Thursday, 05 July 2012
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A Formal Invitation to 50 Cent
Working in Social Media always has its share of dramatic moments, and this past week has had no shortage of them.
Most of the time we allow discussion through Autisable's social media channels to run their course. However, this situation has caused such a stir within the Autism community that we'd like to address it a bit more closely - as it impacts families who deal with this issue on a daily basis. Comments such as his have been on par with those who bully. This is an issue that is close to our team as well.
Recently 50 Cent made some tweets that were rather derogatory, and Holly Robinson Peete took to her blog to shine the light on the tweets and to help 50 Cent understand more of what Autism is really like.
Suffice it to say, 50 Cent has deleted the tweets - which was greeted by the Autism Community as a good thing, but many are still saying that it's not enough.
Saying phrases like, "you look Autistic" or making comments in a demeaning way about "special ed kids" does nothing but hurt families and individuals dealing with the disorder.
With someone that has sold millions of albums and possesses a serious amount of influence in our society - one would think that this just is a serious flaw in judgement.
So, I'm sending an open invitation to 50 Cent to share a more thoughtful response on Autisable that would be shared directly to the Autism community .
I would like for us as a community to utilize this situation and hopefully turn it into a positive outcome.
We all make mistakes, and personally I think that's all that this is. However, with the response from the community asking for more - we believe it would be good for 50 Cent to respond accordingly.
Since Autisable is a large part of the Autism Community, and that's who our audience focus is - we are asking that he respond to the Autism Community by Submitting a post (here) or he may contact me directly. I've left a message for him on his Facebook fan page which includes my e-mail address. He may also DM us on twitter. We've taken the step to follow him on twitter to make it easier on him to reach back to us.
If you'd like for him to respond on Autisable (or at all) - please tweet this post using @50cent.
We look forward to working with him to ensure that his response is well received. We thank you for supporting us in this action, as we want to make sure that this situation turns out to be a positive one - with all sides having more of an understanding.
I'll keep you posted, as appropriate - as to any response.
Blessings,
Joel
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About the Author
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- From: Joel
- Name: Joel
- Location: Norfolk, Virginia, United States
- About Me: Husband. Father of a child with Autism. Lead Editor of Autisable.com
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Comments (16)
He's an ass. I have autistic friends and they are cool, talented people.
Another artist now off my playlist.
Wow, how ignorant can you get? I have Asperger's...I have for 21 years, and I'm proud of who I am.
Half of his garbage is misspelled and unreadable anyway. Who's the one with the "disability" now???
well that's rude. i hate it when people think they're the shit when in reality, they are just plain shit.
I fully support Autisable and its wonderful community. I hope he will make a formal apology or at least give some positive response.
You are speaking to thousands
conform or
conform or
there is no or
only conform
--Yao Wentiao
He's 'Outta Control' : http://youtu.be/Z3Oux1lN__4
He's an asshole!
He's not going to respond here. Mainly because it wouldn't get him a lot of media attention. He doesn't care about our children or the daily struggles they have, or the struggles we have as parents. Reaching out to someone like him is a waste of time. The only thing he has learned from this is that he needs to watch what he tweets.
@ZombieMom_Speaks@xanga - If he's even learned that. Taking bets on when he does something similarly stupid.
@reckless_eagle@xanga -
i do the same thing. when i find out something about an artistic that i thought i liked, they get dismissed from my media collection.50 cent's world is so far from the families effected by autism. It was nice he deleted his tweets, but I doubt he's going to do anything further. He's busy and a multi-millionaire. The kind of reputation he has in the music world isn't one that would hinge on being kind or sensitive to issues like these. I'm not at all agreeing with what he said, I just wouldn't get your feelings hurt when he doesn't respond.
@linwessels@twitter - Have you ever read Maus I &/or Maus II? It's a biography an artist did about his jewish father who was in the Holocaust. There is one scene where the dad is being blatantly racist and the son basically had the same questions as you. Unfortunately, it is very much, "this type of behavior is okay, as long as it doesn't happen to me"
@gobdog@xanga - While I don't condone what he said, I think blanket statements like this: "50 cent's world is so far from the families effected by autism," aren't any better. Why? Because there are SO many in "his" world who go undiagnosed -- which I think is far worse than someone having their feelings hurt.
In his defense, the person he was replying to said "release the album or get shot again". There's a lot of wrong going on here.
@meetmeunderthestars@xanga - i'm glad to see someone who actually read the tweets rather than just the post!
Obviously, those insults were targeted at the single brainless individual for saying "release the album or get shot again". When 50cent used the word "special ed" and "autistic" as derogatory term, the entire community gets all butthurt about it. Think about any insult people use today. If someone was called "dumbass", would everyone who identifies with having below average intelligence be offended and start a movement or spam the shit out of the name-caller? If someone was called a "bitch" or "retard", does the entire female gender population or the entire "mentally-challenged" population need to start a movement? How about the word "obese" or "ugly"?
It is very clear that 50cent is not referring to the word as its technical/scientific definition, just as many derogatory terms used in the speech language today, but rather as a simple put-down for a specific offender. How many formal invitations must be sent to every individual whenever they used a word "inappropriately" because they are mistakenly taken as literal?
He removed the tweet because he is aware of how butthurt ACTUAL ignorant people (who take words out of context) got.But acting all high and mighty to think anyone can just shove a lecture down another's throat is extremely...Retarded. (Spot my point?)
@reckless_eagle@xanga - he's probably not on your playlist in the first place