Looking at following article: The Erasure of Blacks From Histories of Autism.

Disabled Black activist and mother to an autistic son, Kerima Cevik studies Intersectionality, Special Education, Disability, Special Education, and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

An article from Shades of Noir around Disability p195-199

In her article Kerima Cevik talks about the lack of recognising and documenting autism in black communities throughout history. Additionally, autism itself is an invisible disability and has got ‘masking’ as its trait (please, see my previous blog) which makes me consider how the combination affects both disabled and abled people from black and white communities in terms of ableism and inclusivity.

Cevik explains the importance of detecting and making widely known Black autistic ‘savants’ throughout history. She talks of the unintentional documentation of autistic Black ‘savants’ constituting the only proof of autism in black communities from early history onwards. Apart from that, autism in black people was not formally recorded because of their oppressed status during African American slavery and following ongoing discrimination. Revealing Black autistic ‘savants’ throughout history means establishing key indicators and enabling the construct of a timeline in the history of race and autism which otherwise would remain non-existent on any timeline in autism history.

Kerima Cevik explains further how racism continues to be deeply embedded within the research of autism objectifying black people instead of representing them as vital role models and historic figures. She writes the following: “No mainstream history of autism to date has bothered to discuss these individuals as people rather than scenery for those who documented their existence or used them as money-making curiosities or experimental subjects.” She takes as an example the prize-winning book “NeuroTribes: The Legacy Of Autism And the Future Of Neurodiversity” by Steve Silberman published in 2015 in which the author writes about a Black autistic savant as someone adding to the theories of autism rather than recognising and honouring him as an individual and the famous English artist he is. The artist is called Stephen Wiltshire: ‘MBE, Hon.FSAI, Hon.FSSAA is a British architectural artist and autistic savant. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once.’ (Wikipedia entry)

As mentioned at the beginning autism is an invisible disability and one characteristic of autism can be that people hide or camouflage parts of themselves with the intention to fit in better. In this context we are dealing with lack of representation of autism in black communities, invisible disability and masking and therefore, I suggest that we call this ‘triple-invisibility’, a seemingly unmeasurable challenge to integrate beneficially into teaching. One of my graduates with autism (mentioned in my previous blog) called people with Autism ‘Oil People or Soldiers of fluidity’ and wrote the following: “With this collection, I will dress the Oil People, soldiers of fluidity embracing and incarnating contrast and opposites. They are those who can behave like water people but never fully blend. They move beautifully, shine with the light but mostly, they are initiators. We need oil to heat and to launch motors.”

As with everything one talk and perhaps one workshop is not going to convey the complexity of the existence of ‘Oil People’ of colour to students well. My way of incorporating this into my teaching practice is to make a space usually in my tutorials where students can bring multiple elements of themselves to share with me (as with the Oil people example in my previous blog) which I respect. I can then ask some of the students if they are willing to translate together with me some of the gathered knowledge into anonymous information and learning material to share with future students and colleagues. This then starts to open up the space to visibility.

One further approach could be doing a general talk about ‘ableism and inclusivity’ in the first year and a talk including student-centred workshop ideally by a person with autism stemming from the black community in the second year. The workshop should explore visibility and invisibility through shape, colour and body movement and importantly photography as for instance the colour black is difficult to make visible in photography.

Then I could attempt to integrate the notion around disabilities, ableism, and inclusivity in the final year brief. This would be beneficial to students who find that they only disclose their autism in their final year, such as my students who I mentioned in my previous blog. It might also help the many undiagnosed students or those who feel they cannot reveal their autism.