Remember “The Bernie”? It was ridiculous, sure, but at least it was poking fun at a dead person in a movie, and not any segment of the population in particular.
“Wheelchair Shawty,” another dance move from down south pioneered by D Money N Smoove, isn't exactly the same. Yes, it apes something that already existed in real life–but it's copying the movements of the physically disabled. And yes, it's totally offensive, even though Smoove says it's not.
What the actual dance is, is someone moving their arms to copy the movement of a person wheeling away on a wheelchair. Not that innovative, for sure. It's also very insensitive–a snippet of the lyrics: “Do the dance so good you would think I'm special and I look kinda handicap!”
But it's also very offensive for many disabled people because it mocks their mobility; the video shows a bunch of people laughing and making fun of the arm move. No one is in a wheelchair in the video. (Watch it after the jump.)
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