Black Autistics

@blackautistics.bsky.social

A Time and Space to Centre Blackness in Autism

“They’ll be fine.” But what if they’re not? Some of the most misunderstood experiences for Autistic people, especially racialised Autistics, are rejection sensitivity, elopement, and suicidality. These are often dismissed or mislabelled as misbehaviour, defiance, or attention-seeking.

Graphic for World Suicide Prevention Month by Scottish Ethnic Minority Autistics (SEMA). The top features the SEMA logo. Below, bold text reads 'WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH.' In the center is a social media post by Pat Radical Therapist that says: 'Suicide Awareness that ignores poverty, prisons, racism, ableism, transphobia & systemic oppression isn’t complete awareness. People don’t just die ONLY because of mental illness. They die because systems make life unbearable.' The post shows 6.4k likes, 59 comments, and 1.3k shares. At the bottom, there is the National Suicide Prevention Month logo with a teal and purple ribbon.

A huge thank you to all of our wonderful speakers and everyone who joined the National Autism Trainer Programme Conference. It was wonderful to take time to reflect on the impact of this incredible programme, which was commissioned by NHS England and developed +delivered by Anna Freud and AT-Autism.

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Really honoured to be apart of Autistica’s consultation of autistic voices to inform the NHS 10 year plan. I’m not sure how many others will be championing intersectionality-informed approaches to data collection & preventative community-based mental health care, but I hope it starts a conversation.

A Black autistic defendant in the murder trial of South London schoolgirl Elianne Andam is arguing diminished responsibility for stabbing the victim on account of his “Autistic rage.” It’s generating a lot of thought about emotional regulation, rejection sensitive dysphoria and violence as meltdown.

The Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research includes Caribbean public health crises as a key area of investigation. I wonder if they’d be open to consider slavery as a social and genetic determinant of neurodevelopmental conditions?

Is it possible that the heritability of acquired neurodivergence in enslaved African populations could have continued to materialise through successive generations to produce behavioural traits that became a dominant part of the Afro-Caribbean cultural standard?

Welcome to all new followers of Black Autistics here on Blue Sky. It’s a delight to be connected with you on this new platform. For those of you who don’t know, this little space on the internet is run by burgeoning Black autistic social scientist, Olivia Brown.