We often hear the word disparity associated with people of color in education, health, economic opportunities, etc. And, I have always wondered – why is disparity so high in every corner.
First, let’s describe what disparity is:
Disparity is in a nutshell “unequal”. This can be unequal access, unequal opportunities, unequal care, unequal information or unequal anything. So then autism disparity happens because of inequalities to services, resources, research, etc and etc. And, why does it happen for autism and who is responsible for this Disparity which means unequal?
Well – let’s dig deeper. Autism affects a child and that child’s family then tries to seek support and services from local, state and federal agencies as well as medical professionals and the education system. Then how that child/family is helped or supported is how equality is measured. Did they get equal access to services, resources, early intervention, referrals, educational support and medical support. It turns out that if a child is a minority or their family is – then the care and support is far less making it “unequal”.
Then the question of why comes to mind and why would anyone would do such inhumane thing to an autism child or family?
So then another question comes to mind. If disparity comes from inequality and inequality comes from discrimination and discrimination comes from racism and racism comes from racist. Could those in charge of such services, resources, education and medical be racist?
Common sense would say – of course not. How could so many be like that and do they view themselves as such. Or could this just be unintentional racism whereby the person is not even aware of how they speak, support, give information and educate. Could disparity be so buried deep down in one’s thinking that it does not even surface, sort of like how you just know how to drive to your home without really thinking about which highway or street you took because you have done it so many countless times.
I come to believe this is the case at least in Minnesota, and what makes it worse is that most people get defensive to talk through the connection between disparity and racism in fear being labeled racist. However, not talking and debating through it will only keep the status quo. And, quite frankly – the status quo sucks for minority and low income autism families.
My advice would be to any county, local, school, clinic, state or federal entity to look at their stats and change their policy so that irrespective of a child’s color, race, ethnicity or location – they get the best appropriate autism services, resources, medical intervention and education.
As adults, we owe our children at least that much because playing defensive and blaming the victim is not the right way. It is the wrong way.
And my advice to our minority communities would be to figure out how politicians we elected can affect the overall disparity. For example, a politician hires a secretary or a commissioner in an agency who then hire middle management (by the way middle management folks have the ability to use discretionary funding discreetly – and they are often missing the boat of equal access) who are usually the ones shaping what happens or does not happen and sometimes without the knowledge of the higher up. For instance, a commissioner or a department head might say – well we don’t have any resources to do minority outreach, but middle management is funding their “friends or likes” discreetly.
A good question comes to mind of how can we possibly do that given the two political parties one of which takes our votes for granted, speaks for us rather than engage with us. Remember how when you were young you were told to sit in the little table, but all of the good action was happening at the big table. That is what it feels like within this political party – at least in Minnesota. In other words, a tide can lift a boat if all are in the boat.
Then there is the other political party which does not even have a little table for us, and keeps telling everyone to pull them selves up by their bootstraps, with no regard of if folks are wearing boots with straps. In other words, equal opportunity only works when all are wearing similar boots and have been provided the same opportunities to buy boots with straps.
Disparity can be eradicated and eliminated if people looked at their polices, connected to politicians and their staff and made it fair and equal. It can be done by changing current policies. If I can paraphrase James Carville’s famous quote “It is the economy stupid”.
For African Americans “It is our votes stupid”. We are not using it wisely. Think about that!
Thanks.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom and Minority Advocate