Don't say that's retarded, it hurts special kids feelings NOT ABOUT CALLING SPECIAL KIDS RETARDED

[Moderated]

Basically, they have been playing this BS video on the morning announcements for the past couple days. Basically, it's saying that because a word used to refer to a group and then became and insult and no one refers to them as that anymore, it's offensive to them.
"Well, it's just like gay people not wanting gay to be an insult"
Uh, no. Gay people still refer to themselves as gay. No one calls special kids retarded.
To be clear, it isn't about calling special kids retarded. It's about using retarded to insult normal people.
So yeah, discuss.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Really? I thought the term "Mentally retarded" was medical, not just slang. They did this at my school too. I wasn't a video though. Oh no, it was a full on movement. Posters, speakers, morning announcements, support from school clubs, mainly Special Ed. oriented clubs. It sucks.

But simply this, if I'm around someone who takes offence to that, I won't say it. But if I'm not, I don't care, let the slandering commence.

 

[Moderated]

1: I was saying how gay people had a leg to stand on, while the people behind this cause don't.
2: Those people are douchebags.
3:Or you know, the term doesn't refer to them anymore, and I don't think they care if you call someone else a name?
I'd like to actually ask them if they give a fuck, because I doubt they do. Their parents do, friends of their parents do, but I doubt any of them even care. None of them ever appear in the video, just other people talking about it.

 

[JimB]

Really? I thought the term "mentally retarded" was medical, not just slang.

Not since the mid-eighties, at least. It is not a diagnostic term.

In any event, the word "retarded" is not so vital to my vocabulary that I can't find other terms to insult people with.

 

[Lucem712]

Mostly I've seen it offend people with a relationship to someone with special needs. They don't want a word associated with being mentally delayed with an insult. I don't think it is really that big of a deal, although I'm a big biased considering I don't have anyone close that is special needs.

I can't recall the last time I said it, since I mostly say stupid or fucking dumb, or something. *shrug*

 

[Shadowstar38]

From my experience, it's never actually the group that "should" be offended complaining about this stuff. It's always a third party getting mad on behalf of other people. Example, yell the n word in the middle of your class room. Watch as the white people stare at you with there mouth open while the black people giggle hysterically at their reactions.

 

[Jux]

I'd like to actually ask them if they give a fuck, because I doubt they do.

That's a pretty heavy assumption. A Special Olympians response to Ann Coulter using the r-word to as an insult in a tweet:

http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/

Spoiler

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren?t dumb and you aren?t shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I?m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public?s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are ? and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven?t made yet,
John Franklin Stephens
Global Messenger
Special Olympics Virginia

Another opinion piece by the same man on the subject:

http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_10351963

 

[MPerce]

Yeah, the word "retarded" is kinda in a weird social limbo right now, at least from my experience. It used to be fine to refer to someone with mental disabilities as retarded. It's a medical word taken from music terminology (it means "slow" in Latin, or something along those lines) and referred to people with mental disabilities in an unoffensive way.

But now, it's been used to insult normal people for so long that a lot of people automatically give it negative connotations.

So....I dunno. I guess the PC thing to call retarded people is "special" or something along those lines, but plenty of people not meaning to be insulting still use "retarded." Which ends up insulting people who do find the word insulting.

Watching the evolution of words is fun.

 

[Jux]

So....I dunno. I guess the PC thing to call retarded people is "special" or something along those lines, but plenty of people not meaning to be insulting still use "retarded." Which ends up insulting people who do find the word insulting.

Watching the evolution of words is fun.

I always found this confusing. Why do we need to call them special? What's with these blanket terms? Why can't they just be a person that has down syndrome, or a person that has autism? There are a whole range of conditions and disorders that people can be afflicted by, it feels incredibly dismissive to just lump them all together.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Since I work with people who have learning difficulties, I can pretty decisively tell you that a lot of them do give a fuck. They're not animals, they're not pieces of furniture, they're people very similar to you in most ways. As people, they have some understanding of the social world. Generally quite a simple and literal understanding, but enough to understand what words mean and be hurt by them, because (as should be quite intuitive) it's quite rare to find a person with learning difficulties who hasn't heard the word "retard" and countless other words used in genuine spite.

The great thing about being gay (or bi, I can't speak for the fully gay) is that, for all that the abuse you're going to receive sucks, you can learn to process your feelings when someone hurts you. You might not be very good at it at certain points in your life, you might feel weak and lonely and hated, but you at least have the chance to learn to pick yourself up. If you're confident and have the support of a strong community, you can even learn to ignore it completely, or find ways to turn the tables. It does get better for you, really it does.

People with learning difficulties often can't learn to do that, in fact the clue is kind of in the name.

 

[tkioz]

You know it really annoys me when I hear people saying that you should use words like "retard". Let me first say I have a younger cousin with sever mental retardation, she wasn't expected to live six months when she was born, when she made it to six months the doctors said she'd be lucky to make it to five years, she is currently twenty one years old. I love hear dearly, she is a wonderful person, but she will always be a child mentally, she has the understanding of a child of six or seven, and if anyone used the word 'retard' as a pejorative when speaking to her I'd be hard pressed not to respond aggressively.

