To call them autistic or people with autism

[bennyboy]

So I'm sitting in a communications class that is a week long, for college. And of course something that came up was political correctness. Now the example of autism came up and the teacher asked about this example "what is better, to call someone with autism autistic, or say they are a person with autism." Now I am autistic and I spoke up and said, " I said I have high functioning autism and I prefer to be simply called autistic, because it is short and to the point." I got told I was wrong and that it is better to call them a person with autism. The teacher ( who is actually very good) then went on to explain about calling learning disabled kids in elementary and Jr high exceptional instead of disabled. That is downright stupid because these kids (I lived it) have a hard enough time being taken seriously and getting the help they need, without a patronizing softening of the language to make things seem more positive then they are. I say, call a spade a spade.
Your thoughts?

All these euphemisms are clearly patronizing, and ironic to boot.  The words are meant to enable those with hardships in life-- by saying "Don't worry, buddy!  I will protect you, so you won't have to stand up for yourself." However, I'm pretty sure that a mentally retarded person will be aware enough to know that "special" or "exceptional" are really just words that imply incapacity for them to fend for themselves.  All the special protections and walking-on-eggshells just reminds a person, all the damned time, that they are different.

At any rate, real insult is in the intent.  A cruel child can say "special" in a way that will crush another's soul: "Nah nah na na nahhhh, you ride the special bus, cuz you are so 'spe-ciaaaalll.'"  A tolerant person can say "retarded" in a way that shows acceptance of the human being, as in "That retarded boy next store made this cup for me.  Isn't it lovely?"

There was a special class in my elementary school, and we played together during recess.  Nobody really gave a shit what class they were from.  One kid had ridiculous big ears (that was me), one kid had slanty eyes (she was from Vietnam), one kid was really fat, one kid had gap teeth, one kid was Mexican (my best friend), one kid was clumsy as shit, and a couple kids were mentally retarded (severe Downs Syndrome).  We played with each other, got mad at each other, and insulted the fuck out of each other, all the time.  Yes, the retarded guys were pretty dumb in some ways-- you wouldn't go to them to help with math homework, for sure. However, they were also good at stuff, and a couple of them were uproariously funny. To me, that's about as equal as equal gets.

As for your teacher: what a retarded cunt she is. They're going to tell an autistic person what he/she should or shouldn't be called? That's like a white professor deciding what it's okay to call black people.