Trick-or-treating is supposed to be a great bit of fun, from the costumes to the abundance of candy for the kids to enjoy later. It’s also a great way to build a sense of community, as people visit their neighbors, interact, and just have a good time.
But one mom ended uphaving to blacklist a housein her neighborhood because the people there refused to give her autistic child any candy. This quickly spiraled into drama, as the neighbors attempted to retaliate. People discussed ableism and what it means to be a good neighbor while giving OP some advice.
Going trick-or-treating should be a magical time for children
Image credits:Charles Parker (not the actual photo)
But a mom discovered that one house would simply not give her autistic daughter any candy
Image credits:Anton Rudyk (not the actual photo)
Image credits:u/halloweengoodiebags
Ableism is cruel, misguided, and ugly
Image credits:Liza Summer (not the actual photo)
While we have no way of knowing exactly why these neighbors refused to give candy to specifically an autistic child, their actions do follow pretty standard definitions of ableism. To those who are not familiar with the concept, congratulations, but simply put, it means to discriminate against someone for aphysical or mental disability.
As horrible as it sounds, for much of human history, people with disabilities have been regularly and systematically excluded from society. In the United States, where material conditions were relatively better, ableism was onlylegally defined in the 1970s. Up until then, people could exclude the disabled from public life, if they so choose. Some locations even had horrible “ugly laws” which actually prohibited some people with disabilities from showing themselves in public.
Researchers believe that ableism comes from a variety of factors. Firstly, people who grow up in environments where they are not taught to treat the disabled as fully-fledged human beings will often see them as lesser than themselves. This may stem from old-fashioned beliefs about Darwinism andmisguided idealsregarding who “deserves” to live.
Ableism and entitlement often go hand in hand
Image credits:Kristina Paukshtite (not the actual photo)
As often happens with horrible, entitled folks, the neighbors seem to be trying to do some damage control and claiming the whole thing is blown out of proportion. This is a classic strategy of bigots who do at least realize that the majority of the population does not at all support their beliefs. As a result, they have to turn to excuses and obfuscation.
Neurodivergency is more common than many people might expect
Image credits:Yaroslav Shuraev (not the actual photo)
Regardless of what these neighbors believe, neurodiversity is quite common. Researchers believe that at least15-20% of the human populationis neurodivergent to some level, with the real number likely being a lot higher. After all, it’s pretty hard to measure, hard to self-diagnose, and hard to spot in the “wild” except in extreme cases.
Readers thought the neighbor’s behavior was shocking
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