Kanye West doesn’t just enjoy interrupting others on stage like Taylor Swift. He even does it to himself. Kayne demanded everyone stand up before continuing his performance in Sydney, Australia. He waited several minutes before realizing the two holdouts were a man in a wheelchair and a woman with a prosthetic limb that she had to wave at him to prove her disability. Before realizing his mistake, he threatened to have them thrown out if they they did not “stand up” and his mindless followers joined in chastising them by chanting his misplaced words.
“This is the longest I’ve had to wait to do a song. It’s unbelievable,” said the delusional dictator as if those these people were physically preventing him from singing. “Now, if he’s in a wheelchair, then it’s fine.”
This is not the first time that Kanye has harassed disabled concertgoers. In fact, he pulled the same stunt just days earlier while performing in Melbourne.
Kanye stopped mid-song to tell the audience: “I can’t do this song if there’s anybody here sitting down — unless you’re handicapped and you pull out your handicapped parking slip right now.”
A source told People he was simply encouraging audience participation. “There was no malicious intent to offend,” said the source.
Kanye has had more positive encounters with his disabled fans. He admirably offered up his mic as a souvenir to Elliot Briones, whose wheelchair prevented him from seeing over the other attendees at a concert in Texas. But not everyone wants to be the center of attention explains Craig Wallace, president of People With Disability Australia (PWDA).
“To call out people for not standing up, when they are disabled and cannot stand up, in front of thousands of people, is humiliating,” Wallace told the Herald Sun. “What if it was a young person who’s coming to terms with their disability? It’s arrogant to say every person in the audience needs to stand up just because you tell them to. Kanye West owes a duty of care and respect to his audience. It’s about courtesy and respect you give to an audience while performing in a public space. Asking disabled people to show their handicap pass is patronising and inappropriate. He should apologize. Kanye West would also benefit from disability awareness training.”
