The Neurotypical Privilege Checklist - absolutely essential reading

This list compiled by Bev of Asperger Square 8 is not only incredible, it's something that i absolutely cannot believe hasn't been done before - and yet, Googling for "neurotypical privilege", the only thing i can find that isn't a link to Bev's post is this post by Hexy (which is also valuable, as it makes the very important point that "neurotypical" isn't defined solely in opposition to autism, but to other types of neurodiversity as well, some of which some people with a narrow definition of "neurodiversity" don't recognise as such - i could go off on a huge tangent about that, and the absurdities it causes people to come up with - such as someone on one autism message board using, apparently without irony, the phrase "neurotypicals with learning difficulties" - but this is enough of one already) - so, no, it appears it hasn't already been done, and i congratulate Bev for doing something that was long, long overdue.

The list is already incredibly long, and i'm (as i always seem to be) late to the party, so i don't know whether i should attempt to add anything to it (although i've thought of a few areas that the list *might* not already have covered). I'm willing to help with trying to arrange it more systematically, if wanted, though (and of course should be saying this in a comment on the list itself, not here). Some items from it that stand out particularly powerfully for me:

# If I am an adult, I can be a sexual being without the assumption that any partner attracted to me must be a predator or pedophile.

# My partner can express attraction to or admiration for aspects of my behavior or personality which happen to be characteristic of my neurology without his being seen as attempting to take advantage of a weaker person.

# If I am in a relationship with another person of my neurological type, the reaction of society is not that no one else would date either of us.

# If I am bullied, people will not assume that my neurology means I am at least partially to blame, or that the bullying would stop if I tried harder to behave like someone non-NT.

# I do not have to carry a special card or bracelet with me that explains how my neurology presents itself, because it is otherwise unsafe for me to be out of my house alone because of how law enforcement or other institutions might treat me for showing my natural body movements or the sounds I naturally make.

# The skills and talents at which people of my neurology tend to have an advantage, around which the system of the society in which I live is founded, are presumed to be objectively more important than those more commonly found in people of other neurological types.

# My deficits are not considered deficits at all. Instead, they are considered universal faults in human cognition (even if they are not universal). And a good deal of effort is undertaken by my entire society to compensate for those deficits.

# I am not expected to alter or suppress my natural ways of moving, interacting or expressing emotion in most circumstances.

# If I fail to alter or suppress my natural ways of moving, interacting or expressing emotion, I do not fear public ridicule or exclusion because of this.

# I will never have people tell me that I am a mindless waste of space and then deliberately fail to make any attempt to save my life in an emergency.

# I am never told that the fact I have a certain cognitive skill means that I am lying when I say I lack another cognitive skill. Nor am I dismissed as incapable of things I truly can do, because I lack certain cognitive skills.

# I can tell the truth without fearing that the other party will assume I'm lying due to my natural body language and degree of eye contact.

# People don't things to me like, "You don't really seem neurotypical," or "If you hadn't told me, I would never have guessed you were neurotypical," and expect me to take it as reassuring or complimentary.

# My opinions on social mores and societal issues will never be dismissed based on my neurology or on the assumption that I am simply "not understanding how these things work". Even when others of differing neurology agree with me

# Nobody tries to one-up me by implying that their family member is more NT than I am and I must thus be incapable of understanding any of said family member's situation.

(not all of which directly apply to me, but many of them do - and, of course, people from any given minority group may sometimes experience some aspects of the privileges accorded to the corresponding dominant group, whether because of sometimes "passing" as a member of that dominant group, or other factors like variation within minority groups being used exploitatively, such as subsets of a group (often those most superficially like, or least challenging to, the dominant group) being picked out as "good" minority people and given some pieces of (temporary, revokable) privilege as a "divide and conquer" strategy...)

Lindsay at Autist's Corner and Kassiane at The Rett Devil's Rants have also posted about the Checklist, and it seems to be getting reflected to a lot of places, which can only be a good thing - let's hope it makes some major ripples beyond just the internet...

One quick thing that comes to mind for me is how difficult it is - even for me as a radical and highly politicised activist - to see many of these things as truly "privileges", in the radical political sense of things that are not only unfair, but can be changed by society, rather than simply "the way things are" - biological facts that should just be accepted as true and not challenged. Internalised oppression runs deep, and it's even stronger where it's not recognised as oppression, and privilege is not recognised as privilege. Part of the reason this privilege checklist excites me so much is because it has the potential to open people's minds to a form and level of social bias that i honestly think the vast majority of people - maybe even the majority of disabled people, maybe even the majority of disability rights activists, maybe even the majority of autistic people - don't even realise is there, and therefore open up incredibly exciting perspectives of truly radical social transformation on levels more pervasive than many or most people might even imagine that society could change...

