Advocates equate ‘retarded’ with hate speech

Rahm Emanuel’s criticism of some liberal Democrats as “f — ing retarded” is “shining a spotlight on just how pervasive the R-word is in American conversation and how offensive it can be for millions of Americans,” reports Devin Dwyer on ABC News. Dwyer describes Emanuel’s comment as a “verbal indiscretion.”

Advocates say the furor over Emanuel’s remark demonstrates the need for a change in social sensitivities. An estimated 35 states have enacted or introduced legislation to remove the word “retardation” from government agencies and programs.

An excerpt:

Several advocates for the disabled noted that just as derogatory terms for African Americans, Jews and gays are often associated with periods of oppression and prejudice in the country’s history, the word ‘retarded’ can elicit an equally emotional and visceral response.

“It’s a reminder to [intellectually and developmentally disabled persons] of all the suffering they’ve experienced and all the ways they’ve been excluded from society,” said Peter Berns, CEO of the advocacy group, The Arc of the United States, who is attending [today's] meeting with Emanuel. “Every time they hear the word all these images flood back to them about how they’ve been laughed at, pointed at, made fun of, sterilized.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Obama administration, R-word, language, race, religion, sterilization, stigma. 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.