Nobody is giving me shit for it (rn), but I want to apologize if I ever use what might be considered AAVE.

Most of the people I have grown up around and looked to for (autistic) scripting, are other marginalized ppl in my vicinity, bc they are who I most resonated with.

I came up saying "a'ight" & other things I didn't even know could be considered AAVE. My peers (yt women especially) clocked & othered me day one.

I've never been welcome or included in those circles to learn & create social scripts (important for autistic ppl)

The people who've historically been kind & accepting of me, don't look or sound like me.
I've picked up so many accents (echolalia) & tone cadences on accident, that I don't have a discernable regional dialect.

It made me a weird blend of accents, expressions, & regional vocab.

None of this is an excuse, btw. Most of the time, with gentle correction/explaination, I'm happy to just adjust my language & change the behavior.

Costs me nothing, plus I'm typically happier to know, and not be accidentally hurting folks.

I'm also neurodivergent, with trauma, so if I feel attacked, instinct can lead to defensiveness. It's hard not to do something you earnestly didn't know, and I know there have been times in the past where people's sudden anger has confused and effectively disabled me.

I'm def not asking you to put on kid gloves, or ignore something I do that might be wrong. Just know that I take "social failure" extra hard as an autist, and I'm already gonna be horrified I gaffed. I will always listen to good faith criticism, and adjust what can be.

I know I'm not the only neurodivergent person on the left who is afraid of this exact thing; the idea of failing and being bad allies simply bc a less informed version of ourselves created a social script based on what tools and language we'd been given, so we didn't know better.

I guess my point is, please remember I'm a human being with a social disability that THIS exact thing impacts on a substantial level.

We don't WANT to be problematic.
Accommodation for these issues should be added to praxis for handling diff types of unintended microagressions.

This is on my mind today bc I'm seeing more & more tiktok discourse abt how gen z & lgbtq+ folks have basically appropriated a LOT of aave, and many of us get mad and justify it in shitty ways.

I don't ever want to be that person, and the fear of being misunderstood is real.