Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty
Shaun Whiteis apologizing for his Halloween costume.
“I owe everyone in the Special Olympics community an apology for my poor choice of Halloween costume the other night,” White said in a statement to PEOPLE which he also shared on social media.
“It was a last minute decision. It was the wrong one. The Special Olympics are right to call me out on it. They do great work supporting many tremendous athletes and I am so sorry for being insensitive. Lesson learned.”
In astatementgiven to both the Huffington Post and TMZ, a spokesperson for the Special Olympics said: “We are truly disappointed that Shaun White, an acclaimed Olympian, would choose this costume which is so offensive and causes so much pain.”
Shaun White/Instagram
“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,” the statement concluded.
The Special Olympics did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request to comment further.
White has since deleted the post.
In the 2008 film, Simple Jack is a mentally-challenged farm boy who is picked on for his disabilities and commonly referred to as the R-word.
Ahead ofTropic Thunder’s release, advocates for the disabled protested the film.
DreamWorks
At the time, Peter Wheeler a spokesperson for the Special OlympicstoldReuters, “We are asking people not to go to the movie and hope to bring a consciousness to people about using derogatory words about this population.”
DreamWorksdefended the films use of the R-wordand Stiller’s character.
source: people.com
