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.”

From the Los Angeles Times:

California parents of young children are increasingly reluctant to vaccinate against the H1N1 influenza, citing fear of autism and distrust of authority.

This new generation of vaccine skeptics has been forged by the stubbornly persistent belief — discredited by a welter of studies — in a link between vaccines and autism. And it is further fueled by a combustible mix of distrust of drug manufacturers, media outlets and the federal government.

And although many pediatricians are readying stern lectures in support of vaccinating children, several in Southern California contacted by The Times acknowledged they have doubts about recommending a vaccine that is still in testing for all of their young patients.

See also: Racial and ethnic minorities join vaccine skeptics — Los Angeles Times

Earlier posts here.

From Agencia Brasil (Brazil’s government news agency). In Portuguese. Translation here.

A national study among Brazil’s public schools has found widespread evidence of prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation, place of origin, or socio-economic status.

Among the study’s findings: 98.9 percent of those surveyed said they want to keep their distance from people with intellectual disabilities, while 96.2 percent said they were wary of people with physical disabilities. Gay people got the same response from 98.9 percent of those surveyed, and 90.9 percent said they wanted to keep their distance from black people.

Jose Afonso Mazzon, study coordinator and professor of economics, administration and accounting at the University of Sao Paolo, said the research demonstrated that prejudice is disseminated by all sectors of the school community. “The fact that every individual has prejudice is generalized and alarming,” he said.

Researchers surveyed 18,500 students, parents, principals, teachers and school staff at 501 public schools across the country.

From the Winston-Salem Journal and the Asheville Citizen-Times:

A phone line has been set up for people who believe they or a member of their family may have been sterilized through the North Carolina Eugenics Program between 1929 and 1974.

More than 7,600 North Carolinians were sterilized, many of them involuntarily, during the 45 years the program was active. The program sought to sterilize people who were classified as “feeble-minded” or “mentally diseased,” as well as those who were poor or black. The law that allowed for involuntary sterilization was not repealed until 2003.

A committee of state legislators is developing a plan for making amends to those who are still living, and will make recommendations for action by the state legislature in the 2009 legislative session. During her campaign, North Carolina governor-elect Beverly Perdue pledged to recognize and assist people who were victims of the involuntary sterilization program.

Earlier posts here.

From the St. Petersburg Times,  Tampa Tribune:

Three civil rights groups have filed a class action complaint with the Florida Department of Education alleging that students with disabilities in the Hillsborough schools were neglected and disciplined instead of being given counseling and support services required by federal law.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities and the NAACP joined forces to file the complaint over the Hillsborough school district’s treatment of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.

The complaint asks the state to force Hillsborough to transform a “culture of neglect and overly harsh discipline” that puts students with disabilities on a path to jail and prison.

… Punishing students with disabilities instead of providing them with services that promote positive behavior “appears to occur more frequently with students of color,” according to the complaint.

Similar complaints have been filed against Palm Beach County, as well as in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“This problem is not limited to Palm Beach and Hillsborough,” said Brandi Davis, a lawyer from the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. “This is a state and national problem.

From Healthday News/U.S. News & World Report:

A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that black, Hispanic and Native Americans with disabilities are more likely to report “fair or poor” health status than white or Asian Americans.

… With October declared National Disability Awareness Month, the CDC said, “Efforts to reduce racial/ethnic health disparities should explicitly include strategies to improve the health and well being of persons with disabilities within each racial/ethnic population.”

From the Jackson, TN, Sun:

Residents of North Madison County in Tennessee have organized in opposition to a proposal to build group homes there for people with developmental disabilities, arguing that the homes would drive down property values and bring undesirable people into their neighborhoods.

The homes are planned to replace an aging, institutional-style facility that is being closed in the wake of a federal lawsuit over the treatment of people with disabilities in the state.

Related op-ed: Developmentally disabled have rights, just like everybody else — By Peter Watson. An excerpt:

To me, the issue is, do these people have a right to live in a decent home in a decent neighborhood? To me, the answer is yes.

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