I always knew I hated the word retarded. As my friends and I matured, so did our vocabulary—words like “stupid” and “dumb” turned much more colorful. We learned new ways to insult others and, in turn, make fools of ourselves and bring shame to our mothers. The first time a friend used the word retarded, I knew it was a bad one. I didn’t like the way it sounded, and even at ten, I knew I didn’t like the intent behind it.
As I got older, I refrained from using the word retarded. To me, there were thousands of words that could get the message across in a much clearer and, honestly, insulting way. Using that word to describe something that’s stupid, annoying, or broken is an insult to people who seriously are mentally or physically disabled. I knew that, but I never said anything to the people throwing the word around freely.
Two summers ago, my family from Chicago came to New York for a visit. As the week passed, I realized how my younger cousins rarely said the word retarded and whenever they did, their mother, Gianna, would give them a scathing look, a look that clearly meant watch yourself. After a while I asked her what that was all about.
Gianna’s son, my little cousin, has albinism; with albinism comes skin, hair, and eyes with no pigment, and extremely bad eyesight. Because of this, Gianna decided to become a teacher for kids who were visually impaired, and a lot of the kids also have other problems, including Down’s syndrome and autism. Her school recently pledged to the R-Word Campaign, a campaign that advocates against the use of the word retarded as a common derogatory adjective. She told me that ever since she was introduced to the campaign, she’s made sure her kids don’t use the word.
Feeling the way I do about that word, I went online to read more about the campaign and I can say that it’s one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever seen. As their website* says, “the R-word hurts because it is exclusive. It’s offensive. It’s derogatory. The R-word is hate speech.” The word retarded used in place of “stupid” or “useless” just “reinforces painful stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities being less valued members of humanity.”
People with disabilities are people first. They aren’t their disease. And that’s the big picture. People are people no matter what and it’s disgusting to single out others because of something that’s so out of their control. All people deserve to be respected and treated the right way. That’s the golden rule, isn’t it? “Treat others the way you’d like to be treated.” So why aren’t more people doing that?
Retarded. What a horrible adjective. A word like that shouldn’t be used to described anything, let alone people.
*http://www.r-word.org/Default.aspx
