Black Autism In Black Women
Diagnosed later. Believed less.
Autism is a difference in social communication, sensory processing and patterns of focus, interests and routines. It exists on a spectrum, and support needs vary widely.1 For Black girls and women, the traits are the same as anyone else's. The labels are not.
School: diagnosed later than everyone else
Black autistic children are, on average, diagnosed later than white children.2 Meltdowns, shutdowns and avoiding eye contact get read as defiance. Quiet, rule-following Black girls get overlooked completely.
"Quirky" vs. "grown"
Directness, bluntness and a flat affect from a white autistic girl get called quirky. The same traits from a Black autistic girl get called mean, rude or grown.
Work: masking on top of code-switching
Needing processing time, being direct, or not performing the expected social warmth gets taken as a bad attitude. We were already code-switching to stay safe. Autistic masking on top of that is double the work and double the exhaustion.
Day to day: sensory overload nobody connects to autism
Noise, textures, lights and crowds get dismissed as being picky or difficult. Wash day, braids, tight styles and hair touching can be real sensory challenges, and almost nobody names them as autism.
Where it gets dangerous
A Black autistic child in a meltdown is more likely to be seen as aggressive than as in distress. That means higher rates of discipline, restraint and police involvement.3 Adultification is not just unfair here. It is unsafe.
You were never too much. You were never not enough.
Sources
- National Institute of Mental Health, "Autism Spectrum Disorder." nimh.nih.gov
- Constantino et al., "Timing of the Diagnosis of Autism in African American Children," Pediatrics, 2020. publications.aap.org
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities," 2019. usccr.gov