If someone you follow makes efforts to not be bigoted suddenly reblogs something with bigoted subtext, consider the following before you attack them:

The person could be autistic and not pick up on the subtext. If you jump on them with hateful mean messages and they respond with confusion, try explaining the subtext they missed and help them see it. Part of being autistic is missing social cues and subtext. Sometimes things you think are blatantly obvious can slip under an autistic person’s radar.

What looks like a silly picture or text post to us may be something -phobic or -ist in a way we don’t recognize. Dog whistle phrases and hate symbols are a good example. (Link provided in the notes because it has lots of dog whistles to watch out for and crappy tumblr won’t put this post in tags with the link present.)

I think a better way to approach is message or inbox them and ask them if they realize they reblogged something yucky (specify the post if you can) and go from there. Even giving them something to google about it is better than immediately going into attack mode.

The person’s response will tell you a lot about them. Autism is never an excuse, but it is an explanation. If they tell you to shove it, well, take the nice person gloves off then.

It’s frustrating to find out I’m getting hate because I reblogged something bad, but don’t know what it was or how to avoid it in the future because the only response I get to asking why is “You know what you did, don’t play ignorant.”

Going at it like that is ableist.

I can understand the frustration of having to correct yet another person, but trust me when I say many autistic people want to be better allies. We just need a little more accommodation to ensure we’re all on the same page. 💕