Alright – so, there was another autism training from Minnesota Department of Human Services or the state Medicaid agency on the new ASD benefit. Don’t worry- this blog is not about the ins and outs of that training. It is rather something I usually don’t blog about or even notice.
I usually don’t notice providers or agencies that are not directly related to autism therapy. At this DHS meeting yesterday – the owner of WMLC came. Personally, I don’t know her or have never seen her in any autism meeting, training or advocacy. Not really sure why she was there since WMLC does not provide ABA or developmental therapy per se. Maybe to be just annoying to those of us living with autism daily.
At any rate, as the trainer was explaining (not very good) about how the ITP must reflect the CMDE, I asked what happens if the treating provider does not follow the recommendations of the comprehensive evaluation or the family’s culture and values. On one side DHS said “they have to follow” then on the other side they said “they can just say we wont because it is different than our clinical judgement”. Sound confusing – imagine how I felt.
Then some irate woman screams from the back and says to me “if I keep asking about this question or about family culture values”, she was going to leave the training. Of course, my response was bye and have a nice day after you leave. After words, I looked up her company and it is no surprise they had no person of color in their site and from what I have been able to gather so far don’t take kids with autism on the severe end. In other words, they are very selective in who they serve. Therefore, it is no surprise that she thought talking or asking questions about diversity and equity were wrong in a public meeting given by a public state agency.
After I left this training – I called one of my friends who happens to be African American and told him what happened. I also told him how when there was a different person asked about billing questions even though this was only about CMDE and ITP – there was change in the body language, tone of voice, and no one labeled this person difficult or disruptive. Yet, God forbid if we ask diversity or equity or even parent/child rights questions – we are labeled angry, emotional, difficult and disruptive. He said “Idil – aren’t you used to this by now and isn’t that your middle name from the state legislature”. Lol, I laughed and felt better because that is exactly what we are called anytime we ask or demand equity.
He said something else that prompted me to write this post, “there is high level of civilized racism in Minnesota which is why it has the highest racial inequity in health, education, housing and employment for minorities in particular for African Americans”.
Um, that is true. Then I asked him so what now and how do we deal with this Minnesota nice AKA passive aggressive AKA civilized racism. He said “we just have to accept it and not worry about it”. This I disagree and here is why;
First of all, we should never ever ever accept racism or bias treatment even if it is delivered nicely or subliminally because that will only enhance and maintain that behavior. 2ndly, We have to fight effectively and relentlessly against it through mind over matter and look at our fight or advocacy as energizing and fulfilling or we will get wear down and decades from now we will still be saying the same thing.
Now, there is not much that I really care about except autism which is the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing at night.
My message to the annoying owner of WMLC is back off of autism and our issue. We have zero desire to tolerate your toddler behavior and meltdowns. Next time you come to an autism meeting, workshop or training – we expect you will keep your rude behavior to yourself.
Above words do not represent any agency, candidate or committee.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate