I recently read a post over at TheMedium.com where the author stated nine reasons why Neurotypicals (NT) don’t like people with Autism. I don’t really agree with her basic premise that most NTs just don’t like us. Yes, I do come across some of those types, but for the most part, NTs just don’t care to know much about us. They have enough troubles of their own.

Going on the attack against them is not the way to get NTs to understand and eventually accept us for who we are. That takes patience and persistence. We need to educate them not ridicule them for their ignorance. Ridicule just isn’t productive in this matter or any other.

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Here comes some serious criticism, so hold on to something. It might surprise you that my criticism is against some neurodiverse (ND) folks, especially those I too often find at the medium.com. Sometimes I just want to scream

It’s not always about you!

For the most part, I doubt that NTs spend much time even thinking about those of us who are different from them. They don’t hate us, they just ignore us as not relevant to their lives. Yes, Our intensity sometimes frightens them, but they get over it soon enough after we are out of their space.

I’m not looking for anyone to tell me how great I am because of my Aspie traits, but I do kinda feel special because of them. I’m not looking for special treatment because I am different. When I look back at history, I see many so many others who were treated much worse than we are.

I lived in the 1940s and 50s where the color of your skin made people hate you. I often think of that picture at the Brown vs Board of Education Memorial site of the young girl with hate in her heart towards someone she didn’t even know who just wanted an education. I often wonder what kind of life that young woman had after the hateful moment when the picture was taken?

I also lived in a time, and in some cases it is still here, that who you love brought wrath, bitterness, and sometimes beatings. There were even times when, because of your sex, you were treated as a second class citizen, to be owned by your husband.

When you put it in perspective, being misunderstood by the majority doesn’t begin to rise to the problems that so many people had in the past. Does that mean I don’t want people to understand why I say and act as I do? Certainly not, but when education and calls for understanding don’t work, it’s not worth my time to spend trying to further change them. There has always been prejudice and worse for people who are different from the majority and there always will be.

Instead of moaning about being misunderstood, I want to celebrate the times when those in the herd of life, “get” us and have a little understanding of our ways.