#AutismAcceptance
#BlackLivesMatter
#ActuallyAutistic

'“The entire ad screams that I am a Black candidate whom white people ought not be afraid of,” said Hakeem Jefferson, a professor of political science at Stanford, who studies race, stigma and politics in America. [. . .]

“He knew he was going to be perceived as a highly racialized candidate,” said Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University in Georgia and the author of multiple books about race and politics.

A key question for his campaign was, she said: “Can you be racially transcendent and the pastor of arguably the most prominent Black church in America?” [. . .]

There has been some discussion that the beagle — the kind of breed “we psychologically associate with white people,” as Dr. Jefferson put it — was another subtle yet intentional effort to explode racial stereotypes.

Mr. Magnus said the reality was more mundane: “The dog needed to be very cute, somewhat relatable and he needed to be able to hold the dog.” [. . .]

“If you’re trying to make history in the South, and you’re trying to elect an African-American pastor in an election which you know you’re going to need white voters,

then you need to do everything you can with your ad strategy to make white voters comfortable,” said Chip Lake, a Republican strategist in Georgia who is white and worked for Mr. Collins.

Or, as Jessica Byrd, a Black Democratic strategist in Georgia, put it, “I don’t think I’ve spent one day in the last five years not thinking about how white people will view Black candidates.”

Dr. Gillespie and other political scientists call efforts to make Black candidates more acceptable to white voters “deracialization,” and Alvin the beagle is a case study in its success.

“The whole point of deracialization isn’t to rouse Black voters,” Dr. Gillespie explained. “It’s to put white voters at ease.”

In Mr. Warnock’s case, she noted, he did not avoid direct engagement on racial justice, as some past candidates have. He simply and cleverly added a puppy in suburbia to the mix.'

(source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/us/politics/raphael-warnock-puppy.html)

i want all non-Black #ActuallyAutistic/ #adhdtwitter/ #neurodiversesquad people to read this thread as many times as needed to understand why y'all don't interact with Black ND people the way we do with y'all

and i want y'all to remember this thread any time we get mad or annoyed or are curt with at y'all during miscommunications or when y'all play naive