One of my introductions to disability studies and disability advocacy came through examination (through both readings and media) of the disability community's feelings about the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon.
Kay Olson has a series of posts on the issue, and she specifically observes:
Good intentions are tricky. With philanthropy, you can get so invested in your own self-righteous helpfulness that you fail to see you aren't respecting the objects of your charity and their needs. On a personal level that could be called narcissism. On a broader level, it is the annual MDA Telethon in the United States, hosted by comedian Jerry Lewis.
The telethon has historically relied on pity to sell the need for a cure and Lewis is the unabashed champion of portraying disabled people as pathetic victims and unemployable "half-persons" for the cause. He's also completely unapologetic about demeaning disabled people to raise cash. Never mind that pity never helped any disadvantaged group of people gain their own place in the world. Never mind that he's raised billions for that still-elusive cure while disabled folks languish in institutions and remain largely unemployed because of societal barriers maintained by attitudes like his.
The search for magic bullets is problematic for a variety of reasons, as Allan Brandt and Gerald Grob have both noted. They deflect attention away from the social conditions that structure health and funnel huge sums of money into research when such monies, or even a portion thereof, could do wonders if directed to public health, rehabilitation, preventive medicine, and other social initiatives designed to ameliorate disablism.
They also promote disablism by presuming that impairment is abnormal and single-mindedly focusing on ways to correct the deviance.
As Kay puts it, "a life that is considered hopeless without a cure is held rather cheap."
More anti-telethon blogging over at Disability Studies Blog, and are gathered in blogswarm format at Kara Sheridan's blog.
Hi -- I wanted to make sure you knew about the latest that is happening with Jerry and his, yes, humanitarian award:
Jerry Lewis, the man who runs the annual Telethon to raise money for people with muscular dystrophy in the US is about to receive a humanitarian award. Many people in the disability community is protesting this award because they feel that Jerry perpetuates and entrenches negative, harmful stereotypes toward people with disabilities. More about the petition campaign at: http://www.petitiononline.com/jlno2009/petition.html
There is also a Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40538392681
Posted by: Andrea Shettle, MSW | January 11, 2009 at 09:43 PM