Comedians in New York are nastily targeting Governor Paterson’s blindness (Happily, his racial status has not been similarly commented upon.). In the New York Times on Friday, February 6, Clyde Haberman in his NYC column (“Equal Opportunity to be the Target of Low Blows and Tasteless Jokes”) took exception to the “comedy writers with frat-boy sensibilities”, saying “the level of humor might fairly be described as sophomoric were that not an insult to sophomores.” The writer also quoted Marcie Roth, executive director of the National Coalition for Disability Rights, as saying skits on Saturday Night Live reflected a “ridiculous, ongoing, permissible bigotry.”
We wholly concur! And, yes, it’s February and Spring is definitely in the air – in Chicago and in New York City – so bullying, a seasonal malady, is on the rise. It sometimes seems that, when these guys come out of hibernation in the early Spring, they look around for something to complain about besides the weather, like the finger-biting woodchuck. Of course, they find their targets (like Mayor Bloomberg’s finger) -- anyone they consider to be “different”, especially anyone who does not “look like them”. We live in difficult times and, apparently, these guys feel better when they “pick on” – read: harass, tease, ridicule, victimize, etc – somebody. Not just anybody, though. Is it because they feel victimized by the world? Is that why their targets are so often people with disabilities whom they consider to be victims? According to lawyers who deal with this problem, a greater proportion of students with disabilities are bullied and harassed than the rest of the school population.
I wish each of them could have a real conversation with someone with a disability like my youngest daughter -- a quad who has a Masters degree, works fulltime, owns her own condo on the shores of Lake Michigan, and is (as they might say!) as funny as a busted crutch! And why, you might ask! What’s so funny about a crutch, especially a busted one? Not much, let me tell you! Having used them, I don’t think crutches are funny, but it is a very prevalent figure of speech. But my daughter is funny, i.e., humorous. And so are most folks I know who also have a disability. They do see the essential humor of life, the absurdity of life, if you will. Few of them in my experience indulge in bitterness or unkindness or ridicule. And not one of them in my experience feels victimized by their disability.
One of the most sickening examples of human misbehavior, to my mind, is the victimization of another human being in any way, for any reason – even if “it’s only in fun”. Those people who seem to derive satisfaction from stooping to victimize anyone they think is “different” are truly the weakest among us. How pitiful, how self-demeaning it is to need ego gratification from ridiculing others.
The next time you hear someone bullying – even if only verbally, do us all a favor: speak up! Tell the bully to drop it, stop it, grow up, be a real person. If you can’t speak up, at least don’t join in – or laugh! You’ll really feel better as a defender than as an offender. Try it. Please don’t join it.
http://www.livescience.com/health/00308-workplace-bully.html
http://www.ancomm.com/code_of_silence/index.html?gclid=COvGsKOC2JgCFQJHx...
http://www.hazelden.org/web/go/olweusparent
http://www.barrington220.org/bullying/frm.asp?type=new
Disability Harassment, by Mark C Weber, Vincent de Paul Professor of Law, DePaul University, Chicago. A readable reference book with excellent notes, 217 pp.
Published by New York University Press (www.nyupress.org)
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jo holzer
Having grown up in the South before desegregation, I was exposed to acts of discrimination for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I could easily understand the depth of emotions of both parties -- it was unmistakable. I was taught the traditional Southern subtleties as a matter of course -- the reasons for "keeping him in his place" and what his place was, for example. More
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