Kassiane Asasumasu

Kassiane Asasumasu{{Cite web |last=Fletcher-Watson |first=Sue |date=June 3, 2020 |title=Neurodiverse or Neurodivergent? It's more than just grammar |url=https://dart.ed.ac.uk/neurodiverse-or-neurodivergent/ |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=DART {{!}} Development, Autism, Research, Technology |publisher=University of Edinburgh |language=en-US |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207095632/https://dart.ed.ac.uk/neurodiverse-or-neurodivergent/ |url-status=live }} was born in 1982{{cite web |title=History |url=https://autismandrace.com/all-the-weight-of-our-dreams-anthology/history/ |access-date=March 6, 2024 |website=The Autistic People of Color Fund |quote=Kassiane A. Asasumasu is a vintage 1982 autistic & epileptic activist who has been active this whole century. |archive-date=February 27, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227053834/https://autismandrace.com/all-the-weight-of-our-dreams-anthology/history/ |url-status=live }} and has seven siblings, all of whom are non-autistic.{{Cite news |last=Sibley |first=Kassianne |date=April 11, 2006 |title=Why Not Ask Us? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/science/letters.html |access-date=March 8, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608211415/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/science/letters.html |url-status=live }} She was diagnosed as autistic when she was three years old and was bullied for much of her childhood.{{Cite web |date=February 5, 2020 |title=How abuse mars the lives of autistic people |url=https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/how-abuse-mars-the-lives-of-autistic-people/ |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=Spectrum |language=en-US |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304005857/https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/how-abuse-mars-the-lives-of-autistic-people/ |url-status=live }}

Asasumasu has shared that she also has temporal lobe epilepsy{{Cite tweet |last=Asasumasu |first=Kassiane |author-link= |user=UVGKassi |number=1622738048575307778 |date=February 6, 2023 |title=Yes, I'm epileptic (temporal lobe epilepsy). and everyone when I was a kid decided it was Behaviors instead of, like, a medical thing so now it's refractory because it was left untreated for too long. WHEEEEE |script-title= |trans-title= |language= |retweet= |location= |access-date=March 6, 2024 |link= |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |quote= |ref=}} and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of applied behavior analysis.{{Cite tweet |last=Asasumasu |first=Kassiane |author-link= |user=UVGKassi |number=147445025805049858 |date=December 15, 2011 |title=@lizditz @thinkingautism I have PTSD from ABA. PTSD + autism + self loathing is WAY worse than autism. |script-title= |trans-title= |language= |retweet= |location= |access-date=March 6, 2024 |link= |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |quote= |ref=}}

Asasumasu is Hapa and Asian American.{{Cite web |last=Tink |first=Amanda |date=2023-03-07 |title=Black Inc. has stumbled with its anthology of neurodivergent writing. The term is not a diagnosis – it is part of a political movement |url=http://theconversation.com/black-inc-has-stumbled-with-its-anthology-of-neurodivergent-writing-the-term-is-not-a-diagnosis-it-is-part-of-a-political-movement-201168 |access-date=2024-04-08 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}} She is of Croatian, Japanese, Mongolian, and Romanian descent.{{cite web |last1=Grace |first1=Elizabeth J. (ibby) |title=NeuroQueer: Kassiane A. Sibley's Open Letter to Identity Police (Part 1) |url=http://neuroqueer.blogspot.com/2013/09/kassiane-sibleys-open-letter-to.html |website=NeuroQueer |access-date=5 April 2024 |date=13 September 2013 |quote=I am biracial. Hapa. Hafu. Eurasian. Eastern European and East Asian. Mongolian, Romanian, Japanese, Croatian. Unacknowledged on a demographic form.}}

Following the rise of the autism rights movement in the 1990s, many autistic advocates, including Asasumasu, recognized that a wide variety of people experienced the world in ways similar to autistic people, despite not being autistic. As a result, Asasumasu coined the related terms neurodivergent and neurodivergence circa 2000.{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Rachel |date=September 3, 2020 |title=Disability Justice Advocate and Writer Lydia X. Z. Brown on Autism and Neurodivergence |url=https://roommagazine.com/disability-justice-advocate-and-writer-lydia-x-z-brown-on-autism-and-neurodivergence-2/ |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=ROOM Magazine |language=en-US |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304005856/https://roommagazine.com/disability-justice-advocate-and-writer-lydia-x-z-brown-on-autism-and-neurodivergence-2/ |url-status=live }}

