Why 'Robot' Jokes Are Hurtful to Many Autistic People

Please stop calling people robots.

I’ve often heard this comment made about Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg may not be your Person of the Year, but autistic people often hear “you act like a robot” while growing up.

A 2012 study documented on StopBullying.gov found 46 percent of autistic middle and high school students were victimized in their previous year — and that’s just the young adults who shared their stories with their parents.

Of course, not all autistic students are called robots. Bullying comes in different shades. Autistic traits manifest on a spectrum, too. Yet if the child or young adult develops a certain prosody, or way of speaking, that’s different from their peers, it’s very possible they’ve been belittled for… well, just talking. And that can be a real downer.

I’ve been rendered into silence more than once by the “robot joke,” C-PTSD knocking on the door of my childhood memory bank. When this happens, I step out of the room for a bit — unless physical distance isn’t an option. If I can’t leave, I disassociate from the conversation.

I know the majority of people who make this statement mean no harm. It’s a societal norm to poke at the 1 percent and Silicon Valley crowd; Zuckerberg snuggles nicely into both groups. But given we’re still figuring out the co-occurrence rate of trauma-based disorders in autistic people — we’re not even confident on how to diagnose it; like many mental wellness issues, it manifests differently on the spectrum — I think it’d be best to step away from this “sounds like a robot” business.

Treat potential reminders of bullying gently.