Thread by @JHMarble

For those who care about autism research, it’s important to note that the @AutismINSAR Board continues to include only ONE person of color and ONE autistic person.

That’s unacceptable. Period.
💯

Nominations for the INSAR President have been announced.

autism-insar.org/page/PresElect…

Whomever is elected, it is imperative that they and the @AutismINSAR Board take additional steps to center autistic people and POC in its leadership, press their member institutions to do the same, and take more steps to make INSAR equitable for autistic/POC researchers.

It is also time for @AutismINSAR to begin evaluating the leadership composition of board nominees who represent institutes with all-white leadership (many) or who fail to include #ActuallyAutistic people in their leadership (almost all).

What joyous work that would be!

As it so happens, I’ll be speaking soon alongside researchers from the research institutes of the two @AutismINSAR Nominees for President (@SeaverAutism & @UCLASemel). I look forward to sharing with them necessity of centering people of color and autistic people within INSAR.

Y’all, this is simple stuff. It’s 2020. The start of the Millennium was 20 years ago. Yet, autistic people and people of color are still #WaitingForTonight* when it comes to @AutismINSAR representation. Let’s not do that.

*Dad joke about THE song used for all #Y2K celebrations.

And please don’t read this as an angry tweet thread. This is joyous work!

What a privilege it is for @AutismINSAR to be addressing its barriers. It’s recently taken some positive steps for inclusion. Now, take more! Imagine the impact on science and autistic people.

😃🙌

I hope this topic is front-and-center as @AutismINSAR gathers in Seattle this May. There are AMAZING researchers in INSAR who believe this too. As they gather in Seattle, they have my support.

*Insert #DadJoke GIF of #Frasier in reference to Seattle.

Let’s get at it!