By: Taren Vaughan
Rapper 50 Cent finds no problem taking shots at whoever he feels the need to. He single-handedly slaughtered record label The Inc. Records and had a few choice words for his former label mate Game, who claims the beef between them is dead. As 50 might get props for his clever punch lines and dissing other artists, taking jabs at special needs kids is something that he won’t get props for as far as Holly Robinson Peete is concerned.
One of the few celebrities that interact with their fans on Twitter, 50 made a comment to one of them when they jokingly inquired about him dropping another album:
“yeah just saw your picture fool you look autistic RT @yung_raditz @50cent Release the album or get shot again.”
And then comes the diss tweet:
“i dont want no special ed kids on my time line follow some body else.”
His insensitive tweets caused a quite a stir in Actress Holly Robinson Peete, whose eldest son Rodney Peete, Jr. is autistic. In an open letter to Autism File Magazine, she described her initial reaction to the rapper’s insults towards special needs children:
“When I read (the tweet) it my heart sank. I thought maybe your account had been hacked. No such luck.”
And she wonders why, with all the millions of followers that he has, he wouldn’t use his Twitter account for the better good, not take shots at special ed kids:
“You went on to joke about not wanting “special ed kids” on your timeline. Seriously, THIS is how you use your platform of 8 million plus followers??”
Peete continues on saying that she knows 50 Cent is intelligent but questions if he even really knows what the condition is since he found the need to joke about it:
“I’ve met you in passing over the years and I know you are a bright, astute businessman and legitimate philanthropist so it is with a bit of sincere confusion that I ask you… Do you even know what autism is?”
“I hope you can see how what you might see as a benign insult-or not- was so randomly hurtful, immature and misinformed. Maybe you are naive or indifferent as to how many of your fans might be deeply and personally offended by your insult. At the very least-can you please delete it?”
She ended her letter by letting 50 know that her son has autism, a son who happens to love his music. And thanks to comments like his, it makes it harder for RJ to deal with his already difficult condition:
“Finally, this is my son Rodney Peete. He has autism. So I guess this is what autistic looks like? He is in special ed. He loves rap music and is a HUGE fan of yours. He’s a tremendous kid.”
“He has to deal with so much trying to fit in. This isn’t helping.”
By now, we are used to 50’s outlandish comments and crude jokes. But he has truly pissed people off with this one:
What a douche. This is why he’s irrelevant now. Even Rick Ross made a clown out of him, and he was a corrections officer. That’s how you know 50 is done.
I guess 50 doesn’t know the difference between mental retardation and autism. Idiot.