Subtitle: Not too many I hope… 🙂
I was perusing the Internet and stumbled on the attached Huffington Post article which includes several Tweeted photos of interracial couples including a couple of photos submitted by Sen. John McCain’s (R) son with his beautiful wife.
What I have read is that the majority of autistics are innately non-bigoted in the way that we think, and we are less likely to become bigots as we grow into adulthood. Therefore we can infer that bigotry is caused by an environmental occurrence and is not necessarily a genetic predisposition but who knows; since I deplore bigotry of any kind I will assume that is a correct statement.
This article and substance is timely since a couple of US States are attempting to turn back the clock and reintroduce legislation to permit both interracial discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination; i.e. Kentucky and North Carolina.
When I recently read about Kentucky trying to reintroduce interracial marriage discrimination I started chuckling. And the reason for that is I am a descendent of probably the very first legal interracial marriage between a white man and an African-American woman, and guess what state that occurred in, Kentucky circa 1873.
My paternal great-great-grandmother Elizabeth whom I’m referring to above was the product of a white slave owner and a black African-American woman, and for the first eleven years of her life she was an African-American slave. She was born in Georgia and at some point she ended up in Kentucky when she finally became a “Freed Slave” as a result of the end of American Civil War circa 1865.
Now my great-great-grandfather John who was half white and half Native American knew that Elizabeth was a “freed slave” and that did not deter him from falling in love with her, marrying her, and subsequently having three children together, one of which is my great-grandfather.
I reference this snapshot of my ancestry because it got me thinking, “Just how far back did autism occur in my ancestry?”
Since autism is very prevalent on my maternal side but only slightly prevalent on my paternal side based on my research and analysis, I’m wondering if there’s a connection of autism, the story of John and Elizabeth, and the assertion that most autistics do not share the non-autistic trait of “bigotry”.
Therefore, if we’re going to continue budgeting the majority of money for research in lieu of providing support and services for those living with autism, I would like these kinds of questions answered versus what gene combination is responsible for autism. 🙂
I think it’s far more interesting and may lead to new interventions to cure despicable human behavior such as bigotry. 🙂
To be continued…
The Mind of an Autistic Savant 