It's been well over a year, and I've blasted social media about this twice, but no autism organization has bothered to even mention it. So I'm going to write once more about the murder of Charnice Milton because Charnice Milton was young, Black, talented, and Autistic.
Charnice was the victim of a drive-by shooting in the neighborhood she dedicated herself to getting voices heard about. She was used as a human shield in a violent exchange that had nothing to do with her. Southeast D.C. still mourns her. The police are asking the pubic's help in finding her murderer.
Her parents discussed her diagnosis, which at that time was labeled Aspergers, and how no one ever thought she'd complete school, much less end up with a masters degree in journalism. Like some African American parents, they spent the next months vacillating between the truth of admitting she was autistic and saying she "had Asperger's like symptoms" when the love for her work and for her by her peers and community overflowed such that her murder became the subject of articles in The Washington Post and The New Yorker. They rethought their initial admissions and made efforts to mute her autism from the story of her life rather than celebrate the brilliance of her short career as a disabled journalist. But their initial admissions are there in interviews for local television stations.
More -
https://intersecteddisability.blogspot.com/2016/10/oh-to-be-young-black-and-autistic.html?spref=bl
