One American guy got quite insistent that he didn't care if I was autistic, that he wasn't interested, that it made no difference to how he saw me as a person, that he sees everyone as the same and treats everyone the same, black or white, male or female, autistic or not autistic, etc.
He treats all people in the same way, regardless of their attributes, abilities, and preferences? He doesn't care about them as people at all - he's just going to treat them as "generic person"? That seems - rather suboptimal, at best.
And I'll note that you told him that you were autistic, and that gave you an insight into the book that you thought a person who thought in a neurotypical way might not have, and he's decided to make it all about him.
I think by describing his behaviour as "strange", you're being quite kind.
He treats all people in the same way, regardless of their attributes, abilities, and preferences? He doesn't care about them as people at all - he's just going to treat them as "generic person"? That seems - rather suboptimal, at best.
The most useful diversity training course I recall from work included a guy giving an example: "I treat everyone the same - I'm going to buy you all a coffee and it's going to be black with three sugars for all of you". That's what I think of when anyone says they "treat everyone the same": who's for a black coffee with three sugars?
The fact I remember one powerful visual image may well be what I think of as a result of my autism and if anyone tells me they're not interested in the fact that I'm autistic - when I have considered that fact to be relevant - I'd think it very rude. As @Leorning Cniht says - they'd be making it all about them and completely ignoring me.
Colour blindness etc. is an attempt to solve the problem of discrimination and inequality. It's just a fairly wrong-headed solution in most circumstances.
There certainly are situations where, if you can genuinely be unaware of people's attributes, then that's a good outcome. The example I was very recently reminded of is how many of the world's orchestra moved (quite some time ago) to auditions behind a curtain (The Voice is not a new idea in other words), with the result that the number of female musicians being successful in auditions shot upwards.
But trying to pretend that you're unaware of someone's attributes when you clearly ARE aware of them is not a great look. And those attributes might in fact be highly relevant. The solution is not to ignore them, but to take them into account in the right way (such as being interested in how they take their coffee...)
This documentary ' aired on Australian T.V. recently and covers a lot of the issues discussed re cochlear implants, learning sign language and the Deaf community/culture. It is about hearing parents raising a deaf daughter to speak and her decision later in life that sign was important too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUvpTn_aFtc
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He treats all people in the same way, regardless of their attributes, abilities, and preferences? He doesn't care about them as people at all - he's just going to treat them as "generic person"? That seems - rather suboptimal, at best.
And I'll note that you told him that you were autistic, and that gave you an insight into the book that you thought a person who thought in a neurotypical way might not have, and he's decided to make it all about him.
I think by describing his behaviour as "strange", you're being quite kind.
The most useful diversity training course I recall from work included a guy giving an example: "I treat everyone the same - I'm going to buy you all a coffee and it's going to be black with three sugars for all of you". That's what I think of when anyone says they "treat everyone the same": who's for a black coffee with three sugars?
The fact I remember one powerful visual image may well be what I think of as a result of my autism and if anyone tells me they're not interested in the fact that I'm autistic - when I have considered that fact to be relevant - I'd think it very rude. As @Leorning Cniht says - they'd be making it all about them and completely ignoring me.
There certainly are situations where, if you can genuinely be unaware of people's attributes, then that's a good outcome. The example I was very recently reminded of is how many of the world's orchestra moved (quite some time ago) to auditions behind a curtain (The Voice is not a new idea in other words), with the result that the number of female musicians being successful in auditions shot upwards.
But trying to pretend that you're unaware of someone's attributes when you clearly ARE aware of them is not a great look. And those attributes might in fact be highly relevant. The solution is not to ignore them, but to take them into account in the right way (such as being interested in how they take their coffee...)