A disabled social media influencer has spoken out about the malicious comments he received on an Instagram post where he joked about not qualifying for the Olympics.
Shane Burcaw, who runs a successful YouTube channel with his wife Hannah, was born with spinal muscular atrophy, according to his Tumblr page.
The genetic disease weakens the muscles of the shoulders, hips, thighs and upper back, making movement difficult for many sufferers.
On their various social platforms, Shane and Hannah post videos about their life as a couple and supportive videos that attempt to spread acceptance of relationships like theirs.
One of them latest videosClearly intended as a joke, it shows Hannah dunking Shane in a pool with a caption underneath that reads: “I regret to announce that I did not qualify for the 2024 US Olympic Diving Team.”
Instead of getting laughs from his 594,000 Instagram followers, Shane was bombarded with an onslaught of hateful comments, many of which questioned why Hannah chooses to be with him.
Hannah dunks Shane in the water and they both jokingly suggest that his dive wasn’t good enough to enter the Olympics.
“What does she get out of this relationship? I’m curious because there’s no way anyone would be attracted to him,” one person wrote.
“If he can shoot, I’m screwed,” another commented.
Someone else suggested that the only way he could have attracted her was if he had a lot of money.
Another commenter came to the exact opposite conclusion: that she was using her disability to obtain tax deductions.
Shane and Hannah have been married for three years and together for eight, according to a profile of the influencer couple on Business information.
There were also comments that were much more violent in tone.
“Leave it down there,” wrote one.
Shane posted the video on Saturday and on Thursday he did it again. Another publication to address the hate he and his wife received.
The post featured a black-and-white photo of him and Hannah along with images containing a lengthy statement.
Shane and Hannah have been married for three years and together for eight, according to a profile of the influencer couple on Business Insider
Shane is pictured in his motorized wheelchair.
“It’s painful to write this, but it has to be done,” Shane began.
“We currently have a ridiculous video going viral, which should be a cause for celebration. Instead, it’s forcing me to face the painful fact that literally hundreds of thousands of people hate me and think I’m worthless because of my disability.”
He goes on to explain that he and Hannah posted the video because they saw the online trend of people showing off their lack of athletic ability, only to ironically say that they didn’t make it to the Olympics.
These videos often feature a remixed version of the U.S. national anthem while the person on camera does something like diving into a pool or failing miserably at a gymnastics trick.
Shane wrote: ‘This kind of self-deprecating humour suits us just fine, so we jumped on the trend and posted a quick video of me ‘diving’ into a pool, except my diving is obviously just Hannah gently lowering me into the water.’
She then shared some of the most notable comments from the original video, calling them “brutally ignorant and aggressively hateful.”
“The top comment reads, ‘It’s always important to wash your vegetables,’ referring to me as the vegetable. It has over 97,000 likes. That means almost a hundred thousand real human beings on this earth agree with this humiliating insult! ” she wrote.
Shane also shared a series of comments attacking their relationship, one of which read: “Dating him is like doing charity work.”
Many of the mean comments Shane received focused on his relationship with Hannah and openly questioned why she was with him.
Although the comment hurt him, Shane said he was undeterred and plans to continue sharing his life as a disabled person.
“There are thousands more like this. Thousands. I’m tired, guys,” he wrote.
‘I’m tired of dedicating my career to educating people about the true disability experience, only to be reminded DAILY by hundreds of thousands of people that I’m still considered a “vegetable” who would be better off dead in their opinions.’
Shane’s response post garnered more than 82,000 likes by Friday morning and thousands of supportive comments.
Many of the couple’s followers returned to the original video in an attempt to bury the insults and cruel jokes about their disability.
“You guys realize that disabled people are still people and deserve to be loved just as much. His wife clearly loves him for who he is and I really love that,” one person wrote in a comment that now has over 20,000 likes.
Shane, though hurt by what people said about him, ended his statement with resolve, saying he would not resign over this.
“But I won’t give up. It’s too important to me and the stakes are too high. Until the world accepts disabled people as equals, I’ll be here, sharing my disabled life that I enjoy and cherish so much,” she wrote.
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