Kenneth Langone, Board Chairman
New York University Medical Center
ken@invemed.com

Martin Lipton, Board of Trustee Chairman
New York University
mlipton@wlrk.com

John Sexton, President
New York University
john.sexton@nyu.edu

Indeed, Harold’s dubious laments notwithstanding, “political correctness” stands sorely charged. The opiate of the masses’ conscience, as it were.

Once I (finally) learned of the spectrum, and began to understand how it defined my relationship with society (such as it is), it didn’t take me long to see the commonalities shared by all “out-groups” — and why my steadfast LACK of faith in both authority and “good intentions,” contrary to what I have been endlessly told, is about as “maladaptive” as using lungs for breathing.

Just as the male “experts” who “studied women’s issues” in the 1800’s and beyond lent impunity to abusive husbands and all aspects of patriarchy; just as the “experts” who “proved” that blacks were “inherently less intelligent” than whites lent impunity to lynchmobs and legislators alike; just as the “model minority” perception has lent impunity to the pervasive societal ignorance and dismissal of the needs of the Asian-American community; so, the “awareness” rhetoric as exemplified by Koplewicz’s ill-fated campaign threatened to lend even more impunity to the ongoing wholesale dehumanization and abuse of the entirety of the disability and neurodiversity communities — impunity for the forgivably clueless “PCers” who populate our lives, and impunity for abusers ranging from those who genuinely mean well to those who openly hate and kill, from bullies on the playground to the systematic horrors such as are practiced at the Judge Rotenburg Center and so many other institutions…

And they just can’t understand why we would be so ungrateful. After all, they’re only trying to help.

Oh, I keep forgetting: rebellion against abuse is conclusive evidence of pathology.

:-p

The campaign was meant to outrage and it doesn’t take much talent to outrage. I’m living proof of that

dkm, you wrote “pervasiveness and relentlessness”—–I still feel a twinge when certain now “outdated” terms are used to refer to Asians and Asian American. (I won’t go into depictions of women in ad campaigns or I will go off on a tangent……..) For all the “awareness” that has supposedly been in place, “Ransom Notes” seems very much a throwback to an earlier, less “enlightened” time.

I still do not like the “Ransom Notes” campaign for many of the same reasons that many in addition to myself have stated, and because I think that they have misgauged the public effect. But to be somewhat fair to NYU, besides the donations (I found the example of $5000 *interesting*), there is also an option to volunteer at the center, depending on what opportunities exist (more of administrative, but some assistant positions as well).
Browsing the site, I found this video and I wondered if it might have had an influence on the current campaign, based on some overlap of wording. I had not seen this film before:
“Childhood: Lost and Found, a short film produced exclusively for the Child Study Center by Nathaniel Kahn, Academy Award-nominated director of My Architect (2004), premiered at the 9th Annual Child Advocacy Award Dinner on December 4, 2006. The film featured a series of short vignettes with patients and families treated at the NYU Child Study Center. It tells the emotional story of children and families impacted by autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, selective mutism, dyslexia, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and how they have found a path to wellness through the NYU Child Study Center. ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXUUHihgMM8

The thing I always find most wanting in discussions of such stuff is a solid sense of the pervasiveness and relentlessness of the prejudice that is created and exacerbated by “edgy” rhetoric like that of the “Ransom Notes” campaign, and how that prejudice destroys quality of life day-by-day, year after year, without end. For those of us who have been made the target of it, the sense of its harmfulness is visceral, burned into our flesh — words are not necessary. But for those who have never been the target of pervasive prejudice, it’s as if no amount of explanation or description can possibly get through the shell of naïveté and/or resistance. Just as it is with racial and ethnic relations. Same problem. How to convey the depth and magnitude of damage done? I dunno…

Anyway, here’s my most recent (and tentative) installment in the discussion. Hopefully it’s not too awfully redundant:
NYU’s “Ransom Notes” campaign: How Will It Work?

Conspicuously absent is any mention of Koplewicz’s co-authorship of the highly unethical Paxil Study 329, and the highly profitable web of influence shared by the key players in this campaign … I’m not at all sure how to work that in without conveying even more bias to readers. Maybe the most useful thing would be to develop a more coherent thesis, and then stick to it. We’ll see.