Citizen Odai Quaye has been published speaking on his experiences being black, autistic and unemployed as a guest post on Employment Autism. This article builds on Odai’s earlier talk he gave in October 2023.
Even in this barren desert of disappointment, I’ve managed to find an oasis or two of positive things to talk about. Perhaps the most important of them being the process of learning that I don’t need to fit into anything and to embrace the grey area I fall in – the grey area that is of being a Black British (African Caribbean) person with more than one invisible mental condition and also not having a public social niche (goths, punks, ravers etc) of my own as well. The chagrin from those attempts at integration is what led to me distancing myself from others, more as a benefit to prevent me getting more bitter, and affecting relationships, but also even though it led to me being more isolated – as an only child I had already learned to appreciate my own company.
There’s real strength from that, but it doesn’t get talked about a lot, so I try to advocate to others who find that they can’t integrate or totally separate themselves. I’ve finally managed to obtain something resembling a safety network – it’s not fully formed but compared to what I had in the past it is a large improvement and I’m deeply grateful for all the people involved who’ve been in my corner so I can at least feel to some degree that I don’t have to carry everything by myself any more.
Read more at Employment Autism: https://employmentautism.org.uk/cast-down-your-bucket/
