The League to Fight Neurelitism
Position Statement on Psycho Donuts
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For Immediate Release [first published on April 7, 2009]

The League to Fight Neurelitism, as a public sociology and an advocacy journalism project, actively promotes a consistent application of United Nations values on human rights and social justice to all persons on the autism spectrum.

The California-based company, Psycho Donuts, provides us with another unfortunate example of corporate insensitivity toward the psychologically and neurologically different. On the restaurant's website is featured a padded cell, and two donut varieties are named Bipolar and Psycho.

The League to Fight Neurelitism recognizes that the owner or owners of the company may not have intended to offend entire segments of the U.S. population. Indeed, they most likely consider their business model to be merely an entertaining approach to selling their product.

Nonetheless, the League to Fight Neurelitism, working to promote the rights of the neuordiverse, sees this issue differently. Given that, to us, the company's name and website are offensive and discriminatory, we politely, but firmly, encourage the company to reconsider its marketing strategy.

A large U.S. restaurant chain, Sambo's, became controversial, during the Civil Rights Movement, due to its name. Although the African American pejorative was unrelated to the selection of the name, eventually, all but one restaurant closed down. Why, now in the twenty-first century, is it acceptable to open one which mocks the psychologically and neurologically different?

Respectfully submitted,

Mark A. Foster, Ph.D.
Founding Director,
The League to Fight Neurelitism

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