Joey Deacon - I am sorry

[Absolutelegend]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sZqbSNRa8Fk&pp=ygULSm9leSBkZWFjb24%3D&ra=m

We were silly kids - didn’t realise what we were saying or doing. You were amazing. I will watch this with my children and remember you for the person you were.

what are you sorry for?

What are you sorry for?

No idea what you mean tbh.

I think calling people a 'Joey' became an insult after this horizon programme was shown.

It was a bit before my time, but I guess the OP has realised it was ablist.

If you grew up in the 1980s you will know, or ask someone who did. Joey was an extraordinary person but society wasn’t able to see that. He became a “meme” across the country and I think we now, looking back, and seeing this film I am shocked at how we behaved, or were allowed to behave. I wanted to acknowledge that.

Um..

I know what you mean and totally agree.

I know what you mean.

It was well meaning but I think the way it was presented must have been ok’d by someone who can’t have actually met children before. Saying that, i didn’t do it. I always thought it was wrong to do it.

It was Blue Peter that brought Joey and his friend to kids attention.

well I'm glad you've reflected on your behaviour as a child op, hopefully you grew up into an adult who didn't continue to treat people unkindly. od also say it was a different world back then, things were accepted then that we wouldn't nowadays. but self reflection is always a good thibg

I had his book and remember feeling very inspired by him.

The 80's were like an alien planet when you look back at stuff like this.

It's a different time & it's good to reflect on how far we have come. For the most part anyway

Yes, huge playground insult in the 80’s! In the US they had a similar one and people would use Helen Gellar as an insult.

Thank you but it’s not about me. I actually don’t think i participated personally in the behaviour from memory- but it was everywhere and was totally accepted and not even decried or mentioned at school by the teachers not to do it. Yes 1980s it was a different place - but actually not that different. I am sorry that Joey wasn’t understood as a person at that time and that he wasn’t given the respect he deserved when his story was broadcast . He was an amazing person and I just wanted to acknowledge that.

Helen Keller

I remember people being called a Joey as an insult, but we didn't have a TV, so I didn't really get what people were on about. I mean, it was clearly an insult, but I didn't understand its origins. I didn't understand where Jimmy Hill and chinny reckon came from until I was older, and someone explained it to me, either. I didn't always want to ask about things, because it emphasised I was weird because we didn't have a TV

I grew up in the 80s and remember chinny reckon, but totally missed Joey, no clue what that's about. Maybe I was lucky, our junior / infant school probably wouldn't have tolerated it.

Actually, having googled, no it wouldn't have been tolerated in my school. I vividly remember a boy on the school bus to High School being pinned against the window by an older kid and threatened if he ever repeated his behaviour - he had seen a disabled person with cerebral palsy or similar and called them a slur.

I’m 55 and so was 12 when the Blue Peter fundraiser showed the Joey Deacon film. The reaction among kids calling each other ‘Joey’ and “spastic’ as an insult was immediate and so extreme its hard to explain now - it directly led to the charity ‘The Spastic Society’ changing its name (to, I think, Scope but Incould be wrong).

If you’re under 50 I can see how you would never have heard of Joey Deacon or any of this.

I never heard of him, but I don't think mocking people with disabilities would have been tolerated in my school, and certainly not by my parents.

This was happening in 1982, and it was a completely different world to the one we live in now. I luved in the industrial north of England and the schools took no notice of this fad.

Why the hell has my post been deleted?! My son has Cerebal Palsy, I was using the slurs OTHER PEOPLE use! And I admitted I used them too when I was young and stupid!

@MNHQ