A video of a student giving his disabled classmate a toy has gone viral. But should it have been posted on social media at all?
Mon 10 Dec 2018 12.02 EST
Last modified on Tue 11 Dec 2018 07.16 EST
This week Jake Marr, a student from Phoenix, Arizona, gave his disabled classmate, Matthew Sabetta, a toy cement truck for Christmas. He filmed the exchange, reportedly at his mother’s request, then posted it to Twitter and Instagram, where it went viral.
Hailed as “priceless”, “sweet” and “perfectly [capturing] the Christmas spirit”, the video is the latest example of a trend for apparently random acts of kindness being shared online. These are largely well-meaning gestures and Marr is clearly goodhearted, but it is telling that a non-disabled person helping a disabled person is met with particular applause. It is A Christmas Carol for the smartphone age, where Scrooge is not only inspired by the disabled Tiny Tim, but the film of their “heartwarming moment” goes viral.
This non-disabled saviour trope, in which a “normal” person helps someone with a disability, is replicated across popular culture in many forms. We see it in the trend for “inspirational” videos of a disabled person – often filmed without their consent, doing something as simple as walking with crutches – to give non-disabled audiences perspective on their own struggles. Each reinforces multiple negative stereotypes, from the belief that being disabled is ultimately a life of burden to the idea that disabled people exist to make non-disabled people feel good about themselves.
These “saviour” videos are often picked up by news outlets that present them as good news stories. For example, the Daily Mail recently ran a story about a “kindhearted” Walmart cashier who painted a “wheelchair-bound woman’s nails” after a salon turned her away. The angle, notably, isn’t that the wheelchair user faced the indignity of discrimination, but that the non-disabled cashier came to the rescue.
And so disabled people are turned into secondary characters in their own lives. As Emily Ladau, a journalist and wheelchair user, tweeted in response to Marr’s film: “I’m worn down by videos like this … When people take a kind moment and make it viral, it’s no longer kind. It’s disingenuous and patronising.”
Such films are more uncomfortable still when you consider disabled people are often watched by strangers in public spaces, questioned or even petted. It is common for blind people to be put in danger by people “helping” them cross the street, and for strangers to push a wheelchair user without their consent.
In a social media age, it seems that even altruism can be documented and commodified. But we should think twice before sharing one of these videos. Festive kindness is better when it is private – and gifted to non-disabled and disabled people alike.
