The rapper was walking through Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky airport when he encountered 19 year old Andrew Farrell, who suffers from social anxiety.
Rapper 50 Cent has provoked outrage online after he posted a video online in which he poked fun at an airport janitor for being high on drugs, when in fact he suffers from severe social anxiety.
50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, posted a video to his Instagram – which he has since deleted – in which he can be heard insulting the cleaner at Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky airport, who is pushing a trolley as he walks past ignoring the rapper as he asks his name, taunting him for looking like he was “high”.
“Look at him, look at him, what kind of s*** do you think he took before he got to work today," Jackson says, pointing his phone camera at Farrell. "He is high as a motherf***** right here in the airport. Pupils dilated and everything. The new generation is f***ing crazy!”
50 Cent performing in March 2016
Within minutes of the video going up, Jackson’s followers scolded him for his comments. After one user pointed out that he used to go to school with the victim, identifying him as 19 year old Andrew Farrell, and said that he finds it extremely hard to communicate because of his condition.
“I went to school with him,” the user wrote, “he has extreme social difficulties just to let you know. He has a hard enough time getting through life without jackasses like you making fun of him. I hope you feel good about yourself. You just lost a huge fan.”
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Later, Farrell’s mother Amanda Framer was tracked down and interviewed about the encounter last week. “He’s very upset,” she told WLWT5. “The more I thought about it, the more upset I got, the madder I got. This could hurt him for the future. I think he [Jackson] needs to retract it and I would like for him to make a public apology.”
Farrell’s father, Kent, added: “To put this video out there saying my son is on drugs or whatever, that is part of his social anxiety. He’s not wanting to talk, he’s not wanting to communicate, he’s walking on and he’s doing his job.”
Representatives for Jackson have not commented officially on the furore, beyond taking the video down from his Instagram page. He was previously forced to apologise in 2012 after he mocked a fan whom he thought looked “autistic” after he had followed the rapper on Twitter.
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