Redirect Your Desire For Accuracy

‘Perhaps I like accuracy instead of sweeping generalisations?’

A comment on one of my recent LinkedIn posts, when asked why they felt the need to ‘correct’ me.

The post in question, was about the different ways white people in the UK are showing up right now, with respect to the race riots taking place. The original post can be seen here, and screenshots are shown below. I have no ill will towards the commenter and am using this exchange as an opportunity for learning. The commenter began by asking why the media ‘insists on calling this violent behaviour protests’. As with any question on my posts, if I have an answer that doesn’t require a lot of labour, I will share it. When I provided an answer, they replied that ‘it was not entirely true’ but they ‘got my point’. When I asked them to explain how it was ‘not entirely true’, and asked why they felt the need to correct me, they ignored my first question and went on to describe my answer as a ‘sweeping generalisation’ and said they ‘liked accuracy’.

I have heard this line of thinking before. I have thought this line of thinking before. This pattern of thinking is deeply familiar to me as an Autistic person, and something I see frequently in neurodivergent discourse. It is also something I see frequently from racists and bigots. This is not a venn diagram that most folx I know would want to feature on.

I have a very high need for clarity. A need for clarity is reasonable, and yet often we are accused of being rude, arrogant, patronising, of not trusting someone, when we ask clarifying questions. Many neurodivergent folx require more information than initially given, so that we can make sure we fully understand, so that we can take part in the communication meaningfully, so that we can complete a task to the satisfaction of the task setter, to avoid painful and sometimes traumatic misunderstandings. Collectively we need to normalise asking questions, we need to normalise seeking clarity. We are deliberately given vague instructions, vague explanations, vague apologies, vague promises from those in power. We are taught that the best and brightest will understand without needing to ask questions. In reality, the ‘best and brightest’ are following orders without critical thought. The vagueness can cover up harmful, negligent, irresponsible, colonial intentions, and we have been raised to believe that ‘normal’ people understand the ramifications of this and are fine with it. What is actually happening a lot of the time, is people doing things without understanding why, without understanding how, and without understanding the impact of their actions. Clarity prevents harmful, incompetent, exploitative actions from taking place. When people fully comprehend the reasons behind their instructions and the consequences of their actions, they often choose a different path. Clarity is, therefore, a fundamental tool of liberation. But a need for clarity, is not the same as a need for accuracy.

A need for accuracy is not in itself problematic. The problems arise when people believe that they know something, but they don’t consider how colonial history impacts their understanding of what ‘is true’, or when they fail to consider the power dynamics between them and the person they seek to ‘correct’, and end up causing harm and creating room for further harm, by publicly challenging the credibility of someone with less access to whiteness and colonial benefits than themselves. The urge to correct, when defended with ‘I value accuracy’, and used without any thought to context, to interpersonal power dynamics, is a fundamental tool of harmful systems. It touches on three characteristics of white supremacy: ‘one right way’, ‘perfectionism’, and ‘objectivity’. The desire to correct is often described as a feature of neurodivergence, and very often associated with Autism. And while the autistic brain is often processing more information than a non autistic brain, that doesn’t mean that an autistic brain automatically has more information, more context, more lived experience, or the range to understand the nuance and depth of every situation, particularly for autistics without the experience of living in a brown-skinned body. If Autism, from the neuroscientific perspective, were to be viewed as a key to greater awareness, then similarly we can view whiteness as a protective layer from awareness. They interact, and because whiteness is a system, and Autism is a personal experience (that is also harmed by whiteness), whiteness wins. The lack of awareness, the lack of understanding of all the different ways colonial systems harm Black, brown, Indigenous people, and the great benefits to those racialised as white, are forces much greater than the way an individual’s mindbody works. Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre tells us that ‘white supremacy is not a shark; it is the water’. If you are someone who benefits from white supremacy, your version of reality is going to be very different from someone who is oppressed by it. ‘Accuracy’ becomes subjective, and the only way to integrate this is to accept that listening to the views of those who are more deliberately disadvantaged than ourselves is an opportunity to enrich our understanding, and expand our realities, while still applying critical thought and employing our own agency.

We can redirect this need for accuracy towards helpful, community, connection driven motivations. I talk a lot about situating ourselves within Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality, and this is another context in which this exercise is extremely helpful. If someone with the same level or greater access to whiteness and colonial benefits as you, is spreading harmful misinformation (deliberately or otherwise) and you have information that can contribute to harm reduction, then this is a great way to apply a desire for accuracy. In this situation, your motivation is harm reduction, dismantling systems of harm, helping people to expand their compassion. This is very different to the colonial conditioning that embeds a desire ‘to be right’ and ‘to correct’. Understanding your own motivation and what underlying programming is driving that desire, is key to making different decisions about how to apply a need for accuracy. Can I reduce harm here? Can I help? Or am I doing this for my own sense of rightness? Of superiority? Of perfectionism?

I will always feel the desire to ‘correct misinformation’. I have experienced it my whole life, it is a fundamental part of how my mindbody works. However, my work to decolonise my thinking has enabled me to expand and redirect how I engage with this aspect of myself. All mindbody features operate within context, and the more we familiarise ourselves with that context, the better we can feel about embracing our neuro normal without shame or internalised ableism. There is nothing wrong with the need for accuracy, we just need to remember that ‘truth’ can be very blurry through the waters of white supremacy.

— AJ

Today’s Neuro-Embodiment Prompts:

Suggestions and questions to help you engage with mindbody decolonisation:

• If you experience a strong desire for accuracy, how is this interacting with your access to whiteness and other colonial systems (patriarchy/capitalism)? How might situating yourself within intersectionality support you in this?

• Some questions to ask yourself when you experience a desire to correct;

  • What power dynamics are present?

  • Does it need to be me that ‘corrects’ this person?

  • What could be unintended consequences of doing this publicly?

  • What is my motivation?

  • How can I reduce harm here?

  • How can I learn here (without exploiting Global Majority folx)?

• How do you want to expand your understanding of truth? How do you want to challenge colonial ideas about objectivity, truth and accuracy?