Discrimination, Advocacy, and the Sacred Anger

Pupil with Asperger's syndrome rejected by school relates the story of Alex Goodenough in the UK who was denied appropriate schooling. The school refused to send applications, lied about classes being full, and repeatedly rejected Alex's applications despite his clear qualifications. The school has since been taken to a tribunal, lost, and issued an apology to Alex. Alex has also been given conditional admission to prestigious Cambridge University. However, this is what I want to focus on (emphasis mine):

The schoolboy said he used the school's refusal as motivation and achieved As in three maths subjects and some physics modules. Now he is at another school, studying for the practical physics exam, which he could not take while learning from home and is a condition of his offer from Trinity college, Cambridge.

He said: "Maybe my story at least shows people that even if institutions put this bar up and won't help you and give you an environment where you can be comfortable, at least with enough work and luck you can still do well." Jan Goodenough, Alex's mother, said: "If somebody causes damage to another human being in terms of injury or damaging their career there's compensation, but for special educational needs people there's nothing. It took an enormous amount of time and effort. The only reason I did it was I knew it was so wrong and I wanted justice."

This takes me back to when I was the same age as Alex, and all but a few had given up on me. Institutional placement was being discussed and I was out of chances, out of options, out of balance. Then a switch flicked over; I recall vividly the moment it struck me, I will prove everyone wrong. I will succeed where they say I will fail, and show them how wrong they are. What I call the "sacred anger" flared in me for the first time.

That was the start, the fuel, the fire of my self-advocacy. I've never let go since.

Decades later I was chatting with a friend who is also a strong self-advocate about how we each got started on the path. His story, while some details were different, in essence was identical to my story, and to the story Alex Goodenough relates in the quote above. Perhaps there is a point of oppression or discrimination where one either dies out or the flames of that sacred anger ignite. And if the latter, woe to anyone who stands in our way!

As fierce as this may sound, it is my greatest hope that future generations of self-advocates never have to feel that rage, never have to use the sacred anger, never have to be motivated by discrimination or rejection. As society changes to better understand, accept, respect, and accommodate us, a gentler path to expressing one's needs can open.

For the self-advocates out there, what got you started? Was it a reaction to oppression or discrimination, or something else?

(As a side note, the very bottom of the article includes a bit of errata, "This article was amended on Monday 20 April 2009 to remove the phrase "suffered from Asperger's" as the Guardian stylebook discourages the uses of such phrases in stories about disability." BRAVO Guardian!)