The leader of the free world, The President of the most powerful country on earth and My President said today something that so many African Americans feel hourly and daily.
There is this nagging and consistent bias in so many areas of a country that everyone wants to immigrate to. The President said what we as Blacks are all feeling after last weekend and even as far back as Rodney King Jr’s trial and beyond. The fact is there is racial and ethnic profiling in this country that is alive and well. There are so many times when as an autism advocate and I ask simple things like equal access to simple services and I am looked as if I said something out of this world.
President Obama said today “that could have been me 35 years ago”. My take is that could be him today if he wore the same clothes and walked in any USA town.
What does this have to do with autism – what a good question.
First, as Black autism mom and advocate – I have to say there are daily instances whereby people are so dismissive and defiant to even acknowledge there is bias in care, in services, in resources and in access. There are so many times when so many MN elected officials introduce unequal autism legislations and yet fail to see the inequality. This just happened this year when Sen. Eaton and Rep Norton wanted a very nice and generous coverage for the middle/upper class most likely white autism family and by the same token wanted a very limited and unequal coverage for the low income autism family who is most likely a minority. Yet, these elected officials failed to see the differences and in fact were both very defensive about it.
Now – the good news is we fought and prevailed such racist policy, but it just goes to show you that disparity in autism, in education, in the justice system, in economics and in between is real and happens everyday.
What I took from the President’s remarkable and heartfelt comments today were the following;
1. We need Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to start writing legislation about changing the unfair and unequal fair sentencing methods which is why so many Black boys/men’s lives are destroyed.
2. CBC also should look into stand your ground and see how and who does it work for and is it fair. And, if it is not – start a campaign of changing it state by state.
3. Start a health disparity reduction legislation whereby state health departments are obligated to reduce it and share resources with Black community health centers. And, they have to provide data to show the reduction.
4. Start and write a better education reform legislation or policy that will give more power to parents and reduce this horrible education gap.
5. Finally – start some kind of media campaign whereby Black boys and men are not profiled because of what they wear, say, etc.
If any or even one of the above items happens during President Obama’s term then it is a huge step forward.
The reason I decided to write about this is so many autism parents also have other children who look like just Trayvon and they are feeling the same pain his parents are. In addition, if we don’t address this racism policies then there is another Trayvon waiting to happen.
Thanks!
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate