You want awareness? Here are some things to think about.
Autistic people are at extremely high risk for unemployment and
underemployment. Some of us have a hard
time getting jobs or even interviews due to differences in social interaction
styles. Others have been shunted into
sheltered workshops where they are paid wages that would be illegal if the
worker did not have a disability. Some of us have been beaten down by a
lifetime of being told we were worthless. When we get a Nickel and Dimed type job, we
are grateful, sure it’s the best thing that could have happened.
I stayed at Kmart for fifteen years. I couldn’t imagine my
way out, not having gone to college, not having the sorts of skills employers
looked for. I never would have lasted so long had it not been for a manager who
noticed that I was very efficient at sorting things. She saved me from the
sales floor where constant customer interactions threatened to tear me apart,
and found me a place in the stockroom where my tasks revolved around organizing
and categorizing. While my coworkers haphazardly unpacked items and threw the
individual packages on carts, I did my best to make the job of the shelf
stocker easier by sorting the many brands of aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen
onto separate shelves of the rolling cart. Lining them up in perfect rows.
In the stockroom, I
was in a good position to notice when certain items began to pile up. One
summer, there were more than 30 cases of orange and black wrapped peanut butter
candy. These were left over from last Halloween, waiting for October to roll
around again. Sometimes the overstock wasn't the merchandise manager’s fault.
Some special sale items were sent as “general orders” by the home office.
People who had never been to our state would make decisions about what we could
sell. A lot of this stuff was made of wicker for some reason. It was dusty and
it smelled bad. Then there was the “Dollar Days” merchandise. Dollar Days was the big sale that came only 2
or 3 times a year, with lots of things nobody needed priced at 2/$1.00, 3/$1.00,
etc. Markup on these items ranged from 25% to 400%. Half of the gadgets and
doodads were probably broken and thrown away within a month.
Whenever we had too much of a particular cheap and useless
item, an associate would be required to roll out the blue light and announce a
surprise sale. There was a strict script for the Blue Light Special: “Attention
Kmart shoppers, for the next 15 minutes in aisle X, we are having a Blue Light
Special on Y!” Then the light would start to strobe while making a sound like
Thing from the Addam’s Family when the mail came, casually putting people at
risk of epileptic seizure for the sake of commerce. The clerk would stand by
with the pricing gun, ready to label each chosen item at its new temporary
price as customers rushed over to see what the fuss was about.
In those years, when Kmart lit it up blue, most people
walked away with nothing for something, a scratchy t-shirt, mildewed dish towel,
stale candy, a wicker tchotchke. Nothing they wouldn't survive. The excitement
of blue lights flashing and other customers swarming must have seemed worth the
inevitable letdown when the toy broke on the way home. Everyone who worked
there knew that while bargains could sometimes be found at the store, those
items that made it to blue light status were well beyond redemption.
The Blue Light Special Autism Speaks (also beyond
redemption) will run all through the month of April, is not so harmless. If you go to this sale, the
gap between what you are buying and what you meant to purchase will be more
extreme. Most people still seem to think
they are helping autistic people by supporting these “awareness” efforts. But
groups like Autism Speaks have cheapened the very concept of “awareness” to the
point that many self-advocates cannot stand to hear the word. Autism Speaks has
discounted autistic voices for many years now, refusing to hear us when we have
said that their dehumanizing tactics are harming us.
If you go to your local Light it Up Blue event, this will
happen: You will feel the rush of excitement that comes from moving in the same
direction as the others. You will listen to speeches affirming what you already
believe. You will purchase a shirt or a button or something and believe that
the profits are going to benefit autistic people. You will feel good about
yourself because everyone there will be saying that you are doing it right. Autism Speaks will use the money to finance its next awareness campaign or its
next PSA claiming that our existence is tragic, pay its exorbitant salaries,
and fund the research they believe will put an end to autistic people. People
will continue to look at us with fear and pity. Autistic people will continue
to be unemployed or underemployed. The research requested by autistic people
will continue to go unfunded. Autistic people will continue to be shocked at
the Judge Rotenberg Center. Autistic people will continue to be murdered by
their caregivers. Nothing will change.
If you continue to lend your voice to the already huge and
powerful and non-autistic run Autism Speaks, the things actually autistic people
have to tell you will continue to be shouted over. What we have to say will continue
to be ignored because we are so Not Like Your Child, the one who will maybe work
at Kmart someday, the one who will struggle so hard to believe they could ever do better.
So sick of Autism Speaks. I cannot wait until they are finally outed for who they finally are.
ReplyDeleteAMEN!!! :)
DeleteWell I am not the person to understand sales, not really enjoying shopping all that much. But these items are on sale because they are not selling at top price or will break later. I rather have something that will last a long time. I can't blame the store associates for that though.
ReplyDeleteI do not think working at K-Mart is in any way a failure-it is work and it does serve a purpose. It is good the manager put this particular employee to work stocking shelves, knowing that customer service wasn't his/her strength. I do feel terrible that autistic people are taken advantage of and not embraced for their quirkyness, ways of communicating. I would also add that a lot of college graduates are also underemployed/unemployed (like myself) and unable to find work in their area of study.
My own experiences with Autism Speaks is also muddled. A student was tabling for the organization at my school. I asked him if he knew what Autism was. He said he did not know; just tabling for his fraternity. I decided not to donate. It wasn't because I didn't support self-advocacy for autistic people but that this person didn't know about the principles of organization he represented or anything about autism.
So yeah. Thanks for writing-I loved the catchy title. Also I believe you could do better and more.
Izzy.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with working at Kmart or any other job. I didn't do the best job at explaining this. It's a far more complicated story than I could tell in a single post. The problem is in not having a choice or believing you don't have a choice, especially when the available work means low pay, low autonomy, and micromanagement. That's why I included the link to Nickel and Dimed, a book that does a good job of respecting the dignity of workers while pointing out the ways in which their employers fail to do the same. I would not have been less of a person if I had continued to work at Kmart, but I am happier now that I have discovered other options. I realize that not everyone has the opportunities I have enjoyed, and I did not in any way mean to suggest that there is anything wrong with working in retail. Thank you for calling my attention to this.
DeleteOn the topic of college graduates also facing poor employment outcomes, it's just not in the same league. I've seen estimates of 20-25% workforce participation.
I'm glad you decided not to donate to Autism Speaks. Self-advocacy for autistic people is definitely not what they are about.