#therword

Free Speech, being PC, and the never ending battle over the R-Word

As usual, I am back “here” with a couple of things on my mind as of late, and as usual they were sparked by a couple of things that happened. So here are 2 big things that happened and one statement that gets me every time.

1. I received an e-mail from USF affirming that every student has the right to free speech, even if that speech makes others uncomfortable; however, in a place of higher learning, where we are meant to stretch and grow our opinions and beliefs, often by facing opinions differing from our own, we must remember to use respectful, civil discourse. 

I am completely and totally about this move on USF’s part. Go Bulls. Seriously we are adults supposedly attempting to receive a well rounded education which sometimes always means meeting people of different opinions and learning to have a civil conversation where you learn more about your own beliefs but also better understand the opposing arguments. 

2. Someone used the R-Word and said another person was being over sensitive when she voiced that the word made her uncomfortable.

Here’s the statement that gets me every time.

“It’s just a word, you’re just trying to be so PC. It just means like stupid. It’s not really hurting anyone. Sorry I’m just not a PC person.”

In the vain of completely supporting the right to free speech on this issue: If anyone has a valid reason to use the R-Word, please let me know, because I would compare it to the N-word, which I won’t even type for fear of backlash and because it is completely inappropriate. 

Here’s an argument I’ve heard a few times and I’m just going to say my piece in response and let it be what it will:

“It’s a medical term: mental retardation”

If that’s your argument I will give you a little wiggle room if you happen to have been attempting to describe a medical condition characterized by an IQ at least 2 standard deviations below the norm (aka below 70). If that was your intent: The new medical term is “Intellectual Disability” and I’m glad I could help you appropriately update your vocabulary. 

In the case of every other person who uses this word to describe people when they are acting stupid, foolish, or dumb: I’d like to ask you to reconsider your word choice and liken it to a word as derogatory for the large community of people with disabilities as the the N-word is to the African-American/Black American community. This will take a minute so bare with me: You wouldn’t say the N-word flippantly and say you “just aren’t PC” because you understand how derogatory that word is and how it was used for an extensive period of history as a slur for a whole race of people who have value, are among your friends (at least, most likely), and contribute a great deal to our society. Yet, you continue to use the R-word. If you think that the people you are offending don’t know, care, or understand what you are saying when you say “That’s so retarded” click here, here, here, or here (the last one is my personal favorite) and you will find members of the disability community speaking out against this largely offensive term which is extremely derogatory and makes people think of them as “less than”, “foolish”, or “less valuable than” other people. 

As someone who works extensively with children with disabilities, I watch the reality of this hit my kids at 8 and 9 years old. It is heartbreaking to watch a 9 year old hit herself in the head because she called her friend stupid, which made him cry, which made her feel bad for saying it. If my second graders can grasp this simple concept so can anyone: we don’t call people we love and care about names and if we do by accident, we fix our mistake, apologize, and correct our word choices. You see, the word “retard” follows these kids around. By the time they are in 5th grade, they will hear other kids snicker that they are in the “boom boom” class. By the time they hit high school, someone will use “retard” as a slur in their direction. Tossed like a knife at the integrated, but not inclusive, middle school. Because ideals of inclusion, assumption of competence, and differentiated instruction go out the window in the 6th grade. Then kids meet self-contained class rooms (and usually halls), full of teachers doing their best to reach them, but surrounded by kids who know all to well what kind of classrooms those are and aren’t afraid to toss it around the same way that kids did all those years ago passing the school “for colored students” tossed the N-word out. The R-word doesn’t mean stupid, foolish, silly, or dumb. As a disability, very simply, it no longer exists. As a verb/adjective it means to slow, or slow. But when used as slang for stupid, foolish, or dumb, it is derogatory, extremely hurtful, and poisonous to the climate of inclusion so many are battling for every day, where persons with intellectual disabilities are valued for what they can contribute to this world. 

6. Ignoramus: an ignorant or stupid person. 7. Vapid: (of a subject) offering nothing that is stimulating or challenging. 8. Thick-skulled: dull and stupid. 9. Nimrod: an inept person 10. Incompetent: not having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully.