Rapper 50 Cent Sticks Foot in Mouth Over Autism Tweet
I tend to believe famous people should take to social for themselves as much as they can, to ensure authenticity in their communications with fans - nobody likes to think they're talking to an overworked assistant with a T Mobile account.
Every now and then, someone comes along and just plain proves me wrong.
On July 2nd, rapper 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) not only put his foot in his mouth, he jumped in with both feet and damn near shimmied up to his waist for good measure. An overly zealous fan tweeted to the oft-controversial rapper, "Release the album or get shot again", in reference both to an upcoming album and Jackson having previously received 9 gunshot wounds in an altercation in 2000.
According to Hollywood.com, the 37-year-old rapper replied "Yeah, I just saw your picture fool you look autistic." According to the Huffington Post, Jackson didn't stop there, adding "I don't want no special ed kids on my time line follow some body else."
Of course, as can be expected, there was an onslaught of angry parents of Autistic kids, many who are fans of the rapper's music. Actress Holly Robinson Peete, star of the big screen reboot of the television series 21 Jump Street and celebrity Autism Ambassador, also very publicly took offense.
Peete, who has a son with Autism, posted a response to 50 Cent on her site. "I thought maybe your account had been hacked," said Peete on hearing about the Twitter commentary. "THIS is how you use your platform of 8 million plus followers?" added Peete. "Do you even know what autism is? And what exactly does “autistic” look like? Do you know how wildly prevalent autism is? 1 in 88 have it. That’s 1 in 54 boys. Families suffer a social stigma you will never know."
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