“It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system Is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash” — Isabel Wilkerson, *Caste* (2020).
Lifting the Veil
Autistic people are the unfairly most discriminated against, excluded, and physically harmed people in the western world. Despite anti-disability discrimination laws, abuse, confinement, and other exploitation of autistic people is so rampant that is probably the default.
Unemployment
-“85% of people with Autism are unemployed.”
-“51% of people with Autism employed are underemployed.”
https://aaclu.org/statistics/unemployment/
Autistic people as a group have no financial freedom, none, putting them even more at a disadvantage than virtually any viable or noteworthy minority, and certainly all the most sizable ones.
Epidemic of Rampant Abuse and Violence
It is routine that the worst stories of parental neglect, abuse, or even homicide are against autistic children. Autistic children seem to even outperform adopted and step-children in vulnerability to exploitation and criminal violence.
- Autistic brothers murdered in Perth. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/parents-kill-autistic-sons-themselves-36662566
- “Parents face new charges, including fraud, in death of 10-year-old Crow Wing County girl” https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/parents-face-new-charges-including-fraud-in-death-of-10-year-old-crow-wing-county-girl/89-e7fc72c0-9890-4710-a63d-bed26b7c3f12
- “South Florida mother of severely beaten 6-year-old boy with autism bonds out of jail after turning herself in .” https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/north-miami-beach-mother-beaten-boy-autism-child-neglect-bond-court/
Schools abuse and traumatize autistic children more habitually than other types of kids.
- “Connecticut mother says school illegally restrained 6-year-old son with autism.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/connecticut-mother-says-school-illegally-restrained-6-year-old-son-with-autism/ar-AA1FiYr7
Unlike racial, gender, and sexual minorities, autistic people virtually exist in isolation everywhere, so even age hasn’t proven to be much of a remediation as it has for LGBTQIA neurotypicals.
Neurotypical implicitly like autistic people less than other neurotypicals on sight.
- “Do Neurotypical People Like or Dislike Autistic People?” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/aut.2020.0059
Autistic people are an oppressed class, systemically discriminated against and prejudged from early adolescence through adulthood, with even masking or “high functioning” autists being perceived as less likable and less trustworthy. Despite many autists having exceptionally high IQs, specialized knowledge, and scarce skills, most autists are still unemployed chronically, and more are underemployed or suffer from unstable careers, lack of social and work support, and other markers of high isolation and chronic stress. Outcomes for autists in many key life markers are abysmal.
Autists are oppressed more severely than everyone else, but receive no recognition of their oppression.