Bunchland

Bunch sends fierce love to kid’s tv host and mother Cerrie Burnell. Cerrie was born with a disability that left her with an incomplete right arm. The BBC hired her one month ago to co-host a show for toddlers on their CBeebies network. Since then, they have received complaints from a small number of parents who claim that she scares their kids. But it’s not actually the kids who have the problem, it’s some hung-up grown-ups, and it’s really, really dumb.

Sir Bert Massie of Great Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission told the BBC:

I think what’s happening is a number of adults do have prejudices, do have very negative views about disabled people, and instead of admitting the views are their own, they’re projecting them on to their children and saying the children are doing this.

In an interview with the Today Show, Barbara Otto, the executive director of the American group, Health & Disability Advocates, had this to say about kid’s reactions:

They ask what happened, not out of horror or disgust or fear. The want to know what happened. A responsible adult tells them: “Here’s what the situation is.’”

And an interview with BBC magazine, Cerrie Burnell said:

Children come up to me in the street every day and say ‘What’s that?’ I wouldn’t say they’re frightened but certainly they’re inquisitive,” she told BBC magazine. “I would always take the time to explain to a child. All they want is an explanation. They want to know ‘What’s that?’ and ‘What’s happened?’ and ‘Why are you different?’ And then they will move on.

Link via MSNBC