Yesterday as I was getting my rant on about the lack of TV coverage for the World Special Olympics, another blood-pressure-spiking story started making the rounds about Tracy Morgan, whose apparent strategy for getting out of hot water over homophobic remarks was to pick on a group he perceived as so uncool nobody would want to stand up for them. I recommend reading Rob Rummel-Hudson's post on the subject for more details on what was said and why we should be angry, but in brief, Morgan made a crack about people with intellectual disabilities that was not so much a joke as it was a cynical attempt to show that he was still an incorrect kinda guy.
He's certainly not the first person to assume that people with special needs have no constituency, that they're the last group it's still okay to offend. It's the same mindset that allows all of the things we've been talking about over the past week -- airlines' uncaring attitudes toward customers with nut allergies, churches' willing rejection of worshipers who require accommodations, businesses making it clear that they don't value the patronage of families with hard-to-handle children, the constant beat of rejection we get from community groups and schools and playgroups and daycares and random strangers. They may not say it in as blunt a way as Tracy Morgan, but the clear message is, "Hey, I have to be polite to people who can make things difficult for me, but you? You, I can be rude to."
That's just the kind of attitude we need to stand against, not in our little interest groups of single-disability issues, but as a large and growing and mouthy group of people who care about children and adults with disabilities regardless of their particular diagnosis and want everybody to know that we are big enough to be counted, big enough to make noise, big enough to be worth not offending. It's too bad that it takes size and volume to make that happen, but sometimes that's all bullies respond to.
I'm adding this to the forum topic on causes to take up to demand respect for our children and families. Fans of 30 Rock may want to write to NBC and express their feelings about Morgan's comments and his continued role on that series. If you're not comfortable with that or aren't a viewer to begin with, you can still blog about this, Tweet about it, post about it on your Facebook page, sign on to my manifesto, or otherwise raise your voice to make it clear that on this issue and others, you are one of the many standing up against disrespect.
And if you've seen an issue related to your child's particular disability that you'd like all parents to get up in arms about, post it in the "We Expect Respect" forum folder too. Let's rouse some rabble.