In the HuffingtonPost, Liane Kupferberg Carter is infuriated by the widespread use of the word “retard” as an insult. Just as bad, she says, are jokes that use people with disabilities as the punchline.  Among her evidence: White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was quoted using the phrase “f–ing retarded,” and columnist Thomas Friedman said on CNN that American involvement in Afghanistan is like “an unemployed couple who just went out and decided to adopt a special needs baby.”

An excerpt:

I am not the first to write about this, and I won’t be the last, either. I’m not trying to be the word police. And I know that if we banish this word from everyone’s vocabulary, something equally noxious will probably take its place. But the malice behind this word is palpable and ugly and heart constricting. Do you think kids with intellectual disabilities don’t know they are being put down when someone calls them that word? That they don’t feel the insult and disdain?

The R word has been retired by medical and social service organizations. It’s time everyone else does too. This isn’t about political correctness. I am asking for no less than a basic cultural shift. People need to understand that the ‘R-word’ is as offensive to persons with intellectual disabilities as the ‘N-word’ is to the African American community.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 4:10 am and is filed under commentary, humor, language, media, NOT2BEMISSED, Obama administration, politics, R-word. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.