The year 2013 just began and another celebrity has ushered in the new year with controversy.
D.L. Hughley ended his Reset comedy special by calling his son with autism “retarded.” This prompted blogger “Miz Kp” to send comments to Hughley expressing her dislike of the comments. What followed was an exchange that was posted on Miz Kp’s blog, Sailing Autistic Seas. She expressed how the word “retarded” is a hurtful term and that she was surprised that Hughley would use it to describe his own son. Hughley responded that, “We all deal with things differently.”
Miz Kp stated, “When someone uses derogatory words to describe people with disabilities, it hurts. I was even more baffled by the fact that this word was being used by a parent toward his own child.” She later says, “The sad truth is that Hughley is not the first media personality to do this and he won’t be the last.”
In 2012, rapper 50 Cent made similar comments about one of his Twitter followers. What followed was an open letter from actress Holly Robinson Peete rebuking 50 Cent and asking him for an apology. Eventually, 50 Cent apologized for his comments.
Hughley, the father of three children, has over 92,000 followers on Twitter. He is married to Ladonna Hughely, an autism advocate. She is featured in the Colored My Mind documentary about five women that explores how autism affects them and their families.
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