Transcript for In My Language

In My Language

A Translation

The previous part of this video

was in my native language.

Many people have assumed that

when I talk about this being my language

that means that each part of the video

must have a particular symbolic message within it

designed for the human mind to interpret.

But my language is not about designing

words or even visual symbols

for people to interpret.

It is about being in a constant conversation

with every aspect of my environment.

Reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings.

In this part of the video

the water doesn't symbolize anything.

I am just interacting with the water

as the water interacts with me.

Far from being purposeless, the way that I move

is an ongoing response to what is around me.

Ironically, the way that I move

when responding to everything around me

is described as "being in a world of my own"

whereas if I interact with a much more

limited set of responses

and only react to a much more

limited part of my surroundings

people claim that I am

"opening up to true interaction with the world"

They judge my existence, awareness and personhood

on which of a tiny and limited part of the world

I appear to be reacting to.

The way I naturally think and respond to things

looks and feels so different from standard concepts

or even visualization

that some people do not consider it thought at all

but it is a way of thinking in its own right.

However the thinking of people like me

is only taken seriously

if we learn your language,

no matter how we previously thought or interacted

As you heard

I can sing along with what is around me.

It is only when I type something in your language

that you refer to me as having communication.

I smell things.

I listen to things.

I feel things.

I taste things.

I look at things.

It is not enough to look and listen

and taste and smell and feel,

I have to do those to the right things

such as look at books

and fail to do them to the wrong things

or else people doubt that I am a thinking being

and since then their definition of thought

defines their definition of personhood

so ridiculously much

they doubt that I am a real person as well.

I would like to honestly know how many people

if you met me on the street

would believe I wrote this.

I find it very interesting by the way

that failure to learn your language

is seen as a deficit

but failure to learn my language

is seen as so natural

that people like me are officially described

as mysterious and puzzling

rather than anyone admitting

that it is themselves who are confused

not autistic people or other cognitively disabled people

who are inherently confusing.

We are even viewed as non-communicative

if we don't speak the standard language

but other people are not considered non-communicative

if they are so oblivious to our own languages

as to believe they don't exist.

In the end I want you to know

that this has not been intended

as a voyeuristic freak show

where you get to look at the bizarre workings

of the autistic mind.

It is meant as a strong statement

on the existence and value of many different kinds

of thinking and interaction

in a world where how close you can appear

to a specific one of them

determines whether you are seen as a real person

or an adult or an intelligent person.

And in a world in what those determine

whether you have any rights

there are people being tortured, people dying

because they are considered non-persons

because their kind of thought

is so unusual as to not be considered

thought at all.

Only when the many shapes of personhood

are recognized

will justice and human rights be possible.

In My Language

Dedicated to Ashley X

Dedicated to all other people

who are considered non-persons or non-thinking.

Dedicated to Bryna Siegel

Dedicated to all other people

who wrongly view our actions as purposeless.

Written and produced by A M Baggs

Acted and sung by A M Baggs and assorted objects

Thanks, people whose ideas helped inspire this:

Charles of "The Misbehaviour of Behaviourists"

Lucas of "The Misbehaviour of the Behaviourists"

Donna Williams

Dave Hingsburger

Cal Montgomery

Laura Tisoncik