( CNN ) -- `` I am like , I am so ( BLEEP ) high . This is terrible . And I did it in that voice . And I have never done that voice before in my life . I do n't know where that voice came from . But I heard myself use that voice . And in my mind , I went , oh ( BLEEP ) . I just gave myself Down syndrome . '' -- Wyatt Cenac , This American Life , 5/4/2014 . It 's hard to build a more inclusive society when people keep making fun of you . Even as people with disabilities and their allies make progress in so many ways , disability remains a target for mockery . Over the last few days , a baby boy with Down syndrome named Gammy has been all over the news . He and his twin sister were born to a surrogate mother in Thailand , but allegedly when their Australian parents discovered the boy 's genetic condition , they left him behind . To the biological parents , it seems , the words `` Down syndrome '' meant that he was not worth being their son . These are the stakes involved in how we talk and think about disability , how we portray disability in the media , not to mention in our schools and homes . I 'm the father of a boy with Down syndrome . I remember weeping when I heard the diagnosis . My mother said she could n't stop thinking about how he 'd be taunted and bullied as he got older . Her experience of people with intellectual disabilities was that they were targets for cruel humor . The good news is that in recent years , sustained awareness campaigns against dehumanizing speech , coupled with some 20 years of inclusive education since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 , have made things a lot better in America . No one is likely to call my son the r-word to his face . The bad news is that perhaps we have focused too much on explicit language without addressing the deeper questions of portrayal and representation . Too often , people with disabilities are marginalized and excluded . Instead of focusing on a single word , we 've got to work to unravel the prejudices beneath the surface . Last May , Wyatt Cenac , former `` Daily Show '' correspondent and comedian , appeared on `` This American Life , '' a popular show on National Public Radio . He told a story about a bad experience eating a pot brownie . The joke was that it made him talk , uncontrollably , in a funny voice , as if he had Down syndrome . Next , Cenac , broke the flow of the piece in order to issue a kind of disclaimer . He said : . `` Now let me just say , I know what Down syndrome is . I know that Down syndrome is something that you 're born with when you are born with an extra chromosome . I know all that information . I knew that information then . But something about eating this brownie made me think that somehow I had grown an extra chromosome and I now had adult-onset Down syndrome . And for people who have Down syndrome , it 's something they grow up with . And they grow up and they have healthy and happy lives . I just got it . '' Then he went right back to his fake voice , slurring words , and sounding confused . Cenac did not respond to emails asking for a comment . [ He has since commented on the piece here . ] And the host of the show , Ira Glass , declined to comment for this piece . Glass did write , however , to Julie Ross , the mother of a child with Down syndrome . She shared that e-mail with me . Glass wrote : . `` I agree with you completely that nobody should have to listen to stories that mock and denigrate ( people with Down syndrome ) This was a concern for me and my producers when we were working with Wyatt Cenac . We talked about it as we shaped the story . '' He then notes that Cenac went out of his way to make the disclaimer , claims that Cenac is making himself the butt of the joke , and that , `` The only thing that possibly could be offensive is his imitation of what a person with Down syndrome sounds like , and again -- we may disagree about that -- I think that 's fair game for a comedian . '' Glass and Cenac used the disclaimer , used the statement that they know what Down syndrome is , medically , as a way to protect themselves from criticism . However , as Glass admits , the humor of this piece depends on making fun of the way that some people with Down syndrome speak . Since my son was very young , we 've worked for so many hours on his speech . Together , we 've worked with many therapists to carve out individual phonemes , tones , sounds and finally words . Each tiny advance takes months . I wept when I heard him say , `` I love you '' for the first time , even though it was in a slurred , indistinct voice of the exact type that Cenac was mocking . Moreover , speech is so fraught , because intelligibility -- how clearly my son can communicate with strangers -- determines what kind of independence will be possible for him as an adult . There is no disclaimer that can take the sting out of Cenac 's joke . He and Glass can decide that the humor of the piece is worth being offensive , but they do n't get to determine whether the hurt is real or just . Neither do the many comics that rely on punching down , using mockery of people marginalized by ability , race , religion , gender or sexuality to get a laugh . Cenac is n't alone . Ricky Gervais , in the British TV show `` Derek , '' plays a man who appears to be disabled . Derek is supposed to be a positive example , but much of the comedy extends from his disabled physicality -- a hunched back , a slacked toothsome mouth , and a shuffling walk . Other laughs come from his cluelessness as he cheerily staggers through uncomfortable scenes . Gervais has said he does n't mean to make fun of people with intellectual disabilities , saying in an interview , `` I 've never considered him disabled ; he is a 'out of the mouth of babies ' innocent person who always says the right thing that you did n't see coming . And if I say he 's not disabled , that 's the end of it . '' That 's not the end of it . Not for Gervais . Not for Cenac . In the end , it does n't matter whether a comedian uses a diagnostic term , issues a disclaimer , or claims to be the butt of the joke . Humor can reinforce stereotypes or destroy them . When you make fun of attributes associated with disability , you might as well just be standing on stage , shouting the r-word .
David Perry : It 's hard to build inclusive world when people mock Down syndrome . On Ira Glass show , comedian Wyatt Cenac makes derisive references to Down syndrome . He says Glass said it 's fair play for comedy . Perry , who has Down syndrome son , disagrees . Perry : Cenac , you can defend it , but do n't get to say whether hurt it really is real .