Cancel Humanitarian Award for Jerry Lewis
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Author:
n/a -
Send To:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Sponsored By:
The Trouble with Jerry -
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This petition has been launched to object to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' announcement that it will give Jerry Lewis its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscar Awards ceremony on February 22, 2009.
During his decades of hosting the Labor Day Telethon, Jerry Lewis has helped to perpetuate negative, stereotypical attitudes toward people with muscular dystrophy and other disabilities. Jerry Lewis and the Telethon actively promote pity as a fundraising strategy. Disabled people want RESPECT and RIGHTS, not pity and charity.
In 1990, Lewis wrote that if he had muscular dystrophy and had to use a wheelchair, he would "just have to learn to try to be good at being a half a person." During the 1992 Telethon, he said that people with MD, whom he always insists on calling "my kids," "cannot go into the workplace. There's nothing they can do." Comments like these have led disability activists and our allies to protest against Jerry Lewis. We've argued that he uses the Telethon to promote pity, a counterproductive emotion which undermines our social equality. Here's how Lewis responded to the Telethon protesters during a 2001 television interview: "Pity? You don't want to be pitied because you're a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!"
Jerry Lewis has also made derogatory comments about women and gay men. His outdated attitudes and crude remarks are dehumanizing, not humanitarian.
Therefore, we the undersigned support the actions and arguments of the coalition group The Trouble with Jerry. We protest the Academy's characterization of Jerry Lewis as a "humanitarian." And we ask that the Academy cancel its plans to give Lewis the Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
During his decades of hosting the Labor Day Telethon, Jerry Lewis has helped to perpetuate negative, stereotypical attitudes toward people with muscular dystrophy and other disabilities. Jerry Lewis and the Telethon actively promote pity as a fundraising strategy. Disabled people want RESPECT and RIGHTS, not pity and charity.
In 1990, Lewis wrote that if he had muscular dystrophy and had to use a wheelchair, he would "just have to learn to try to be good at being a half a person." During the 1992 Telethon, he said that people with MD, whom he always insists on calling "my kids," "cannot go into the workplace. There's nothing they can do." Comments like these have led disability activists and our allies to protest against Jerry Lewis. We've argued that he uses the Telethon to promote pity, a counterproductive emotion which undermines our social equality. Here's how Lewis responded to the Telethon protesters during a 2001 television interview: "Pity? You don't want to be pitied because you're a cripple in a wheelchair? Stay in your house!"
Jerry Lewis has also made derogatory comments about women and gay men. His outdated attitudes and crude remarks are dehumanizing, not humanitarian.
Therefore, we the undersigned support the actions and arguments of the coalition group The Trouble with Jerry. We protest the Academy's characterization of Jerry Lewis as a "humanitarian." And we ask that the Academy cancel its plans to give Lewis the Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
2894 Signatures
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Shelby W
- City/State
- yardley Pa
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
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Lynne Y
- City/State
- Victoria
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Catherine L
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ruth t
- City/State
- rushville, il
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Katherine
- City/State
- London
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- I have a form of muscular dystrophy and I am gay therefore iI cannot possibly support this award going to someone who perpetuates pity and inequality to people like myself.
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Heather Munro P
- City/State
- Collinsville, CT
- Organizational Affiliation
- Central Connecticut State University
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Julia M
- City/State
- Charlottesville, VA
- Comments
- I am a so-called able-bodied person who has long found Jerry Lewis' both disgusting and abhorrent. Whatever his motives, his approach to disability is demeaning, and however much money he raises, the amount cannot justify the damage he does. He is at best misguided, at worst exploitative, seeking to satisfy his own needs, whatever they might be, at the expense of people with disabilities.
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Kristine M
- City/State
- Media, PA
- Comments
- I protest this award being given to Jerry Lewis
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Mick W
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Robert Y
- City/State
- London
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Felicity S
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johny b
- City/State
- london
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Elizabeth D
- City/State
- Kentucky
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Christine A
- City/State
- Syracuse, New York
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Megan B
- City/State
- York, PA
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Mary E
- City/State
- Canada
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
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Judith L
- City/State
- Oakland/CA
- Comments
- I am the parent of a child with numerous disabilities and I hate what Jerry Lewis represents.
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Corey M
- City/State
- Burlington, VT
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Heather R
- City/State
- Aurora Il
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M. S
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Marna A
- City/State
- Denver, CO
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Stacie K
- City/State
- Cincinnati, Ohio
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Leslie M
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Andrew D
- City/State
- Austin, TX
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Elizabeth S
- City/State
- Holt, MI
- Organizational Affiliation
- ADAPT of Mi
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The Rev. Nancy Lane, P
- Organizational Affiliation
- Disability Awareness
- Comments
- Honoring Lewis is an act of violence to people w/disabilities
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Roxanne F
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Jamie L
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Mark J
- City/State
- Alpharetta, GA
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Melanie Y
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Judith T
- City/State
- В
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- no award until he retracts his earlier statements and becomes truly human himself
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April B
- City/State
- Wisconsin
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Victor M A
- City/State
- McAllen
- Comments
- In the words of Patrick Henry,: "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death." And so i say, "Give me Respect or give nothing."
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Jeannette Franks P
- City/State
- Bainbridge Island
- Organizational Affiliation
- University of Washington School of Social Work
- Comments
- Mr. Lewis has long exploited and minimilized people with disabilities. He may mistakenly believe that he is doing good, but he is harmful to disabled people in general and the potentiality of disabled children specifically.
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Miriam C
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Johanna W
- City/State
- California
- Organizational Affiliation
- Kids as Self Advocates
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Joe C
- City/State
- Bethesda, Maryland
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Mark H
- City/State
- Florida
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Brenda M
- City/State
- Angleton. TX
- Comments
- I have long been offended by Jerry Lewis' pandering, even before I had three grandchildren born with disabilities. After that, I realized how dangerous his attitude was. I don't believe he had ulterior motives, and he has already been rewarded with fame. Rewarding him further is a big slap to the disability community.
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Stephen D
- City/State
- Rochester, NY
- Organizational Affiliation
- Not Dead Yet
- Comments
- В
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Lidia A
- City/State
- Miami, FL
- Comments
- Jerry get a grip...
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Mary S
- City/State
- Portland, Oregon
- Organizational Affiliation
- State of Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation
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Michael M
- City/State
- Swartz Creek, mi
- Comments
- I have muscular dystrophy and I am offended at the way jerry lewis has characterized and caricatured those of us who have this disease. Jerry is a bigot. Raising money, in the manner he does, and using it for a humanitarian cause DOES NOT make him a humanitarian!
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Patricia B
- City/State
- CA
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Jeremy M
- City/State
- Gainesville, FL
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Kent H
- City/State
- Melbourne
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kate a
- City/State
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Organizational Affiliation
- NAPVI
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Sarah R
- City/State
- CT
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Evan S
- City/State
- Aurora/Colorado
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Janey S
- City/State
- Richmond, CA
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
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2894
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