All that being said the words 'retard' 'retarded' 'retardation' etc are perfectly valid descriptive words that can be used in many ways, 'fire retardant' for example, 'this medicine retards the progress of X' is another example, and yes, my cousin, my wonderful cousin, suffers from 'mental retardation' that is her mental processes have been stopped from growing and expanding like they do in normal people.

If you use it correctly and appropriately there is nothing wrong with using the word, if you use it as an insult or a synonym for 'stupid' then you are fault and need to expand your vocabulary.

 

[MPerce]

I always found this confusing. Why do we need to call them special? What's with these blanket terms? Why can't they just be a person that has down syndrome, or a person that has autism? There are a whole range of conditions and disorders that people can be afflicted by, it feels incredibly dismissive to just lump them all together.

Because for your average person it's too hard to remember, let alone identify, all the different conditions and disorders. It's just easier to use one word in everyday conversation.

It may seem dismissive, but it's not meant to be.

 

[Jux]

I always found this confusing. Why do we need to call them special? What's with these blanket terms? Why can't they just be a person that has down syndrome, or a person that has autism? There are a whole range of conditions and disorders that people can be afflicted by, it feels incredibly dismissive to just lump them all together.

Because for your average person it's too hard to remember, let alone identify, all the different conditions and disorders. It's just easier to use one word in everyday conversation.

It may seem dismissive, but it's not meant to be.

The problem though is that 'special' is going to end up being the next pejorative. It's not so much the word, it's the way it's used that is the problem. They're used in an exclusionary way. And yea, some people might not mean to do it, but that's how it ends up being. It's rather frustrating. I mean, I don't know every learning disability or condition out there, or how to spot the differences, but it can't be that hard to just treat them as people and not their conditions can it?

 

[MPerce]

-whoops, double post-

 

[MPerce]

The problem though is that 'special' is going to end up being the next pejorative. It's not so much the word, it's the way it's used that is the problem. They're used in an exclusionary way. And yea, some people might not mean to do it, but that's how it ends up being. It's rather frustrating. I mean, I don't know every learning disability or condition out there, or how to spot the differences, but it can't be that hard to just treat them as people and not their conditions can it?

For some people, it is hard to get past a person's condition, especially if said person is not accustomed to it.

And I agree, the exclusionary use of 'special' or 'retarded' or whatever word is very frustrating. I wish everyone could treat each other as people, and not get caught up in the things that make people different from the norm. But that's not the way people's brains work. We notice people's differences, and feel the need to identify them in some way.

At least most people do their best to be polite about it, even if they still come across as ignorant or exclusionary.

 

[TehCookie]

Stop using the word retard, it's not even relevant anymore. The new term is autistic, get with the times.

Calling someone a retard is suppose to be offensive and insulting, you don't call someone a retard to make them feel warm and fuzzy inside. It should not be acceptable to call someone retarded, the same way that's it's not acceptable to call someone a jerk, asshole, dick, *****, slut, idiot, stupid etc. If you want to use those words or harsher ones go ahead but people will judge you for it and you have to deal with that.

 

[Queen Michael]

Meh. I just make sure not to say "retarded" and that takes care of it.

 

[Korolev]

"Idiot" and "Moron" started out as medical terms - people then started using them as insults, so they shifted to "Mentally Retarded", which actually just means that there is a malformation in the brain which causes cognitive and adaptive impairment. Doctors still use the term "mentally retarded", but it is falling out of fashion - instead the medical community prefers "Intellectually disabled" or "developmentally disabled" - which aren't perfect terms either, since Intellectual disability can refer to ANY cognitive impairment, including ones obtained through life, whereas Mental Retardation specifically refers to congenital mental impairment.

The problem is, no matter what word you use, nasty people will turn it into an insult. I mean, even calling someone "special" is an insult, if you do it with a certain tone. "Oh yeah, that kid... he's, uh.... special" is an insult I've heard many times.

The problem is that we, as a society, devalue those who are less intelligent. We do. We pay them less, we treat them with amazing condescension, and we ignore them all the time. We live in a society which prizes intelligence, capability and ability, and we don't value those who are, perhaps, not as capable in intellectual endeavors. Which is why, no matter what word you use to describe the intellectually impaired, someone will turn it into a word of abuse. It's an ugly aspect of humanity. What we need to do is fix society's attitudes, so that we don't dehumanize those who have intellectual disabilities. I'm not sure if we'll be able to do that, though. I mean, when you call someone "stupid", (and we've all called someone stupid), we are trying to hurt them by suggesting that their mental capabilities are less than stellar. This is an insult used by even the most Left-wing of my friends, the ones who ostensibly should never judge anyone based on their mental abilities. Yet, they do. We all do. And that's a sad reflection on the state of our species.