I can barely recognize friends after 15 meetings. Skin color is not a determining factor to me in recognizing somebody as human, because skin color in Oregon can change drastically with the seasons.
I also was a teenager with undiagnosed autism in the 1980s and early 1990s. Big hair was a severe distracting problem in recognizing people.
Plus, to top it off, my family, like many of mixed race but so much white European that we are assumed to be either Germanic or Slavic or Celtic, did not have generational wealth before the 1928 stock market crash and barely managed to stay off welfare after, so no, I cannot call us privileged in any way.
This leads me to my discussion of how mindblindness and face blindness affect race consciousness.
If I cannot recognize you as having a race (at all, it takes a good deal of effort to recognize people as being human) and my mind blindness prevents me from having empathy for your situation (if I have not been in your situation, I do NOT know how you feel) then what may be coming across as racism on my part, is really racism on your part (judging me by my white skin) combined with utter confusion as to why you are angry on me part (for not being sensitive enough to understand).
So in conclusion- stereotypical genetic generalizations are completely confusing for many autistic, and the world would be a better place without them.
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