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This didn’t get any publicity on Oscars Sunday. But, at the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, people in wheelchairs were lined up outside to protest that evening’s bestowing of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis because they object to the way he talks about “the cripples” during publicity for his MDA fundraising. “They even duped one of the security guards into letting someone use the rest rooms. And when the door opened, they stormed the grand lobby,” an organizer told me. “[AMPAS executive director] Bruce Davis had to come downstairs to try to appease the people, but more so to make sure that the foreign press that was already gathered there wouldn’t write about the incident.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I honestly didn’t know “cripples” wasn’t PC.
Not sure how one refers to a crowd of crippled people.
Leave Jerry alone. He’s raised hundreds of millions for the crippled. What else could you ask for?
Nikke, why to you have to promote these publicity whores? These people are stooges.
disabled is the term used for many years. jerry took a group of vibrant, intelligent and disabled children and played on pity, perpetuating the stereotype of helpless, ignorant and deformed. they’re human beings not causes to be trivialized.
to say that there’s nothing wrong with calling them ‘cripples’ because they are is like justifying the use of ‘colored people’ because they are. times change and terminologies have changed as well. terminologies that the disabled find far more appropriate and prefer. i’ll take my cues from the disabled community on these things and not jerry who’ve they’ve been trying to educate for decades.
here’s a glossary of terms from a group that works with disability in arts & entertainment – Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. even among that list there is debate but its the best out there if you want an up to date listing of preferred terms.
Um…you might want to read up about why people with disabilities aren’t in love with Jerry Lewis before passing judgement. If he held fundraisers to benefit the “coloreds” and made them shuck and jive on television before he’d give them any money, would that be OK? He pretty much did the same thing to “Jerry’s kids”. If you aren’t sure what to call certain groups of people, there’s this amazing thing out there called the internet that can help you figure it out.
Jerry Lewis is of an era that predates political correctness. In a way, I am glad. Because in Jerry’s era, you had to work your ass off year after year to raise millions of dollars to fight a disease before the media called you a humanitarian. Now post-PC, all you have to do is fly to exotic countries and adopt several children to be called a humanitarian. It might be great for those four or five kids who get adopted, but it is nothing compared to what Jerry Lewis has done for thousands upon thousands of “crippled” children in his lifetime. Our country is so screwed up. Our priorities are so screwed up. I am disgusted by how blind we have become.
Lewis has described disabled people as “half a person” and referred to a wheelchair as “a steel imprisonment.”
For more than two decades, disability rights advocates have objected to Lewis’ portrayal of life with a disability as tragic and pathetic. In response, Lewis snarled, “You don’t want to be pitied because you’re a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!”
“To outsiders, Jerry Lewis may be perceived as a humanitarian, but to us Lewis personifies one of the biggest barriers facing people with disabilities: outdated attitudes,” said author and activist Laura Hershey, a protest organizer. “While the Motion Picture Academy has chosen to award Lewis the Hersholt award due to the money raised on his MDA Telethons, we counter “the cost is too high. Money can’t buy respect.” Said Hershey, “we experience the side-effects of Lewis’ pity-mongering every day, when people see us as victims rather than as contributors, as recipients of handouts rather than equal citizens. Every dime raised has been at cost of our dignity.”
Over 30 organizations endorse The Trouble with Jerry campaign, and to date over 2600 individuals have signed a petition protesting the award. The petition states in part, “Rather than working for equality and social inclusion of disabled people, the MDA Telethon portrays us as hopeless, pathetic, eternal children.’”
Author and activist Laura Hershey, a protest organizer. “While the Motion Picture Academy has chosen to award Lewis the Hersholt award due to the money raised on his MDA Telethons, we counter “the cost is too high.
I’m guessing she would be more than happy to accept a cure if it was achieved due to the MDA Telethon fundraising being able to finance the research.
Hypocrite
Yeah, they bitch about his language, but do you see any of them turning down the money he raises or the benefits of the research that came from that money?
Thanks for the PC briefings. I’m always impressed by people who devote major energy to banning words and ideas. I presume the minority unhappy with Jerry Lewis would be pleased to live without the $2 billion worth of medical research he’s enabled.
Thanks Jerry for all you have done with MDA fundraising.
I wish you would help with Huntington’s disease fundraising.
He might be a jerk but he has helped research in MDA and I would love him to help Huntington’s disease research. If you have Huntington’s disease the last thing you are worried about is being PC.
My best friend just died from it last week
she had it for 20 years mis-diagnosed for most of those years…
Has MD been cured? I don’t think so. You want a humanatarian…there are lots of people who have MDA who make productive citizens and have not taken one dime of MDA money, attended the camps. You like him, I have no regard for Jerry Lewis’ tactics…he is a pity monger.
How quickly many of you judge. Whores? Us? We don’t take a dime from Jerry or the MDA. We do not thrive on pity. I feel so sorry for those of you who choose to use judgemental words. We are a community of pride, we help one another…we did not ask for the MDA “thon”…we did however make reasonable request BEFORE the “thons” began to offer PC terms, talk about living independently, schools, careers…so many positive things that would never raise a dime.
In addition…Jerry has spoken of “fags” and women in an equally negative way. No doubt in the minds of those who have written about our protest…are you also OK with Jerry Lewis casting espersions on women and “fags” too! As our president said, we are not black, white, red, brown, disabled, senior…we are Americans! No doubt you also voted for McCain as the red tinge around your collar is evident! M.
It’s even worse. When Leslie Bennetts was writing that article for Vanity Fair in the the late 1990s “Letter from Los Vegas” about Jerry’s Kids v. him, he actually threatened to kill her. When she asked him if disabled persons didn’t have some valid points to make he said “fuck them … do it in caps FUCK THEM.”
Some of you seem to suffer from the delusion that MDA research has actually accomplished something. After years and years it has produced next to nothing yet MDA keeps pouring money into a black hole. Why not use that money so people may live quality lives at home with personal care assistants, get an education, and have a foundation for a good life with MD.
You think cure is everything??? It is not esp. when the MDA pays its CEO more than the president of the United States.
Maggie and MR,
I visited the TroubleWithJerry website. Let me get this straight: You think that people treat people in wheelchairs differently that those who are not because Jerry Lewis uses pity during the annual MDA telethon? Had you given any thought to the fact that there are people who do the same without knowing who or what Jerry Lewis is? In fact, I would guess most people under the age of 40 have never seen the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon.
Jerry Lewis has raised a couple of billion dollars for MDA, but that all goes out the window because a few people (2000 at most) think that the reason people treat them differently is Jerry Lewis.
I don’t agree with some of the insensitive things Jerry Lewis has said about homosexuals and people in wheelchairs, but to negate all of his good deeds because of his language is dim at best. It is a totalitarian ideology that is more akin to radical conservatism than progressive thought.
I am a democrat, and I am smart enough to know that people treat other people differently because of fears and misunderstanding not because of Jerry Lewis. If Jerry Lewis is using pity, ask him to stop, but don’t negate all of his work to cure a disease. If you want to dismiss his work, you might want to ask yourself why your anger is directed at one of the few people who has devoted his life to doing something good. It is so much easier to tear something down than to build something yourself.
Paul
While I understand the negative feelings towards Jerry I have to say that this is a man from a totally different era and you can’t just change what you say with the tide when it is what was perfectly acceptable for many, many decades before.
Additionally rather than crying about it here why don’t the organizations kindly refuse to accept any money raised by Jerry. Naaaa you won’t see that happen because you all are HYPOCRITES! Shame on you for condeming a man and still taking the money he raises.