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My post on the death of Katherine McCarron, Weapons of Autistic Destruction: Violent Words and Violent Deeds attempted to connect the violent language too often used to talk about autism to actual, real violence done to autistic persons. I have especially noted metaphors of war, fighting, battle, destroying, and more used in regard to autism.
For instance,
And these closing sentiments from a message by the founders of Autism Speaks:
- Autism Speaks was born out of a single family’s experience—our family—but its goal is to give a voice to an entire community, to every family dealing with the hardships of autism. The journey that began a year ago in a doctor’s waiting room is now a march. In fact, at the end of our first year, we joined forces with the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), creating the largest single organization devoted to autism in the nation……. The pace is quickening, and, God willing, we won’t stop until we have conquered autism—one child, one voice at a time. [emphasis added]
In honor of Katherine McCarron Memorial Day, I will continue to document examples of “anti-autism” language here at AutismVox–them’s not just fighting words.
That’s violence.
