“Let’s Fight Together Now”: SADD Proposes Solidarity to Park We

[Financial News] YouTuber and broadcaster Park We faced backlash after releasing CCTV footage of what he said was a fall while getting off a KTX-Sancheon train. The Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) proposed solidarity, saying, “Let’s fight together now.”
On the 2nd, SADD shared on its official Facebook page a post written by Kim Sang-hee, director of the Nodle Center for Independent Living for Persons with Disabilities, about the Park We incident. The post was titled “He Did Not Understand an Able-Bodied-Centered Society.”
Kim began by saying, “To be honest, I did not particularly like his content even before this,” adding, “In his videos, I often felt that disability was portrayed not as an issue that disrupts the order of mainstream society, but as something to overcome through the kindness and consideration of able-bodied people, or as a personal inconvenience.”
Kim continued, “He talked about disability, but in my view, his content placed greater emphasis on a person with a disability adapting well to and living in able-bodied society than on the social structures that create disability. Of course, he may have believed that his content contributed to improving awareness of disability, but to me, apart from the fact that it dealt with disability, it did not look very different from mainstream YouTube content.”
Kim said that although Park We has the same disability, he sometimes felt like an “able-bodied man in a wheelchair” living in a world different from his own.
Kim said, “But after seeing this incident, my thinking changed,” explaining, “I realized once again that even someone who seemed to live in a different world from mine can become the target of discrimination and hatred at any time simply because of their disability in an able-bodied-centered society.”
Kim noted, “Many people take issue with the fact that he released the CCTV footage as part of his content. It is also possible to discuss whether other people’s portrait rights and personal information were handled appropriately during the release, but that is a separate issue requiring criticism and review. We cannot treat that issue and the disability-based hatred directed at him as the same thing.”
Kim said, “Believing that the release of the footage was inappropriate does not give anyone the right to mock disability, attack the very demand for the mobility rights of people with disabilities, or direct hatred at his partner, who was unrelated to the incident. What I felt through this incident was the reality of an able-bodied-centered society that he had not fully recognized.”
Kim pointed out, “People with disabilities are welcomed when they inspire others, but become an uncomfortable presence when they demand their rights. I believe that is precisely where able-bodied-centeredism reveals itself.”
Kim said, “Even if we have lived different lives, there may come a time when we ultimately find ourselves facing social hatred. Regardless of whether we have many or few social resources, or whether we are famous or unknown, the face of hatred we encounter when a person with a disability steps outside the rules of an able-bodied-centered society has remarkably similar features.”
Kim continued, “I do not want to offer him comfort right now. Instead, I hope he can safely escape the swamp of meaningless hateful comments. I hope he will not leave this experience as merely a personal misfortune or mistake.”
Kim proposed, “Rather than remaining within the story of a ‘moving person who lives by overcoming disability,’ I hope we can talk together about why people with disabilities have to fall while traveling, why they must rely on someone’s help and kindness every time they move around, and why the words ‘nuisance’ and ‘special treatment’ immediately follow whenever a person with a disability protests. I also hope we can read the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) together, campaign for mobility rights together, and discuss the rights of people with disabilities in the language of rights rather than charity and consideration.”
Kim added, “Instead of offering him comfort, I want to reach out my hand. The world of resistance may be far more arduous than the world of inspiration, but I want to tell him that this world is also quite worth living in, and that we should fight together now.”
Earlier, on the 21st of last month, Park We released through his YouTube channel Weracle a video showing an accident in which his wheelchair wheel caught on the foot of a social service worker as he was getting off a KTX-Sancheon train, causing him to fall.
Regarding the video, online users harshly criticized Park We, questioning whether he intended to publicize the social service worker’s mistake and subject the individual to condemnation. As criticism continued that it was excessive to publicize CCTV footage identifying the individual when the worker had apologized to Park We at the scene and the accident was not intentional, Park We eventually deleted the video and apologized.
However, the controversy showed no sign of subsiding. A series of scheduled lectures and talk concerts were canceled, and after petitions were filed with the Seoul Metropolitan Government calling for Park We to be dismissed as a promotional ambassador, he eventually stepped down from the position himself.
[email protected] Kim Soo-yeon Reporter