The Handi-man Character on The "In Living Color" Show
Gary Norris Gray

Never underestimate the powers of the handicapped. A statement spoken repeatedly by my favorite one and only Black Disabled hero: HANDI-MAN IS ON THE CASE. For the first time in history, Black Disabled Americans now have a funny hero. For the first time a person with Cerebral Palsy is a hero we can believe in, and he’s is a brother too. WOW! Thanks to In Living Color:

Look up in the sky,
It’s a bird, It’s a plane,
No, it’s a flying wheelchair

This hero is unlike any other hero. He dresses in a bright blue suit, looking good with the international disabled logo on the chest. He has a funny walk and sometimes it is difficult to understand what he is saying, but you know that he is here to help the disabled.

This hero flies all over the place, zigzagging everywhere he goes. He cannot fly straight even though he wants to. Up is down and down is up. Despite his super strength, he is unable to control certain behaviors. His landings are always awkward and clumsy, as he falls on people, falls on cars, and falls on trains. He does not mean to hurt people, but he cannot control the body God gave him. This wonderful person can’t perform like the other super heroes, and people don’t expect much from him. As his blue capped body crashes through walls, doors, and windows, mobility, the friend of most super heroes, becomes the enemy of this super freak. Landing on the ground in so many different positions, one tends to think this hero looks silly and cant do anything right.

Never underestimate the powers of the handicapped.

This super hero is always on the job! He gets a call from somebody who is in a wheelchair that needs to use the disabled stall in the restroom. A non-disabled person has just put his butt on the seat. This non-disabled person has given no thought to what and for whom these stalls were made for. This non-disabled person couldn't care less that this stall is the only stall in this restroom for a person with a disability. As this interloper, this invader and trespasser, sits there doing his business, the disabled super hero flies out the window of his home, and crashes to the ground at takeoff. This is the routine for this masked crusader. Then he gets it together and flies to his destination, the public restroom. Our hero crashes to the floor and slides across it. Apparently, this is his normal procedure on arrival.

WHEW. He knocks on the stall that is reserved for the disabled: and says,

“Sir, do you know that you are in a disabled stall?” The man answers, “Yes, and I’m staying here until I’m finished, thank you. I just got here.”

OUR HERO CONTINUES: ‘But sir, there’s a man here in a wheelchair who needs to use that stall, so please, sir, could you move to another one?”

THE MAN REPLIES: “NO, I’m sitting now, I’ll be out in a few minutes; just wait.”

With that statement, the hero busts down the door and grabs the man by the collar. The non-disabled man looks in horror at this blue suited person coming at him. The hero throws him to the floor and stands over him saying, “NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWERS OF THE HANDICAPPED.” The disabled man wheels into the stall, cheering with joy and laughter. Yes, Handi-man was a stumbling, bumbling nincompoop, but at least he helped others. It may have taken him a little longer than an able- bodied person and may have done it in a very strange way, but the job got done.

Please, all able-bodied people, when you’re parking your car, do not take the blue parking space. Not even for a minute, because a disabled person might need that spot. The disabled person's choices are very limited compared to yours. When you go to a baseball game, please do not take the disabled seating; we enjoy the game too. When you are making a phone call and a disabled person wants to use that lower leveled phone bank, please let them. OR they may call handi-man on you!

The show with Handi-man broke the ice with able-bodied people. It was a grand tour of the disabled world for the non-disabled person, and it was done in a humorous way. It allowed able-bodied people to ask questions openly and freely about how we, the Black disabled, live.

AMERICA CAN NO LONGER IGNORE US; I AM SOMEBODY, THANK YOU, HANDI-MAN! Remember, “Never underestimate the powers of the handicapped”.

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