Autistic CALD women - being seen and heard

 

The late Jewish American feminist author Michelle Haimoff once wrote, “Black women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see Black women. White women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see women. White men wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see human beings.”

This sums up the experience of many Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) people, especially Women of Colour, living in Australia. We are defined by our differentness in a society which places whiteness and maleness at the centre and at the helm. For undiagnosed CALD Autistics, the path to discovering our Autistic identities is clouded by the way we are seen by society, which ultimately penetrates our own psyches. CALD women are made to feel that race, culture and gender are our ultimate immutable differences, that all our thoughts, actions and attributes are conditioned by these differences, that we are extensions of this otherness, forever on the outer, foreigners first, women second and human beings third.

Relatively few CALD women have sought or shared Autism diagnoses. When we experience social differentness, we are made to feel that our “otherness” as migrants, or the children of migrants, is at work - that we became shy because of English language difficulties or our traditional upbringing, that we are geeky because our families value education, that we struggle with sport because we were over-protected or we experience meltdown or overload because we are hysterical, brown and female and nothing more can be expected of us.

If Autistic CALD women ever see past these labels, and notice some inborn social or information processing difference, we may miss the opportunity to self-diagnose, or seek professional diagnosis, because of a dearth of information on the internet and in literature about how Autism is expressed in CALD adults, especially non-white women. We have different life experiences, ethnic cultures and intersectional issues, all of which interplay with our neurobiological uniqueness. While there is a very welcome movement to highlight the female presentation of Autism, what appears in literature and many internet searches is still overwhelmingly based on a typically young white male, or sometimes Anglo female, Autistic presentation. Disappointingly, as Autistic CALD women, we are still triply invisible. The research and public discussion about Autism just hasn’t caught up with our needs or existence.

None of the blame lies at the feet of white or male Autistic self-advocates. All have done a fabulous job in challenging stigma and driving the Autistic voice forward. As a late diagnosed Autistic, I am indebted to all Autism-positive self-advocates for their sharing of information and courageous leadership.

The voice of experts however is still very prominent. Experts are typically drawn from privileged sectors who have access to higher education and professional networks – thus experts bring an overwhelmingly white Anglo focused, often male focused, perspective to our understanding of Autism. Broadening this perspective relies on two things – breaking down socioeconomic barriers to enable more diverse people to gain professional expertise and encouraging Autistics from diverse ethnic backgrounds, especially women, girls and non-binary people, to be seen and heard.

In her 1981 speech to the Ohio Arts Council, the late Black American author Toni Morrison declared: "If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

Well let’s just start with a blog post and see where it leads….