Privilege

Occasionally some particularly powerful tool for paradigm change erupts--something that shatters assumptions, removes filters, realigns biases, and massively swaps perspectives. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh, a checklist of items one can be assured of if they are white in the U.S. like "I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time," is one of those tools.

McIntosh's checklist has spawned other similar lists such as The Male Privilege Checklist, the Straight Privilege Checklist, and now, thanks to brilliant work on the part of Bev at Asperger Square 8 and many clever commenters, Neurotypical Privilege: A working document. Bev's original list starts out,

• I have never been asked to prove that I am neurotypical.
• I am allowed to use the word "we" without being accused of trying to speak for all neurotypical people.
• I can share my opinions publicly without fear of being accused of not really being neurotypical.
• I can assume that police officers will not become alarmed at my natural body language, and find it necessary to subdue me in advance of any wrongdoing.
• I can reveal to my boss and coworkers that I am NT, without fear of losing my job.
• I can assume that most restaurants, theaters, stores and other places I would like to go will not be so loud or brightly lit or crowded that I will become unable to function at a basic level.
• I can easily find other NT people in movies or on television shows that are not explicitly about being neurotypical.
• When people realize I am neurotypical, they do not ask me if I am like a particular character they have seen in a movie.
• I do not have to fear that important decisions about my life will be made by autistic or other non-neurotypical people, just because I am neurotypical.

and continues on for the first fraction of the page. The rest of a very long page is contributed items, continued in comments (many of them by some of you), and every one of those comments absolutely worth reading.

This importance of this checklist is not just as a wake-up call to anyone still sleeping in autism stereotypes. It is an illustration that autism issues are in essence minority issues, are civil rights, are human rights issues. If you read nothing else written by someone on the spectrum this year, read this list. (Thank you Bev and commenters!)