My Two Cents on Fitty Cent

Fitty Cent... aka 50 Cent... aka Curtis James Jackson III.. and is now aka the most hated man in the Autism community.  My twins (now 20 yrs old) listened to his music a little bit back when he was a big deal.. so like the "hip" mom I believe to be, I liked a couple of his songs. Whatever you want to call him, he is quite a successful guy with an inspiring story.

He grew up in Queens, NY, began dealing drugs at age 12, then left that to pursue a career in rap music, he was shot nine times and lived, then he was discovered and became a huge success with the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre.   Oh.. and see what I did there?  I did a little research and educated myself on Mr. Cent before I made any comments about him!!  Something he obviously never did before he made his ignorant mistake last week.

So thanks to an extremely popular social utility on the internet known as Twitter, we got to witness first hand just how ignorant Mr. Cent really is.  If you think it's no big deal.. you are wrong!  This rapper has over 6.5 million followers on Twitter alone (more research there!) so when he "talks", unfortunately a lot of people are listening.  In case you don't follow his tweets or didn't see it in the news, here is what he said:

Do you think Mr. Cent knows what it means to "look autistic"?  Do you think Mr. Cent knows what Autism even is?  No and no... he certainly doesn't.  This is the problem and why Autism awareness has become so important to me in addition to getting help for Trey.  Mr. Cent is by far not the only one who believes this way.. this type of ignorance is EVERYWHERE!  As a parent of an Autistic child, I see it and hear it and read it everyday.  It hurts like hell!!  It hurts because I do not want my son to EVER be hurt by ignorance!  He is young.. almost 3.. and doesn't know about how cruel people can be.  It hurts to know one day he will.

50 Cent

Mr. Cent.. whether he likes it or not.. has now become the National Spokesperson for Ignorant Assholes to the Autism community.  He is popular.. a famous celebrity so naturally there will be a lot of backlash against him. Many have posted and blogged their feelings about his comments.. including another celebrity Holly Robinson Peete who has an Autistic son.  I think he deserves every bit of it!!  He is the one who made the mistake.. so own up, be "a swag gansta", and APOLOGIZE, Mr. Cent!  Why hasn't he apologized?  Or better yet get educated on Autism?  His silence is almost as hurtful as his comments.


THE BACKLASH (just a few.. there are so many!)

• http://www.hollyrod.org/huddle/dear-50-cent-3/
• http://ancora-impartial.blogspot.com/2012/07/ancora-impartial-what-autistic-looks.html
• http://you-leave-me-breadless.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/dear-50cent.html
• http://whatautisticlookslike.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-does-autism-look-like-dear-mr-50.html
• http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/08/my-fifty-cents-on-50-cent-and-autism/
• http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/05/rapper-50-cent-insults-autistic-kids-on-twitter/
• http://theweek.com/article/index/230248/whatautismlookslike-should-50-cent-apologize-for-his-twitter-offense

So that's my two cents on the whole situation.. and some links to others. In closing, I would like to address Mr. Cent by letting him know that the "look" of Autism is actually very beautiful!

My Son is Beautiful, Smart, Funny... oh, and Autistic <3