And moreover, how did so many people come to be complete morons when it comes to coping with disability?
A quick glance at the statistics for disabled bullying is saddening.
And it gets worse in adulthood, when childhood bullying escalates into actual criminal violence. See this for example, and this. It honestly makes me cry.
And it’s little wonder that people are growing up so small minded and hateful, with parents like this out there.
Yes indeed, there’s a *shock* *horror* disabled presenter on CBBC, and she’s scaring the children you know.
(Or more likely the parents)
Of course they rationalise their prejudices with posts such as this:
Barry writes, "Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on Cbeebies (Cerrie Burnell) may scare the kids because of her disability?”
(I wish it was just you Barry, you great big twat)
But for all their talk of protecting children’s poor young eyes from the sight of a disabled woman, I have personal experience of their real motives.
It’s simply that they find disability distasteful. They don’t want to see it. They want it hidden away.
I know this because I have witnessed firsthand the disgusted looks that my brother gets in the street.
We’ve had people approach us, and tell us that we should have ‘kept that at home, I don’t want to see it’
We even had neighbours who didn’t want a disabled person living next door, and objected to my brother’s school minibus stopping outside. Full of disabled kids it was. Dis-gus-ting.
Here’s a picture of him by the way, so you can appreciate the full horror.
And here's that scary presenter:
Terrifying…
Anyway, I have written about this a couple of times, here and here, but feel like right now this is a losing battle.
Things are only going to improve if disabled kids and so-called normal kids are made to mix from day one.
My brother went to a regular nursery and infant school, and all the kids, bar none, who attended with him are totally open to disabled people and have no hang ups.
But it’s not being done. Instead disabled people are hidden away, and regular kids are being brought up in ignorance, as per the CBBC story.
And ignorance, unchecked, morphs into prejudice and fear.
Whilst we’re on this sorry subject, and if you feel so inclined, I have a JustGiving page. Donations go to helping adults with learning difficulties.
3 comments:
I was watching CBeebies the other day with my lady and our two year old and I can completely confirm that my little one was neither shocked or scared. And she seems quite good in the standards of CBeebies. Certainly not as irritating as that mad fella in the clown get up. One of the many reasons I love the Beeb.
"We’ve had people approach us, and tell us that we should have ‘kept that at home, I don’t want to see it’"
That's about as disabled as you can get. I don't particularly want to see their ugly souls off the leash on my street but what can you do except scrape it off when you step in it?
People are nuts — and I don't mean the obviously nutty ones who I quite like. I once tried to shoo away a Jack Russell from a dimwit squirrel it was trying to savage in Regents Park, only for its owner, a sour-faced middle aged harridan (oops, sounds like me) to shriek that the squirrel was "foreign" and her homicidal dog was "English". And then she looked at me funny ...
I think your brother looks handsome.
Paul - Indeed, there have been some scary children's presenters in the past, but this lady isn't one of them!
Anna - Yes that was my response! I don't particularly like being presented with complete idiots, but I don't admonish them for venturing out the house!
Sounds like that old woman read her dog the Daily Mail!
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