiene) and then they may be ready to grant you more rights!

Bravo!  Well done, spectrum_rights!
Alison

Anyway, theres no respect for anyone at school regardless of culture, background, ethinicity etc. Its a case of the strong survive. Almost a case of Darwinian evolution.

Depends how good the school is (and most importantly, how decent the head teacher is)

Excellent article, and well written! I'm glad to see positive a positive article out there in favor of Neurodiversity.

Think of them as collectors editions!
Alison

By not hiding who we are.  We need to let people know that Autism doesn *not* equal the stereotypical "sitting-in-a-corner-rocking-and-drooling" version that so many organisations portray.  Most NTs react with a great deal of surprise when I tell them of my dx.  If they get to know us and then find out that we are AS they can realise that we're just another facet of the great neurodiversity that makes up the human species.  
Alison

Yep!  Spot on, Alison.

• Look Me In The Eye, by John Elder Robison.  Published by Bantam
  
• Through The Eyes of Aliens, by Jasmine Lee O'Neill, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  
• Nobody Nowhere, by Donna Williams, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  

• AUTIE - Someone with autism.
  
• ASPIE - Someone with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism.
  
• CUREBIE - Someone that has the desire to eradicate autism.
  
• NEUROTYPICAL - A non-autistic person.
  

I think your article is well-written, and I wonder whether it might not benefit from the omission of this paragraph.  As Lewis Carroll died in 1898, he cannot have been diagnosed with AS, and I don't know on what basis you claim that he was known to be autistic.

Personally, I'm uncomfortable and quite sceptical about post-humous claims that various renowned people were Aspie or Autie, and I think that this claim distracts slightly from what you're saying in your article.