Olympic Snowboarder Shaun White Slammed for ‘Tropic Thunder’ Simple Jack Halloween Costume
“Disability is not a joke nor should it be a punchline.”
Over the weekend, Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White learned the hard way that some movie characters definitely do not make good Halloween costumes — especially when they portray mental disabilities.
Snowboarder Shaun White chose an unfortunate Halloween costume this year. https://t.co/8zoqOxTRLW pic.twitter.com/aUX1k7REao
— HuffPost Sports (@HuffPostSports) October 29, 2018
Dressing up as Simple Jack from the 2008 movie Tropic Thunder, the three-time Olympic gold medalist was slammed by the Special Olympics for mocking those with disabilities.
Even Ben Stiller — who played Simple Jack in the movie — was criticized when the film was first released.
“We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes so much pain,” a Special Olympics representative told TMZ.
“Disability is not a joke nor should it be a punchline. We hope that Shaun White and others learn that this just continues stigma, stereotypes and discrimination.”
With that said, after his costume was met with such criticism and backlash, White deleted the photo from social media and issued an apology:
— Shaun White (@shaunwhite) October 29, 2018
“I owe everyone in the Special Olympics community an apology for my poor choice of Halloween costume the other night,” he wrote in his post.
“It was a last minute decision. It was the wrong one. The Special Olympics were right to call me out on it. They do great work supporting so many tremendous athletes and I am sorry for being insensitive. Lesson learned.”
Read This Next
