Kanye West Doesn’t Care About Handicapped People–But That Doesn’t Make Him A Bad Person

Kanye West’s latest controversy is one of his biggest since the infamous “George Bush doesn’t not care about black people” comment. This time, the media has vilified him for his so-called callousness toward two fans in attendance at his concert in Sydney, a woman with a prosthetic leg and a wheelchair-bound man. Not to say that his request for everyone to stand up or he wouldn’t continue with the song and then pointing out said handicapped people afterward wasn’t totally embarrassing. It was. But it also wasn’t Kanye’s responsibility to automatically assume that someone is handicapped just because he or she didn’t stand up. There’s a lot of lazy people in this world, after all.

And so, for this remarkable backlash against Kim K’s husband to be so pronounced and far-reaching is just a hair on the absurd side. It was an honest mistake. Who could have known West would have such a devout following among the non-fully functioning limbs scene? Maybe it was, in a roundabout sort of way, “Through the Wire,” that most handicapped people identify with. Whatever the case, West couldn’t have known that the people he was calling on to join in on the concert dance party would be physically unable to.
http://youtu.be/ralBjk3WWTA
Of course, his attempt at playing off the error by assuring, ““He is in a wheelchair? It’s fine!” It was apparently not fine enough for the American Association of People with Disabilities, unfortunately. But it’s okay Kanye, you’re also in good company with Lady Gaga, who also sparked vitriol in Sydney with her handicap offense circa 2011.