To call them autistic or people with autism

[Whateverist]

Lemon, would it have been politically correct to have informed the instructor you preferred to be called a person with no fucks to give?

[Lemonvariable72]

Lemon, would it have been politically correct to have informed the instructor you preferred to be called a person with no fucks to give?

I nearly did. Thankfully everyone in my class hates this week, mainly because they're less socially adept then me even. Its fucking weird now that I think of it. They have all four classes in the school in the huge art room(its mostly a art school) seem to have clustered around us the software testers and all us geeks just stuck to one another. Meanwhile all the catty "artiste" types are on the other side of the room.

[Lemonvariable72]

While not having autism as you guys know I'm blind. I feel like pwd is trying too hard and invalidates my lived experience. Im a blind person. No it's not all I am but it's as much apart of me as my skin color or gender or sexual orientation. And no one calls me a person with blackness, a person with pansexuality, or a person with femaleness.

I was literally going to type the same thing in reponsd to king pin, but you hit the nail on the head.

[Kingpin]

While not having autism as you guys know I'm blind. I feel like pwd is trying too hard and invalidates my lived experience. Im a blind person. No it's not all I am but it's as much apart of me as my skin color or gender or sexual orientation. And no one calls me a person with blackness, a person with pansexuality, or a person with femaleness.

I was literally going to type the same thing in reponsd to king pin, but you hit the nail on the head.

I can certainly see that.  I think both ways have their merits and neither is wrong.  It really depends on the persons own feelings on the subject.  I can see BQ's point though.

[TrueChristian]

Ill go out on a limb and say "people with autism."

It just seems more dignified and does not reduce a person to just one thing they have.

Saying "person with autism" seems otherizes them somewhat less, and perhaps might not validate mistreatment of them in the same way.

The same reason that "Jewish person" is better than "Jew."

[Jenny A]

Ill go out on a limb and say "people with autism."

It just seems more dignified and does not reduce a person to just one thing they have.

Saying "person with autism" seems otherizes them somewhat less, and perhaps might not validate mistreatment of them in the same way.

The same reason that "Jewish person" is better than "Jew."

I disagree. I am a woman, middle-aged, white, atheist, American, dyslexic, and a variety of other things. None of them is my only defining feature. By saying a person of or blank person instead of just American, or dyslexic, or woman, you suggest that there's something objectionable about those traits. You also needlessly complicate the language and give everyone one more reason to be butt-hurt.

[MTL]

You can be tactful, sensitive, and compassionate when talking to/about someone without being politically correct. Truth should be said in love, but it should still be said.

Can't argue with that.

[Whateverist]

I guess I was a person who taught, not a teacher. I am a person who makes a garden, not a gardener. Of course these things were elective unlike my being a person with maleness.

[MTL]

BrokenQuill92 said:

While not having autism as you guys know I'm blind. I feel like pwd is trying too hard and invalidates my lived experience. Im a blind person. No it's not all I am but it's as much apart of me as my skin color or gender or sexual orientation. And no one calls me a person with blackness, a person with pansexuality, or a person with femaleness.

MTL said:

When you used the illustration, " A person with blackness " makes me think of the whole argument about "colour-blindness" and how some people called that phrase out as nothing more than well-intentioned bullshit;
saying that it is nonsense to be so politically-correct that you pretend not to see race at all;
that the point was not to deny reality or be disingenuous,
but rather to see race....yet not have it make any difference.

So it occurs to me that the lesson in this discussion is that it doesn't matter whether we use language that defines a person by a certain trait, or not;
because that trait may very well be a big part of their identity;

the lesson is that we not make assumptions or cherish biases BECAUSE of that trait.

You can say I'm a female, instead of a Person With Vagina...just don't be a chauvinist.

You can say someone is black, instead of a Person With Blackness...just don't be a racist.

You can say someone is Autistic, instead of a Person With Autism...just don't make assumptions about their limitations.

I have to say, though, that the term "disabled" always rankled with me.

This is because the term "disabled" doesn't simply refer to a person with a disability,
it also means something has been rendered non-functioning;

IE:  a disabled car or a disabled factory.

When applied to people, this is not only cruel, but highly-misleading.

Being female, being black, being Autistic....none of these words mean the same thing as "disabled".

But being a person with a disability does not, by any means, necessarily equate into being "disabled", either.

I have met many so-called "able" people who were helpless,

and I have met many persons with disabilities who were more self-reliant and capable than those without disabilities.

For example, I have frequently asked directions from "able" people and not received accurate information,
but I once stopped a blind man on the street in a strange city and asked for directions and he was able to give them very accurately indeed.


Was he blind?  Absolutely.

Was he disabled?  Certainly not.

[Lemonvariable72]

Ill go out on a limb and say "people with autism."

It just seems more dignified and does not reduce a person to just one thing they have.

Saying "person with autism" seems otherizes them somewhat less, and perhaps might not validate mistreatment of them in the same way.

The same reason that "Jewish person" is better than "Jew."

As strange as this may sound, I'm happy to autism. It gives me a ability to think inbways that people find difficult.