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End the hypocrisy that words don't matter
Q: Advocacy groups for people with intellectual disabilities are campaigning to end use of the word 'retard' or 'retarded.' What do you think of their initiative?
The Special Olympics and other groups have been campaigning for a while to end the use of the "r-word", that is, retardation or, even worse, "retard" to describe those who have intellectual disabilities. As their excellent Web site says, "I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities." I've taken the pledge and I hope you will too.
The site has a banner that states, "Our language frames how we think about others." This is so helpful, and a good introduction to why this campaign matters. Speech isn't neutral; it has the capacity to influence us unconsciously as well as consciously both by what is said, and by what is not said.
When you actually change language to become more inclusive, you change the way people think and act to become more inclusive. This important insight, however, is what political and religious conservatives have panned and ridiculed for years as "political correctness." The hypocrisy of people in the conservative movement jumping on this particular bandwagon about retardation to make political capital, while having ridiculed and damned such efforts in linguistic transformation before, is frankly, intolerable.
I spent 15 years working on two different translations of the Bible to translate "men" or "mankind" as "human being" or "morals," depending on the context. In both these translation efforts, The Inclusive Language Lectionary, and also The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version, our translation committee worked not only on gender inclusive issues, but also on how to address other ways that English translation has furthered prejudice, including prejudice against people with disabilities.
For example, older translations of scripture refer to "the blind" or the "lame" in rendering accounts of Jesus' healing ministries. Our committee translated those texts "a person who was blind" or "a person who was lame" in order not to simply identify people as their disabilities; no matter what your handicapping condition, you are a person and, in the context of scripture, in particular, a child of God.
Our translation committee was vilified by religious and political conservatives for this translation, and called "politically correct" for attempting to address how language shapes exclusion or inclusion.
The hypocrisy of conservatives on this issue continues. While on the one hand, Sarah Palin thinks Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel should be "fired" for a very pejorative use of the word "retard," she defends Rush Limbaugh when he uses the term to describe "liberals."
Either it's wrong to call people "regards," Sarah, or it's not. The politics should have nothing to do with it.
By
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
|
February 17, 2010; 9:07 AM ET
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Posted by: YEAL9 | February 17, 2010 2:37 PM
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"Retarded" is an excellent description of me right now - nursing a broken ankle, it's hard fr m to keep up, and therefore am "retarded." If we think of people with intellectual disabilities as merely "slow," then "retarded" might be an apt description of that disability. Bu that is not usually the case, and to use the term to cover a wide range of disabilities is to do those who have these problems a disservice - as it is to lump them with those of whom the term is used pejoratively - who have the ability for critical thought, but refuse to use it. As I have said elsewhere in my comments, the use of "rtard" as a pejorative term, to my mind, says more about the person usin it than the one so labeled. The use of the term for those who face various intellectual challenges is generally not helpful and, since it is often used pejoratively, demeaning.
Posted by: garoth | February 17, 2010 2:10 PM
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"I've taken the pledge and I hope you will too."
I won't; I'm old enough that I get a very bad feeling in my gut whenever any group "suggests" that people take a public pledge for any reason.
Posted by: PSolus | February 17, 2010 1:48 PM
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Either it's wrong to call people "regards," Sarah, or it's not. The politics should have nothing to do with it.
EXACTLY!
Posted by: emonty | February 17, 2010 1:10 PM
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From the Vancouver Sun:
"The party is just starting for Canada," said Bilodeau, who dedicated his (gold medal) triumph to his older brother who has cerebral palsy. "My brother is my inspiration."
That says it all!!! Next topic!!