Monday, October 31, 2016

Linnea Soderlund: Attack on Autistic Black Teen

Summary: This article by Amy B. Wang tells the horrific story of a 15 year old non-verbal autistic athlete who was the victim of an unprovoked and assumably racist attack. Chase Coleman was a successful cross-country runner for his high school team in Syracuse, New York. He was running one race when he was attacked by an older white man who got out of his car to harass the teen because he thought he was being mugged. The case was dismissed by the court system, to the dismay of many peers, parents, and board members.

Analysis: This story breaks my heart. This young boy was doing so well in spite of the challenges he faced, only to have that crushed by some racist jerk who can't mind his own business. Chase is a great example of the success that kids suffering from autism and other disabilities can reach. He overcame a lot to be able to run in those races and I hate to see that go to waste. This sort of bigotry and hate is unacceptable and deeply saddening.

Synthesis: This can obviously be related to all the stories of systematic and societal racism in this country such as police brutality, unjust incarcerations, etc. I hate that this has become so painfully normal.

4 comments:

  1. hmmm interesting that this happened, just isn't right in my eyes!

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  2. This is awful. I hate that things like this keep on happening in America.

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  3. This is terrible. I can't believe things like this are becoming more and more common in our world. It's so awful.

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  4. This article is heartbreaking but I am not surprised. This sort of hate shouldn't be happening.

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