Shane Burcaw: Laughter is Not Always the Best Medicine

NOTE: I am not accepting any further comments unless new ground is broken. I would suggest reading this post and the long comment thread that has become repetitive.

Earlier this month I came across the name Shane Burcaw. Apparently this man wants to be on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Needless to say this effort did not impress me and I quickly concluded it was the typical use of social media by a young person. Apparently he created a twitter bomb to get the attention of Ellen, an effort that generated a little bit of press and much discussion on reddit. Thanks to Alice Wong I realize my quick dismissal of Burcaw was in error.  This man highlights a divide I have written about in the past: there is a dichotomy between people such as myself that came of age well before the ADA was passed into law and those that came of age after the ADA. I refer these two groups of people as pre ADA cripples and post ADA cripples. Part of the divide is simply age. I am 53 years old. Burcaw I believe just turned 21. I have a PhD while Burcaw is earning his BA. I am married, divorced and have a son Burcaw's age. We are at very different stages of life. It is important to note these basic differences because I am severely critical of young men and women, post ADA cripples, that have not been taught about the cultural implications of disability or the history of disability based oppression. In part I am happy some young people with a disability are blissfully unaware of the sort of civil rights violations that were once common place: forced institutionalization, involuntary sterilization, and ugly laws. Yet I am also stunned at how some young people with a disability use their disability. For example, I read Burcaw's blog Laughing at My Nightmare, and was taken aback at the repeated use of trite and uninteresting lines such as: "If you can take anything from my life, it should be that a positive attitude and sense of humor can go a long way toward overcoming your own problems no matter what they are." Burcaw is portraying himself as the plucky cripple who finds humor in his situation. He states he wants to make people laugh and thinks he is good at it. Using the old line from Readers Digest he believes laughter is the best medicine. He has even formed a non profit laughingatmynightmare.com and in some videos I have seen t-shirts with the initials LMN. 

Burcaw is sun shine yellow optimistic. I do not share Burcaw's optimism. I do not find him funny. In fact, he has cast himself into the deep end of the inspiration porn pool. The short video "Happiness is Always an Option" is typical inspiration porn: http://thechive.com/2013/04/10/happiness-is-always-an-option-video/ Burcaw is characterized as having "just about the best attitude a human can hope to have".  Others repeatedly state Burcaw is extremely courageous and inspirational. He is funny, smart and brave. His story will blow your mind. Burcaw chimes in and states "Don't underestimate the power of a positive attitude". The mainstream media is sucking up Burcaw's inspiration porn like it is nectar of the gods or mothers milk. In contrast I sit stone faced and wonder what sort of person could possibly take this seriously. If you tube is any indication the vast majority of people think Burcaw is awesome. At you tube, My Last Days: Meet Shawn Burcaw, is twenty long minutes of platitudes. It has been viewed over 100,000 times since April 8 when it was posted. The video has been liked by over 4,000 people. A mere 21 people, yours truly included, disliked the video. Almost 700 people left comments and about 99% used the word inspirational.  I just do not have the heart to embed this video. 

Scott Hamilton, a former Olympic figure skater who had cancer, once used the line "the only disability in life is a bad attitude". This tag line has been used repeatedly in inspiration porn. Good  visuals, meaning the more disabled a person is, the greater the impact  the tag line and photo can have. The most well-known visual porn photograph I am aware of featured Oscar Pistorius running next to a little girl who, like Pistorius is a double amputee. When I see this photo I am not impressed. In fact I get angry at the disparity between the image and reality. I also think of Stella Young, an Australian disability rights advocate, who wrote "The statement the only disability in life is a bad attitude puts the responsibility for our oppression squarely at the feet, prosthetic or otherwise, of people with disabilities. It's victim blaming. It says that we have complete control of the way disability impacts our lives. To that, I have one thing to say. Get Stuffed."

Get stuffed Mr. Burcaw. Your superficial notion of optimism is demeaning. It is also devoid of any factual basis. Take the image and tag line discussed above. The prostheses depicted in the photo of Pistorious and the little girl cost $20,000. Those limbs cost more than a brand new Fiat or Ford.  Let me pose the following.  A child who is a double amputee goal is to compete in the ParaOlympics. To succeed at this level of athleticism the child will need specialized and costly prostheses. This child's parents request the local school board to purchase such limbs. According to a recently released DOJ guidelines a powerful case could be made the school would be legally required to make such an accommodation to insure the child be empowered to participate in sports. An optimistic outlook is not going to the job done in this instance. 

While I am railing against Burkaw in particular it is not him I am upset with. He is just one of many people that fails to realize inspiration porn shames all people with a disability. An optimistic outlook gets one only so far. The fact is Burcaw happily dismisses the glaring social problems associated with disability. The social situation people with a disability confront is not funny or inspirational. In fact to understand disability as an example of civil rights or human rights violations requires much thought and an intellectual leap in logic. Not many have made this leap in logic. It is all too easy not to mention rampant unemployment or the utter lack of accessible housing. No mention is made of inaccessible subway systems or the systemic pattern of abuse directed at people with a disability on the part of major airlines when they try to fly from place to place. Burcaw I would suggest should stop trying to get on the Ellen DeGeneres show and spend a bit of time reading about disability rights. There is a vast literature available at every major college in the country. In fact I have an even better suggestion. He should join ADAPT and join those that will soon descend upon Washington DC.