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by Jade Gibbons
Autism is a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication and behavioural challenges.
It typically appears during early childhood and can impact a person’s social skills, communication, relationships, and self-regulation. Because there is not one autism but many subtypes, most influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, it is referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
An autistic person can be high functioning, as is the case with someone with Asperger’s, or severely challenged. Regardless of which end of the spectrum a person falls, they are still autistic. With this in mind, let’s talk about racism.
Racism, like autism, is a spectrum. There are subtle forms of racism which take the form of microaggressions. Microaggressions are comments or actions that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally express a prejudiced attitude towards someone. For example, “you’re so pretty for a {insert race} girl.” Microaggressions can be verbal, behavioural or environmental. The example given above is a form of verbal microaggression.
In his book The Black Jacobins, CLR James gives a comprehensive account of the historical phenomenon that was the Haitian Revolution. When victory has already been won and the slaves, under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, have transitioned from being ex-slaves into labourers, in steps Hedouville, a diplomat from France.
At the first glance Hedouville’s racism is not as abhorrent as that of the local whites who, when given the choice between mercy and vengeance, burnt or drowned alive their slaves who, in the early days of the revolution when it was nothing more than a slave uprising, had lacked the stomach for war and without coercion downed their arms and surrendered.
No, Hedouville did not come guns blaring like Le Clerc. And therefore, he is the perfect example of the Asperger’s form of racism. He could function in a black society, consistently and persistently undermining black leadership at every step.
Hedouville was not the type to say that his actions were motivated by racial prejudice. He would tell his base that he was simply looking out for the interests of the French Republic. And that Toussaint sought to take the pearl of the French Empire away from France.
Hedouville had some special knowledge that other French diplomats like Laveaux and Sonthonax lacked. Some knowledge that the white soldiers who had fought under Toussaint’s leadership to preserve Saint Domingue for France against attacks from the British and the Spanish could never dream of understanding.
In the end, Hedouville accomplished what Le Clerc could not. He was able to remove Saint Domingue’s great black leader and then foolishly tried to re-enslave the black population. What ensued as French general Kerverseau put it, was “no longer a war [but] a fight of tigers.”
To motivate his troops, Kerverseau had to tell them, “It is no longer bravery I want from you. It is rage.” Here we see that, unlike an autistic person, a racist person can move up and down the spectrum. And that is a very dangerous thing.
We are all familiar with the direct forms of racism; the lynching, the quartering; the terrorism, the segregation, the economic deprivation, the harassment, the rape. But we often overlook that before direct forms of racism manifest, the subtle forms are present. Unlike autism, no one is born racist.
Racism is learnt behaviour. For someone to learn something, they must be taught. So how in the 21st century are persons under the age of 50 still racist? The answer is simple: they were groomed.
In my late teens to early twenties, I spent a lot of time around white South Africans. They shaped the way I see South Africa and my understanding of that nation.
The experience of one of my friends helped me to understand one of the ways grooming in racial prejudice takes place. For the purpose of this article, we will call him Mike. Born in South Africa, when Mike was a toddler his parents migrated to England. That is where we met.
Mike spent all of his childhood and adolescence in England and then moved back to South Africa with his family as a young adult. Prior to moving back to South Africa, my conversations with Mike never revolved around race.
There was an acknowledgement of our different races and the different cultural understandings that come with that but race itself was never a talking point. After Mike had been in South Africa for a while race started to become a talking point. As all millennials do, when someone sends you information whether it be a meme or infographic or a video, you share it with your friends.
Mike was receiving, what I would class as racist content, and sharing it with me. And this content would be the base of our discussions. Being a black person, it was easy for me to see how the content was racist because you are trained from young to spot racism. But I could also understand how Mike could not see it.
The content was not direct in its racism. It was subtle. It used valid points and truth and skewed them to make an argument against black people. It used statistics and facts and took them out of context to paint a picture of malevolence and barbarity.
It was Hedouville type of content. Fortunately for Mike, he was sharing the content with a black person who could add back context and refute the lies. That doesn’t always happen.
Jade Gibbons is an arts and business graduate with a keen interest in social issues and film-making. See https://www.jadegibbons246.com
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