Blackness x Neurodiversity VI: Autistic People and Social Communication
Are we really sure that autistic people “can’t” or “don’t” understand social cues? Or is that just ableism affecting our understanding of autistic people?
Something that’s always ignored — a combination of intentional and unintentional ignorance — when it comes to the idea that autistic people can’t or don’t understand certain social rules and social cues is the fact that basically all we know about autistic people and how we navigate racist, white supremacist, anti-Black, misogynistic, queerphobic, transphobic, classist, ableist, etc. allistic social rules is based mostly on cis het allistic white men’s observations of how cis het white autistic people — most of whom have historically (until very recently) cis het white autistic boys and men — and cis het white allistic people who are assumed to be autistic — most of whom have historically (until very recently) cis het white autistic boys and men — understand and respond to racist, white supremacist, anti-Black, misogynistic, queerphobic, transphobic, classist, ableist, etc. allistic social rules in controlled settings.
When it comes to research on autistic people, race is rarely ever addressed.
It’s a problem that pervades psychology and psychiatry — even when you take into consideration the process of peer review, which isn’t a perfect or bias-free process (despite how much we’ve been told about how peer review functions when it comes to scientific research).
Something that’s been incredibly ignored until recently (and even still it’s ignored, especially, in large part, due to the fact that psychology and psychiatry are predominantly white workforces and institutions that refuse to contend with racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness in any substantive way) is the fact that psychologists and psychiatrists, despite all their training and education when it comes to understanding the human condition, are not absolved from perpetuating the biases they were indoctrinated into in the racist, white supremacist, anti-Black, misogynistic, queerphobic, transphobic, classist, ableist, etc. societies in which they were born, raised, educated, and trained.
So, what does this have to do with autistic people?
Well, everything.
That is, unless you don’t count autistic people to be people, which isn’t a hard argument to make since a lot of people only really consider autistic people to be people to an extent— to those people, we’re “people with/who have/that suffer from autism” and they (the aforementioned people who believe this) have the legal, moral, and ethical responsibility to do something to “fix/cure” us so that we can live “normal” lives (read: they believe that they can and must make us into allistic people because, to them, all people are allistic because allistic people are “normal” and autistic people only exist because of some “disorder/illness” or “condition”).
They don’t understand that, like being queer or trans (though it wasn’t until recently that queerness started to be seen as a fundamental part of who we are and not a “mental illness/disorder” queer people “suffer” from; and, within the psych community, being trans is still an “illness/disorder” (shout-out to gender dysphoria being in the DSM and gender incongruence being in the ICD)), being autistic is a fundamental part of who we are.
And what does this have to do with social communication?
Everything.
If we (autistic people) are being researched by people who don’t see being autistic as a fundamental part of who we are and instead see it as a “mental illness/disorder” or a “(pervasive) neurodevelopmental disorder” that we “suffer” from or a disability that we have to “overcome” instead of looking at the ways society is inherently ableist and eugenicist and systemically and structurally disables us, it’s easy to see why people (including autistic people because internalized ableism (or, as other people like to incorrectly call it, “lateral ableism”) is real) believe that autistic people can’t or don’t understand social communication and can naturally socialize and communicate with others as easily as allistic people can.
Very little thought is given to the fact that the reason people believe that autistic people can’t and don’t understand social communication and have no innate ability to socialize and communicate is because of racism, white supremacy, antiBlackness, misogyny, ableism, and eugenics.
When you look at how white people, Asian people, Indigenous people, and Black people all learn and are forced to navigate the world differently from each other, the cracks start to show in the idea that autistic people can’t and don’t understand social communication.
There’s a fundamental awareness of social and communication rules that PoC have to be aware of that white people do not (which is a huge reason why white people think racism is an individual moral failing, and can’t/refuse to see it as systemic).
There’s also a fundamental awareness of social and communication rules that Black people have to be aware of that Asian and Indigenous people do not because of anti-Blackness.
There’s also a fundamental awareness of social and communication rules that Asian people have to be aware of that Black and Indigenous people do not because of anti-Asian racism.
And there’s also a fundamental awareness of social and communication rules that Indigenous people have to be aware of that Black and Asian people do not because of anti-Indigenous racism.
Then there’s the fact that gender, class, and ethnicity play a significant role in how we’re taught to navigate social communication, especially with people who we have more and less power than us in social settings.
It’s part of the reason why even research on autistic women and queer and trans autistic people is still in its infancy. And why socioeconomic status affects who is and isn’t recognized as being autistic.
And when you take that and lay it over the fact that autistic people and allistic people don’t have to navigate socializing and communicating in the exact same way because social and communication rules and norms in any given society in the West and that has been impacted by colonization privileges allistic people, you can see why the idea that autistic people can’t understand social and communication rules and norms fails in every way possible.
Why is this an important issue?
When someone is autistic, society generally assumes they have difficulty interacting with others. Social difficulties between autistic and nonautistic people are thought to be due to the autistic person not being able to interact using nonautistic social behaviors. This belief can lead to many autistic people feeling alienated. However, recent research supports what autistic people have been saying for a long time: that autistic people are capable of having successful and rewarding interactions with other autistic people. This suggests that social difficulties between autistic and nonautistic people may be due to a mismatch in social norms leading to difficulty for both people, not just the autistic person.
What was the purpose of this study?
In this study, we wanted to investigate whether certain social signals are used differently between autistic and nonautistic people. We also questioned whether using these signals helped or hurt the interaction depending on who was involved.
What did the researchers do?
We recorded people passing a story down a chain of people, like the game telephone, to see how they interacted with each other. Afterward, people wrote down scores for how much they enjoyed their interaction. We focused on two parts of the interaction: how much people were looking at each other and when they made short verbal responses such as “mhm” to show they were listening (backchanneling). We watched the recordings back and analyzed how long or how many times these actions were occurring.
What were the results of the study?
We found that when one autistic and one nonautistic person were interacting, they looked at each other and backchanneled less than two nonautistic people. This seemed to be linked with a less enjoyable interaction for them. However, backchanneling seemed to matter less in interactions between two autistic people. They backchanneled less while still having enjoyable interactions.
What do these findings add to what was already known?
Research has previously suggested that different social norms exist between autistic and nonautistic people. This study shows specific examples of this and how they may affect the interaction in a natural setting. [. . .]
How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?
This line of research has important implications for how autistic people can be supported in society. Not only will understanding of social differences between autistic and nonautistic people help the way autistic people are perceived, but it will also help nonautistic people better understand and support the autistic people in their lives.
And the longer we continue to assert the (false) assumption that autistic people can’t and don’t understand social communication, the longer we continue to perpetuate and participate in racism, white supremacy, antiBlackness, misogyny, ableism, and eugenicst to everyone’s detriment.