While posting on this, i'd better acknowledge some of the other privilege checklists that inspired this one:

White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack (possibly the original "privilege checklist")
Male Privilege Checklist
Able-bodied Privilege Checklist
Straight Privilege Checklist
Cisgender Privilege Checklist

When i have read the Neurotypical Privilege Checklist more thoroughly and decided whether the items i have thought of are worth adding, i'll post them here too...

Jessica Davanzo Must Stay In The UK!

Jessica Davanzo, a survivor of domestic violence and a Personal Assistant essential to her disabled employer, has been unjustly threatened with deportation by the Home Office, in direct contradiction of its claim to be "building a safe, just and tolerant society".

Jessica Davanzo, originally from the US, moved to the UK on a 2 year visa in October 2006 after marrying her ex-husband, a UK citizen, and breaking all ties with her former life in the US. However, after she moved to the UK, but before her visa came up for renewal for indefinite leave to remain, her husband started abusing and threatening her, forcing her, after many attempts at relationship counselling failed to have any effect on his increasingly abusive behaviour, to leave him, move to another town (Northampton) and start a new job.

Soon after this, and possibly as a result of the stress and trauma she experienced, in June 2008 Jessica became ill with a neurological condition called Guillain Barre syndrome, which resulted in her spending 6 months in hospital and being temporarily paralysed, needing intensive rehabilitation to regain the ability to walk, as well as having longer-term effects of chronic fatigue and back pain, and being unable to work for 10 months. Due to her immigration status Jessica had no access to any form of UK state benefits, leaving her destitute and at risk of homelessness.

As a result of this experience of impairment and the awareness of disability it brought with it, after her recovery Jessica decided to work as a PA (Personal Assistant) for a disabled employer, Roxanne Homayoun. Roxanne, who has physical and visual impairments and requires 24-hour assistance, and is an activist for disability rights with an MA in 20th century history, said "Jessica is such a truly positive, honest, and principled person that she has helped me to see that many of my dreams are still achievable, they just need modifying. I would be absolutely devastated if Jessica is deported."

In the notice of decision dated 3rd June 2009 (which Jessica only received on the 10th June), she was informed that there was "no right of appeal against this decision" which she was later told by an immigration solicitor was not in fact true. Jessica and her solicitors are now seeking a judicial review of the decision. She was also told, despite several police reports and a supporting letter from Victim Support, that "you have not produced evidence to confirm that your marriage was caused to break down during the probationary period, as a result of domestic violence".

Jessica's case brings together issues of vital concern for feminists, disability rights activists and all those who support the free movement of people across borders. The UK Government's decision to demand that she leave the country shows a complete disregard for the circumstances of women fleeing abusive relationships (if she had stayed within the relationship and continued to submit to her ex-husband's violence, she would have been permitted to stay in the country - what message does that send to women trapped in such situations? This is victim-blaming at its worst - women being punished for getting out of a life-threatening situation or rewarded for staying within it) and for the incredibly important role of PAs in maintaining disabled people's independence.

The letter Jessica received from the Home Office claims that forcing her to leave the UK is not a breach of Jessica's human rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, they have totally failed to take into consideration the human rights of her employer, Roxanne, whose physical safety, freedom of private life and ability to participate in political society would all be put in serious jeopardy by the loss of her PA, given the extreme rarity of PAs with whom disabled employers are able to build up the sort of relationship (itself arguably "family life" under Article 8 of the ECHR) enjoyed by Roxanne and Jessica.

If the UK government cared either about women survivors of marital abuse or about disabled people who need assistance to live independently (for whom it can take an extremely long time to find a PA with the right attitude to genuinely support their human right to choice and control over their own lives, and for whom losing such a PA could easily result in risk of institutionalisation or life-threatening neglect), then it would not have threatened Jessica with deportation. Jessica Must Stay!

There is an online petition to let Jessica stay in the UK here and a Facebook group in support of her (with at the time of writing over 160 members) has been set up here.

Roxanne and Jessica are friends of mine, and came to the recent DAN actions in London and Birmingham that i blogged about. This is the press release that i sent last night to national newspapers, Northampton local news, Midlands/East regional TV and radio, the UK radical/"left-wing" press and UK disability organisations. Please forward to anyone else you think is relevant...

Edit as of 22/09/09: I've disabled commenting on this post for now, as for some reason it keeps attracting a steady stream of Chinese/Japanese(?) spammers, and it's getting to be too much hassle to keep deleting them. There hasn't been any change in Jessica's situation that i know of, but i'll edit the post again if i hear anything.