It all started with a simple response to a Facebook video
post from a friend of mine. The video
showed a high school basketball team and its manager who has autism. The team manager was doing a great job and
the video made it clear that the team was performing a charitable act by having
the boy as the manager. The team was so
thrilled by the manger’s performance that they allowed him to suit up in the
team uniform for practice before the team’s last game. In the video the boy is shown making not 1,
not 2 but 3 3-point baskets. Yet he was
not a member of the team, even though he showed the ability to shoot a
3-pointer.
Responses to the video were what you would expect. People wrote of how heartwarming the
experience was for all concerned. Some
even commented on having misty eyes as a result of watching it. My reaction was completely different. OK, I should have kept my fingers in my
lap. But I just could not do that. I HATE it when kids with disabilities become
someone else’s charity.
So I wrote a response that people should not patronize
people with disabilities. Making a kid a
manger just because he has a
disability is insulting and disrespectful.
I believe that people with disabilities also have many abilities. They should be able to compete using those
abilities or not make the team or whatever else it is they are trying to
do. Clearly this boy had some basketball
ability. He could have played JV if he
weren’t good enough for varsity. At
least it would have been honest achievement.
I got a ton of responses and everyone rejected my
position. No I am not opposed to Special
Olympics. Those kids compete on a level
playing field. They are talented
athletes. I am also strongly in favor
of people with disabilities being able to try out against their non-disabled
peers for other school teams. Personally
I would not want someone to be nice to me as an act of charity. Like me or don’t like me for whom I am not
because you see it as your ticket to heaven.
Does that make me cold hearted?
Perhaps. It also makes me someone
who respects people (including young people) for the skills that they do
have. It also makes me someone who does
not define a person by his/her disability label.
It really bothers me that people slammed you for your input on the video. Clearly, these are people who don't know you.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I could not agree more! I’ve seen the video dozens of times and something about it has always made me feel uncomfortable. I couldn’t put my finger on it until you so beautifully articulated it in your blog. Keeping that young man on the sidelines all season effectively established to his peers, his teachers, his family, and to HIM, that he was somehow ‘lesser than’ his teammates. Had they allowed (or, dare I say it, encouraged) him to play throughout the season, they would have been able to tease out this relative ‘strength’ AND he would have been seen as an asset to the team/community, rather than a burden.
We are all *dis*abled by something. Too often we label people by their challenges/differences, as opposed to their strengths. We tend to judge people by what society deems their least desirable skill or attribute. You are spot on Dr. J! It’s insulting! When we have low expectations of someone, they will surely live up to them!