Retarded?
(CNN) — “An unexpected and sudden spotlight on the Special Olympics, an organization that for more than 40 years has served and honored those with intellectual disabilities, comes less than two weeks before the nonprofit launches a new campaign: Spread the Word to the End the Word.”
Do me a favor and reread the bold text out-loud. Kind of an ironic typo, isn’t it? Is this further proof that CNN is…retarded?
The article continues:
“Most people don’t think of this word as hate speech, but that’s exactly what it feels like to millions of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends,” a statement about the campaign reads. “This word is just as cruel and offensive as any other slur.”(Continue reading the full story here.)
Is “retard” or “retarded” hate speech? That depends on whom you ask.
“Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, occupation, appearance (height, weight, hair color, etc.), mental capacity, and any other distinction that might be considered by some as a liability.”
“Bigoted speech attacking or disparaging a social or ethnic group or a member of such a group.”
At the top of this post, there is an image courtesy of the Special Olympics that uses three words to highlight the inappropriate use of “retard” for their R-Word Campaign.
However, there is a large difference between “spic” / “nigger” when compared to “fag” and “retard.” The connotations of the former group are nothing but negative. Conversely, the latter group has multiple meanings and therefore at face value cannot be assumed to be negative or positive, they’re contextual words.
A lack of education should not justify censorship. For instance, just because you don’t understand the meaning of the word “niggardly” doesn’t mean that I’m a racist for saying it. (Thank you Captain Awesome.)
The free-thinkers and wordsmiths that are chastised should defend themselves and educate others. If anything both parties will have a healthy discourse on each side’s point-of-view, further allowing the idiosyncrasies of the human condition to be more fully represented.
I think “retard” needs to be reclaimed the same way women embraced “bitch,” the gay community embraced “queer” and the Jewish community embraced Larry David. If society continues to push for the substitution of the r-word for “challenged,” “special,” or “delayed,” those words will be stigmatized the same way that “retarded” was.
People hear “retarded,” they think ‘bad.’
We need to start associating “retarded” with ‘good,’ ‘courageous,’ and ‘inspiring.’
Here’s one of my heros: Chris Burke, an actor with Down syndrome. Better known as “Corky,” the retarded kid from Life Goes On.
Then there’s the Retarded Policeman. If you haven’t seen it, just watch…
But I digress…
Question: What are your thoughts on all this?
Yeah, people already use “special” in a negative way . . .
I think one issue is the way it makes someone sound inhuman – a retard, as opposed to a person with mental retardation (because who ever says all that?). It’s like an autistic vs. a person with autism, or the gays vs. gay people, etc. I really think most serious social problems begin when people think of other people as anything more or less than human.
EDIT: I did a copy/paste and screwed up the first paragraph. Oh sweet irony!
I dated a girl, briefly, who’s sole vocabulary, consisted of the few popular words that high school kids these days sling around while getting baked on their parents couch, watching Spongebob Squarepants.
It’s as though you walk into the high school auditorium and they tell you
“welcome to four years of hell, kids. We’ll be passing out brochures in just a moment that tell you how to act like a clique, how to hate others who are exactly like you for no reason and some choice slang, such as ‘fag’ ‘retard’ and ‘gay’.”
I was always embarrassed by her, every time she opened her mouth in public. Everything she didn’t like was “gay” and everything she didn’t agree with was “retarded” and anyone she didn’t like was “A fag” or perhaps a combo platter, “A gay retarded fag”.
I’m personally offended, by using the words fag and gay. Not because I am gay, or even swing both ways and I’m not even an advocate for gay rights (I am just too apathetic to take up any causes),I just find it an incredibly hateful word that some kids decided was cool to use, one day. I am on the fence about the word retard, however, as I have used it once or twice myself, usually among friends, to make light of a situation or just point out something that makes you wonder how well the upstairs is working. I have never used it as a negative and will never use it as such, but I am also of the belief that you cannot police your friends or censor the speech of anybody, regardless of how much you do not like it.
A way I look at it, would be to see what would happen if you were to bring up the topic to a friend and try to correct them, whenever they use such words in a negative connotation and see if they either A) Change they way they speak to you or B) Drift farther away from you because suddenly you’re “that guy” that’s offended at everything because you’re a big, whiny fag.
Disclaimer:
I take no responsibility for any misuse of words and/or spelling/grammar/sentence structure mistakes.
When my mom was pregnant with me she was told that I had water on the brain and would probably have down syndrome. She was terrified but went ahead with the pregnancy anyways. I was monitored for a long time but it turned out that the doctors had actually seen an air pocket which turns out to be a positive thing. But my siblings teased me for years calling me a retard and other colorful things. To this day I have a hard time with the word. I think there will always be better words to use and choices to make. The english language is vast, we just need to enlarge our vocabulary.
It’s all in the intent. The word “love” or “happy” can be made ugly, mean, or ignorant with ugly, mean, or ignorant intent.
Also, I’m like Irish-American or whatever, and I think Notre Dame should change their mascot to some sort of natural disaster and/or scary animal and/or regionally-relevant, historical, blue-collar symbol.
Sign my petition! If you don’t, you can just go love yourself, you happy, happy sumbich!
i abhor it being used in speech to indicate something is stupid.
but i DO agree that having such a large campaign against the word itself will make the word seem even more “dirty” and “wrong,” even if used in proper context.
it is that whole “take the power back” stuff.
i don’t know.
I used the word retarded when describing a college photo essay I created in relation to childhood memories. A girl in the class began crying and said I was a horrible person for using that word. I used the word to describe a “mentally handicapped” kid in my neighborhood who I was very interested in as a child. He would walk around the neighborhood listening to his walkman and sometimes he would run and looked scared as though someone was chasing him. I always had daydreams that one time someone would actually be chasing him and I would be the only one around to help. The grown-ups told me he was retarded. I didn’t even know what that meant. In describing my photo essay, I used the word retarded to keep with that childhood memory. I did not even give a second thought that someone would be offended.
Thank you — everyone — for your comments. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and stories…
I really love that you shared all this with me. You continue to make me think about things in such a way that my head spins. But it’s a good thing though.
I don’t think I can say thank you enough because sharing these bits with me is priceless. I can’t buy it or take it — it can’t be taken from me or sold. It’s your gift to me. Priceless.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Michael