[nfbwatlk] Activists want world to stop using the 'R' word; Campaign deems term offensive and derogatory

[Mary Ellen]

Thanks to Gaston for forwarding the following article.  Though it doesn't
deal directly with blindness, you can see from my comments following the
article why I think it's relevant to this list.



-----Original Message-----
From: Gaston Bedard [mailto:gasbedard at videotron.ca] 
Sent: May 26, 2011 1:43 PM
Subject: Activists want world to stop using the 'R' word; Campaign deems
term offensive and derogatory



Activists want world to stop using the 'R' word; Campaign deems term
offensive and derogatory	

	Frank Appleyard
	Ottawa Citizen , May 26, 2011

Activists calling for the eradication of a word that they call "hurtful" and
"dehumanizing" may have little love for it -but they would prefer if you
refrain from calling it "retarded." 

"Retard" -an epithet common to schoolyards and workplaces across North
America -is being targeted for eradication by the Special Olympics in a
campaign called Spread the Word to End the Word. 

The campaign seeks to remove the R-word from English vernacular, calling it
offensive and derogatory to people with intellectual disabilities. Some
describe "retard" as a lazy but innocent substitute for "stupid" or "dumb,"
but advocates for the disabled say that the word is as hurtful as any racial
slur. 

"There's so much negative meaning and stereotyping at-tached to the word,
that we basically need to eradicate its use," said Michael Bach, the
executive vice-president of the Canadian Association for Community Living. 

Bach said the word has been under fire for decades, since it was established
as a medical term. Today, the phrase "retarded" has fallen out of favour
with the medical community, which tends to refer instead to intellectual or
developmental disabilities. 

"What the word says is that these people are somehow less than human or that
they're a group to be targeted and to be demeaned," Bach said. "When you use
that word it defines so clearly a boundary between people with intellectual
disabilities and the rest of humanity." 

Bach said that plans are in the works for a made-in-Canada campaign
mirroring the efforts of the Special Olympics, targeting the use of word
among youth, media and government. 

The U.S. campaign to strike the word from our collective vocabulary is
backed by the NBA and some of its most prominent players, as well as Lauren
Potter, star of the hit TV show Glee. 

Shana Poplack, the Canada Research Chair in Linguistics and a professor at
the University of Ottawa, said this attempt at rewriting the English
language holds promise. 

Poplack said that the use and meaning of "retard" has transformed since its
introduction. "The word has become semantically bleached, so really none of
the original meaning is retained," she said. "I wonder if the younger
generation even knows what the original meaning was?"


(End of article. My comments follow.)

The problem isn't with the word.  The problem is that many really do believe
people with intellectual disabilities truly are less valuable human beings.
That's a horrible and inaccurate belief, but changing the words used to
discuss intellectual disabilities will not change that underlying belief.  I
remember when "retarded" was a new term, so much nicer than idiot, imbecile,
or moron.  These people are retarded, which means slowed down or delayed.
Retarded was so much nicer and would change attitudes.  It wasn't long
before "RE-tard" became a playground insult.  Why?  Because our society
places such unreasonably high value on intellectual prowess that those who
lack it aren't respected.  I've been taught some of the most valuable life
lessons I've ever learned by men and women who couldn't even take, much less
excel at, an IQ test.  Call them imbeciles (which used to be the medical
term), call them severely retarded (which also used to be the medical term),
or call them people with intellectual disabilities, (which seems to be the
current term.)  Whatever you call them, the new term will take on the same
pejorative meaning as all the previous terms unless the underlying value
system changes.

I don't like "people first" language because I believe it reinforces
stereotypes, despite the claim of proponents that it will do the opposite.
In our case, The problem isn't with the word "blind," the problem is with
what people think about blindness.  By dancing around the word, we give
people the notion that our situation is so distasteful that it shouldn't be
mentioned directly in polite society.  In Victorian England, women didn't
have legs, they had limbs.  I'd rather change the meaning of the word
"blind" in people's minds than change the word.