Manifesto behind the Mask

As part of this blog series, I started reading a book called Autism Equality in the Workplace, by Janine Booth. The book opens with a poem written by Janine entitled “Manifesto behind the Mask”. Janine has been kind enough to allow me to share it with you:

Make me a mask so that no-one can see
That the face that I’m wearing is not really me
Get me a glaze to go over my eyes
To look like I’m looking while melting inside

Fetch me some specs that can read between lines
Fit me antennae that pick up the signs
Lend me a lens that reads unwritten rules
Bless me with patience to help suffer fools

Find me a babel fish trained to translate
The looks and the hints and the traps and the bait
Arm me with ammo so I’m never caught
In the crossfire of banter without a retort

Fit me a filter to sift out distraction
Teach me a trick to predict a reaction
Create me a coat like the back of a duck
So nothing will stick when they throw enough muck

Install me a switch that will turn off my thinking
Considering, probing, deciphering, linking
At least fit a dimmer or slow-mo or pause
To turn down the volume or close all the doors

Give me that gift that they call ‘inhibition’
So I know when to hush and reserve my position
Programme an app that decodes all the crap
Build me a bridge ‘cross the processing gap

Alternatively …

Make me a world where not every place
Is buzzing with noise or invading my space
Set up society so you can converse
And I can obsess and neither is worse

Where statements are clear and where reasoning’s sound
Where some holes are square ‘cos not all pegs are round
Where life on a spectrum is not to be feared
Diversity’s normal and no-one is weird

Ditch the requirement for all to conform
Broaden our meaning of what is the norm
Change the arrangements, compete rather less
Co-operate more, re-envision ‘success’

Where a living’s a right not a gift or a perk
Where we’re working to live, we’re not living to work
Where skills are acknowledged and talents are freed
From each by ability, to each by need

Design a fresh start where there’s room to relax
To think, to imagine, to heal up the cracks
Agree some new rules where we all have control
Of our workplaces, life spaces, world as a whole

A future where fear, hate and bullying stop
A system where people not profit come top
Surely this isn’t too much that I ask
But until we achieve it — please make me that mask

What do you think?

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About Janine Booth:

Janine Booth is a workplace trade union representative and Co-Chair of the TUC Disabled Workers’ Committee. She is autistic, and has an autistic son, and is a walking advertisement for autism in the workplace. Janine wrote the TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference policy on Autism in the Workplace and runs training events for the Workers’ Educational Association and for trade unions.

More about Autism Equality in the Workplace:

Autism in the Workplace is intended for any person with an interest in changing working culture to ensure equality for autistic people. It is an essential resource for employers, managers, trade unionists, people with ASCs and their workmates and supporters.