Cancel Humanitarian Award for Jerry Lewis
-
Author:
n/a -
Send To:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
-
Sponsored By:
The Trouble with Jerry -
More Info at:
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 His outdated attitudes and crude remarks are dehumanizing, not humanitarian.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
-
Patricia B
- City/State
- Berkeley, CA
-
Jim P
- City/State
- Santa Fe, NM
- Organizational Affiliation
- ADAPT
- Comments
- Long, distinguised career of assisting in the OPPRESSION of people with disabilities--"his kids!"
-
Chris B
- City/State
- NY
-
nancy d
- City/State
- В
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
-
Carol R
- City/State
- Elmhurst, IL
-
Anna P
- City/State
- New York
-
Maggie
- City/State
- Athens OH
- Organizational Affiliation
- Ohio University
-
catherine o
- City/State
- madison, wisconsin
- Organizational Affiliation
- The Disabled Womyn's Educational Project
- Comments
- You made you biggest name off pitying us. I pity you!
-
Jean K
- City/State
- Waukegan, IL
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
-
Katherine S
-
Lou T
- City/State
- Denton Texas
- Organizational Affiliation
- Texas Woman's University
-
Laura R
- City/State
- Oakland, Ca.
- Comments
- stop stereotyping disabled people- Jerry Lewis has created more harm than good in creating negative stereotypes about disabled people
-
Chris B
-
Mia L
- City/State
- Seattle, WA
-
Michael M
- City/State
- Chicago, IL
-
Gregg V
- City/State
- Denver, CO
- Organizational Affiliation
- ImprovAbility Dance Company
-
Corinne K
- City/State
- New York, New York
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
-
G. Thomas C
- City/State
- Quaker Hill, CT
- Organizational Affiliation
- Hofstra University
-
Reuben R
- City/State
- Brooklyn, NY
-
Tobin S
- City/State
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Organizational Affiliation
- University of Michign
-
Theri P
- City/State
- Los Angeles, CA
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
-
Zach C
- City/State
- Topeka, KS
-
Leigh C
- City/State
- EAST LANSING, MI
-
Andy F
- City/State
- Lansing michigan
- Organizational Affiliation
- Dein Haus collective
-
Karen L. D
- City/State
- Washington, DC
- Comments
- Please do not make this award!
-
Caitlin W
- City/State
- Portland
- Organizational Affiliation
- Oregon
- Comments
- This is outrageous and an insult to the disabled community!
-
frances L
- City/State
- Concord, NC
- Organizational Affiliation
- NC Disability Action Network
-
Kaitlyn B
- City/State
- Oxford/OH
- Organizational Affiliation
- Miami University
-
Taylor W
- City/State
- Oxford/OH
- Organizational Affiliation
- Miami University
-
Kevin W
- City/State
- Denver, CO
- Organizational Affiliation
- Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition Legal Program Director
- Comments
- The struggle for people with disabilities is for equal rights, not for charity. The sad looks and feelings of pity we all experience daily as people with disabilities are a direct result of the ideas promoted by Lewis and the Telethon. Even more troubling are his responses when members of the disability community educate him about how pity is harmful. Lewis does not deserve a humanitarian award for perpetuating disability as a negative experience.
-
Jeremy L. B
- City/State
- Alexandria, VA
- Organizational Affiliation
- Gallaudet University
-
Bob V
-
Ron A
- City/State
- Hilo, Hawaii
-
Jennifer S
- City/State
- Morgantown, WV
-
Kristina C
- City/State
- NJ
- Organizational Affiliation
- autism.change.org
-
Autumn
- City/State
- В
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- В
-
Martine B
-
Lisa W
- City/State
- Corvallis, OR
-
linda m
- City/State
- manchester
- Organizational Affiliation
- В
- Comments
- this is a travesty. it is plain wrong to link the word humanitarian to someone so dangerously patronising!
-
Jennifer E H
- City/State
- Chicago, IL
-
Carolyn G
- City/State
- Tel Aviv
- Organizational Affiliation
- Social Work Dept. Tel Hai Academic College
-
Cindy Stark R
- City/State
- atlanta,Ga
-
Kathy O
- City/State
- Augusta, GA
- Organizational Affiliation
- Partners in Policy Making, PTP, Augusta Richmond County Navigator Team, CCASE, Mother of 4.
- Comments
- I have never wanted my children pitied, they need to understand that we all have worth no matter who we are. We need to make this world a better place than we found it. How is what Mr. Lewis has done for so many years a help to anyone in the disability community. He deserves NO award.
-
iva w
- City/State
- oakland california
-
Terryl L. P
- City/State
- Houston, Texas
-
Anne C
- City/State
- Santa Clara, CA
-
Adrienne L
- City/State
- Cotati, CA
- Comments
- Jerry has had plenty of time to change his pitch to support people with disabilities. He's taken the easy way out. There's nothing humanitarian about that.
-
robin w
-
David B
- City/State
- Arlington, VA
- Organizational Affiliation
- Center for Independent Living
-
Roberta G
- City/State
- Danbury, CT
-
2894
Signatures! - View Signatures
- Sign Petition