According to Asasumasu, these terms refer to those "whose neurocognitive functioning diverges from dominant societal norms in multiple ways". She intended for these terms to apply to a broad variety of people,{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Nick |title=Neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities |date=2021 |publisher=Autonomous Press |isbn=978-1-945955-27-3 |location=Fort Worth |chapter=Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms & Definitions}}{{Cite web |title=Neurodivergence |url=https://www.umassp.edu/inclusive-by-design/who-before-how/understanding-disabilities/neurodivergence |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=University of Massachusetts Office of the President |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304010926/https://www.umassp.edu/inclusive-by-design/who-before-how/understanding-disabilities/neurodivergence |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=Coates |first=Shannon |date=October 25, 2022 |title=Neurodiversity in the Voice Studio, Clinic, and Performance Space: Using a Neurodiversity Affirming Lens to Build More Inclusive Spaces for Singers. Part 1, Current Understanding of Neurodiversity |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/867856 |journal=Journal of Singing |volume=79 |issue=2 |pages=213–219 |doi=10.53830/VHSX6387 |s2cid=253177063 |access-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027085904/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/867856 |url-status=live }} not just people with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia. She further emphasized that it should not be used to exclude people but rather to include them.{{Cite web |last=Chapman |first=Robert |date=August 18, 2021 |title=Negotiating the Neurodiversity Concept |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neurodiverse-age/202108/negotiating-the-neurodiversity-concept |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=Psychology Today |language=en-US |archive-date=March 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308162055/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neurodiverse-age/202108/negotiating-the-neurodiversity-concept |url-status=live }} This term provided activists a way to advocate for increased rights and accessibility for non-autistic people who do not have typical neurocognitive functioning.{{Cite web |last=Liebowitz |first=Cara |date=March 4, 2016 |title=Here's What Neurodiversity Is – And What It Means For Feminism |url=https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/03/neurodiversity-101/ |access-date=March 8, 2024 |website=Everyday Feminism|language=en-US |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304172242/https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/03/neurodiversity-101/ |url-status=live }}

As stated in the text Neurodiversity for Dummies, "Asasumasu's work set the stage for a broader understanding and acceptance of neurological differences", which "continue[s] to be shared, shaped and formed by all sorts of people who recogniz[e] that our world should be accepting, inclusive, and accommodating of people regardless of their neurotype".

Asasumasu coined the term caregiver benevolence in 2014{{Citation |last=Brown |first=Lydia X. Z. |title=Ableist Shame and Disruptive Bodies: Survivorship at the Intersection of Queer, Trans, and Disabled Existence |date=2017 |work=Religion, Disability, and Interpersonal Violence |pages=163–178 |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=Andy J. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-56901-7_10 |access-date=March 3, 2024 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-56901-7_10 |isbn=978-3-319-56900-0 |editor2-last=Nelson |editor2-first=J. Ruth |editor3-last=Lund |editor3-first=Emily M. |archive-date=March 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308162044/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-56901-7_10 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Kronstein |first=Alex |date=June 29, 2018 |title=Caregiver benevolence: When parents don′t know best |url=https://nsadvocate.org/2018/06/29/caregiver-benevolence-when-parents-dont-know-best/ |access-date=March 4, 2024 |website=Nova Scotia Advocate |language=en-CA |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304005856/https://nsadvocate.org/2018/06/29/caregiver-benevolence-when-parents-dont-know-best/ |url-status=live }} to describe the overarching societal assumption that caregivers are "angelic, saint-like figure[s]" for offering their time, energy, and financial resources to care for a disabled person. In alignment with this belief, ignorance is the only harm caregivers can do to the disabled person in their care. Asasumasu argues that due to the presumption of caregiver benevolence, the relationships between disabled people and their caregivers are frequently framed through "claims of hardship and suffering" on behalf of the caregiver, while neglecting the harms caused to the disabled person on behalf of their caregiver; such a presumption and reframing can lead to society overlooking the abuse of disabled people.{{Citation |last=Asasumasu |first=Kassiane A. |title=DisAbused: Rethinking the presumption of caregiver benevolence |date=September 23, 2014 |work=University of Washington-Seattle}}

• {{Cite book |last=Asasumasu |first=Kassiane |title=All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism |date=2017 |publisher=Autism Women's Network |isbn=978-0-99750-450-7 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Lydia X. Z. |chapter=Plea from the Scariest Kid on the Block |editor-last2=Ashkenazy |editor-first2=E. |editor-last3=Onaiwu |editor-first3=Morénike Giwa}}{{Cite journal |last=Cagulada |first=Elaine |date=2021 |title=All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism by Lydia X. Z. Brown, E. Ashkenazy, and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/837191 |journal=Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=499–502 |doi=10.3828/jlcds.2021.39 |issn=1757-6466 |via=Project MUSE}}
• {{Cite book |last=Asasumasu |first=Kassiane |title=Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew About Growing Up, Acceptance, and Identity |date=2021 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-2569-7 |editor-last=Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network |pages=21–26 |language=en |chapter=What Your Daughter Deserves: Love, Safety, and the Truth}}

• {{Cite journal |last1=Natri |first1=Heini M. |last2=Abubakare |first2=Oluwatobi |last3=Asasumasu |first3=Kassiane |last4=Basargekar |first4=Abha |last5=Beaud |first5=Flavien |last6=Botha |first6=Monique |last7=Bottema-Beutel |first7=Kristen |last8=Brea |first8=Maria Rosa |last9=Brown |first9=Lydia X. Z. |last10=Burr |first10=Daisy A. |last11=Cobbaert |first11=Laurence |last12=Dabbs |first12=Chris |last13=Denome |first13=Donnie |last14=Rosa |first14=Shannon Des Roches |last15=Doherty |first15=Mary |date=April 2023 |title=Anti-ableist language is fully compatible with high-quality autism research: Response to S inger et al. (2023) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.2928 |journal=Autism Research |language=en |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=673–676 |doi=10.1002/aur.2928 |pmid=37087601 |issn=1939-3792}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://timetolisten.blogspot.com/ Asasumasu's blog]

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Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:Autism activists

Category:1982 births

Category:Autistic people

Category:People with epilepsy

Category:People with post-traumatic stress disorder

Category:American activists with disabilities

Category:American people of Japanese descent

Category:American people of Croatian descent

Category:American people of Romanian descent

Category:American people of Mongolian descent