By now, you’ve probably heard about the recent Kanye West incident. On tour in Australia, he asked his audience to stand up—unless, he said, “You got a handicap pass and you get special parking and s**t.” When a couple of people in the audience didn’t get up, he singled them out until it was confirmed that they did, indeed, have disabilities and could not stand up and dance. Then the concert went on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De_1VKqNoLg
Much social media outrage ensued. Disability rights groups in Australia demanded an apology. Kanye’s response: He played the victim. “I’m a married Christian man with a family,” he proclaimed to an audience. “At my concerts, I make sure everybody has good of a time as possible, so all this demonizing me it ain’t going to work after a while.”
Not surprisingly, wife Kim Kardashian had an equally weak defense. She posted a video of his performance on Instagram and wrote, “What an amazing Australian tour! Its frustrating that something so awesome could be clouded by lies in the media. Kanye never asked anyone in a wheel chair to stand up & the audience videos show that. He asked for everyone to stand up & dance UNLESS they were in a wheel chair. #JustWantedEveryoneToHaveAFunNight #TheMediaTwistsThings”
This is hardly about Kanye mistakingly calling out people with disabilities in the audience. And clearly, this isn’t about some well-intentioned singer getting bashed for no reason. It’s about him publicly leaving out people with disabilities. Think about it: How would any one of us feel if we were one of thousands in an audience and everyone was asked to engage except us? Couldn’t he have at least said, “And if getting up’s not your thing, wave your hands in the air” or something like that?
Kanye and Kim are not exactly models of empathy and goodness, but still, their mindsets aren’t uncommon. I’ve seen this as the mom of a kid with cerebral palsy. Forget about people refusing to accommodate Max—they just don’t think to include him, whether it’s kids playing a game at a party or on the playground. It’s often up to me as his mom to pave the road for him. I am always standing by, but I ache for this sort of inclusion to happen naturally.
One good thing to come out of the Kanye kerfuffle: It’s getting people talking about how we treat people with disabilities.
From my other blog:
A kid for just a little longer: The joys of parenting children with special needs
On not hoping too hard that your child will develop
What’s that perfume I’m wearing? Eau de Pee