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Penn and Teller Showtime Series Attacks the ADAShowtime recently aired an episode of their series “Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t” regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. The series’ self-proclaimed mission is to “expose the truth to an otherwise desperate and gullible public… to smoke out nonsense peddlers and reveal how they operate… aggressively shoot down whack-jobs and fuzzy thinkers, no matter where they originate (official Showtime website).” While the series usually focuses on such topics as exorcism, conspiracy theories, Ouija Boards, talking to the dead, the end of the world, and alien abductions, Season 5: Episode 7, available on YouTube, attempts to reveal the “bureaucratic nightmare” of the ADA, describing it as, worthless “legalese”, merely an effort to “legalize compassion,” and that it has had only a negative effect on “handicapped people”. To support this argument, Penn and Teller (and Showtime Networks Inc.) feature several interviews, including a mother publicly berated when she reminds people without disabilities that accessible spaces are reserved, a Showtime staff member in an iron lung attempting to enter semi-accessible buildings to prove that ADA could never accommodate everyone, and piecemeal interviews with disability advocates, edited so that it seems they support the theory that we “were better before the ADA stuck its nose into the lives of people with handicaps.” In their defense, they found one self-identified “handicapped” person to argue this point. That however, does not justify the gross and intentional disregard for the mainstream viewpoint and values of the disability community. To disregard the political validity of people with disabilities is unacceptable and indicative of the same attitude of bigotry that spurred the Disability Rights Movement of which the ADA was a product. Jillette claims, “The ADA is bullsh*t on wheels… What more could they ask for (aside from not being handicapped)? ...Compassion should be left to the people who have it… equating handicapped access with racial discrimination is bullsh*t. Black people weren’t allowed on the bus because of Jim Crowe laws of segregation. Handicapped people can’t get on the bus because of Newton’s Laws of Physics.” Seventeen years after the passage of the ADA, inaccessible polling places, courthouses, and public transit systems serve as only one example of the discrimination people with disabilities face. The characterization of an accessible society as being ridiculous and even harmful to people with disabilities is a symptom that proves exactly the opposite point: People with disabilities are a vastly underrepresented group whose civil rights are still questioned and deemed invalid by American society, a point that emphasizes the value of our civil rights law, for which millions marched in order that people with disabilities might one day, through proper enforcement, achieve equal opportunity. We would like to reassert that the ADA is a civil rights law and not, as Jillette put it, an attempt to “make us all physically equal… Heal the lame! Make the f*ing blind f*ing see!” The clearly stated intent of the ADA is to “recogni[ze] that the surest path to America’s continued vitality, strength and vibrancy is through the full realization of the contributions of all of its citizens. And it maintains that the elimination of a multitude of attitudinal, communication, transportation, policy and physical barriers based on erroneous assumptions about disability will result in a substantial enhancement of the productive integration of people with disabilities into our society.” Jillette’s assertion that “walking lawsuits” or “‘the truly handicapped’ are morally, socially, and financially bankrupt (Greg Perry)” as a result of the ADA is predicated on a deliberate attempt to misinform the American Public and redirect blame for the stigmatization people with disabilities endure in our society back onto people with disabilities themselves. We at NCIL condemn Jillette’s blatant attempt to gain ratings by reinforcing and manipulating society’s deeply held misconceptions about people with disabilities and our significant and meaningful civil rights law. Our sincerest support goes out to people with disabilities working daily to ensure that every American has access to equal opportunity and basic civil rights. ****************************** |
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