Angry Black Autism Mom – Never let them label us

Here we go again;

Let’s think about this, Minnesota takes 3rd happiest state to live even ahead of Hawaii, imagine that. I know you are thinking, happiness in minus 40 degrees, snow taller than street lights that lasts for almost half of the year, come on. Really it is true.

You see the weather is not really what makes people happy. It is the economy, state of health, education & employment rate that make one’s life happy or not so happy.

Now, what does this have to do with autism and why would I write a post on it.

Minnesota enjoys good economy, low unemployment rate, good health and good education. It even has good autism coverage, never mind it is for few hundred privilege mostly White families while the low income mostly minorities still get screwed. Meanwhile, DHS is still asking and wondering rather than correcting the inequality years later and almost a year even after the law of autism equality passed in 2013.

However, happiness seems to be one sided because minorities in this happy state have one of the worst health disparity in the country, bottom five education gap, highest unemployment for African Americans and lowest home-ownership. All research and fact based and not my Black angry woman opinion – by the way.

So, how can some do so well here while communities of color suffer in every corner? How did you vote last election cycle because it has everything to do with it.

Well – that is because if you are a minority person, especially Black and you dare ask for different policies – you guessed it. You are called the angry Black woman. Yes, that syndrome that only minorities seem to suffer, as if we need one more. And, in my case – it’s the angry Black autism mom. So, I started comparing how I advocate and what I ask of policy makers and state agencies to how White autism mothers do it.

Well – needless to say, there is no comparison. There are hundreds of autism blogs who are for or against something autism and let me tell you – By comparison to me, they drive airplanes while I don’t even drive a bicycle.

Here is the difference, when a White autism mom blogs about some government agency, politician, provider, doctor, etc – they are doing it out of compassion and frustration. Therefore, we must be understanding, patient and hear them. There are many many many autism schools, policies and issues started by pissed off caucasian mothers who wanted to help their kids. Yet when they did it – annoying might have been the worst name they got. For instance, Fraser was started by a mom who had a child with a disability and changed how Minnesota looked and treated children with disabilities. Mrs Fraser frustrated and probably pissed off many policy makers. Angry White mom – she was not. And there are plenty like her such as founders of Pacer, etc.

By the same token, when a Black mom does it and God knows there are hardly any, they are angry, difficult to work with and labeled angry Black woman syndrome. Think about that for a minute. Could this be why you hardly see minority autism blogs & advocates. They say it is better to get beaten physically rather than mentally. This is the game played on minority autism advocates, call them angry, burning bridges, difficult to work with, blah blah that way they get so tired and leave the scene. You see – if you are beaten down mentally, it is hard to get up from it. Whereby if you are beaten physically, with time it heals.

We all know in America it is a White man first, then White woman then Black woman then last is Black man. This is how and why disparity is created in every corner and in every valley. Someone recently said to me – they bully you and call you angry Black autism mom at the MN State Capitol – are you OK?

You see, that useless name calling just energizes me like the energizer bunny or ten energy drinks. I remember last year when I was advocating for equal autism therapy in Medicaid mind you. One would think Medicaid would be for low income kids. Not in Minnesota, it is for the wealthy mostly white autism families. Anyway, Rep Liebling who has about 30% minority in her district tried to bully me. Keep in mind, the Caucasian red Tshirt wearing gang were filling the capitol by the dozens wanting to take $25 million from Health and Human services budget for themselves and throw low income MA autism kids under the bus.  Yet, they were the compassionate and tired parents and I was the angry Black mother.

Way talaayeey – tol beelay. Somalidu intay codayso ayay seexataa! Nin seexday, hooyadiis baa qadisa.

At any rate, I answered Rep Liebling back and told her in a nutshell autism might have silenced our children, but it will never silence their parents. Many people came up to me, gave me hugs and kept asking if I was OK. I remember telling one of them – she just energized the crap out of me to even advocate more for my son and other children like him. Then I went to Target, bought a poster, wrote MN DFLers are bias and bully minorities and demonstrated in front of her health policy committee. Then I came home and blogged like there was no tomorrow. Rep Liebling bullies a mom.

You see, this is the game – beat us down mentally so that we give up, get tired and accept the status quo of disparity, inequality and despair. We can’t, We must not and we never will. The goal is for any policy maker who neglects to address the issues of their voters to simply campaign against them and vote them out. Fool me one election cycle, shame on you. Fool me every election cycle, shame on us.

They might have the gavel for couple of years, but we have the votes to kick them to the curve. Time to kick Rep Norton out of office and away from creating and writing anymore bad autism policies is 2014. We must vote her out. HF 2282 which wants to eliminate a children’s committee that deals with a medical condition that is higher than pediatric diabetes, aids and cancer combined is not only out of touch, but is cruel. Less than every 20 minutes, a child is diagnosed with autism and a family’s life is altered. Rep Norton from Rochester cannot mentally beat us down, we must beat her by replacing her. Come on, we can do it. Our votes matter and she is beatable.

Interesting side note, remember when Rep Winkler called a Black Judge Uncle Tom because of his vote. I wonder what Rep Winkler calls himself now since he voted against a free autism committee helping many minority autism families? Read that here:

In addition, Rep Nelson, Theis who replaced Gottwalt (who helped autism, really miss him), Peppin and Kahn all represent districts with Somalis and voted against Somali autism families. Rep. Kahn is probably the easiest to vote out, but they are all beatable. 

Remember them in Nov 2014 and kick them to the curve.

How happy non minority Minnesotans are: