Jerry Lewis has said some awful things. Rochester radio personality Brother Wease is now sticking up for them.

Lewis is known to have said that Jews are really only ‘half a person.’ He also said that women ‘cannot go into the workplace. There’s nothing they can do.’ And when criticized, he famously said, that African-Americans are ‘bitter at the bad hand they’ve been dealt…They want me to stop now? F*** them. Do it in caps. F!!! THEM.’

OK, Lewis did say those things, but not about those oppressed minorities. He said all those horrible and indefensible things about people with disabilities. (He has had some choice words regarding people in the LGBT community as well.)

Maybe if he said those things about other groups, society would take notice. Maybe there would be an overwhelming call for apology and his removal from the public sphere of influence. Maybe local ‘legends’ wouldn’t be defending his words.

Lewis said those hateful things about people with disabilities and the Academy of Motion Pictures decided to give him an award for his humanitarianism. And when a dozen or so local people with disabilities stood in the freezing snow, motivated by Lewis’ hateful words, to protest that award, Brother Wease had the audacity to criticize the protestors.

From Rnews, February 22, 2009, (http://www.rnews.com/TopStory_2004.cfm?cmd=top&rnews_story_type=18) “This political correctness has got the point where it’s absurd,” said Rochester radio personality Brother Wease. “I’m politically correct, but everybody makes a joke. And by the way, here’s a bulletin: He’s a comedian,” Wease added.

Seriously, Brother Wease? Is it absurd to not want to be called a “half person”? Is it absurd to be more than a little upset that the Academy Awards are honoring a man that said that people with disabilities cannot work, that there’s nothing we can do?

The things that Lewis said were not jokes at the time and they are certainly not funny now. That Wease attempts to defend these comments shows how totally clueless he is regarding the nature of humor and the difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. In defending Lewis, Wease has further secured himself a place of infamy within the disability community. Wease has previously scoffed at serious disability issues – he’s a repeat offender.

The Disability Community of Greater Rochester is demanding that Brother Wease issue written public apology and a retraction of the statements. Additionally, Brother Wease needs retraining regarding the oppression imposed on people with disabilities by people like himself and Jerry Lewis, and how to bring an end to that oppression.

I know just the group of people to provide that training. They were standing outside George Eastman house, in the dark, in the freezing snow. Jerry Lewis called them half persons. Brother Wease called them absurd. I call them friends.