“It’s a moment of undoing.” Hearing this short phrase, that so powerfully captures the pain and erasure inherent in stereotyping, took my breath away.

Hearing how it applied to autistic people – “If you’ve met one autistic person, you have met one autistic person.” – was a wake-up call for me. It expanded my sense of how easy it is to stereotype all sorts of people, and how quickly I may fall into this. An important reminder for me.

This all came from a story on NPR and their review of the Broadway musical, “How to Dance in Ohio.”

It’s well worth listening to. Here’s the link and here’s how NPR’s report begins.

“Even before the action of the Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio starts, its seven autistic actors walk onstage – as themselves – and tell the audience about what they’re going to see.

‘If you’ve met one autistic person, you have met one autistic person,’ one says. The audience laughs.

‘That is a moment that I love so much,’ said director Sammi Cannold. ‘Because I think that in a culture, in a world where so often saying ‘I’m autistic’ can carry embarrassment or shame or stigma…it’s a moment of undoing.'”