The R Word Pledge And The Reasons Of Its Importance

By Douglas Howard


The Spread the Word to End the Word is a national campaign which is being conducted for encouraging the people on pledging to stop the use of the retard word. The advocates in this campaign believed that using this term in colloquial and in everyday speech would be hurtful and as well as dehumanizing those individuals having intellectual disabilities. They advocate on using a language that would respect the dignity of these people.

The advocates believe as well that the individuals with some disabilities in their cognitive aspect or if they have other developmental disabilities are capable of enjoying the experiences in their lives. Having casual references to this can, for sure, let a certain person feel he or she is being less than human. Thus, this is one of the common reasons why it is very important to have the R word pledge.

Retard would really mean a lot to the disabled persons whenever they hear it, and even to those who really care for them. For them, this means that they are not like those normal ones and are far different from them. And they often think that they are the kinds of people that no one would ever want to be, and thus, making them feel they are being left alone.

All of the words are considered to really matter in all situations. Scoffing to others does not need to be done just to point out one particular topic. Each person is given with a special gift and the most thing to do with this is to recognize and to accept this gift. Literally, it means that this can surely make the world much better.

When this retard word is spoken, it is similar to saying someone is being stupid or is mentally handicapped. Usually, the term is being stated or spoken in a way which is the most disrespectful. And thus, this would simply imply that stupidity is said to be one main characteristic of an individual who is mentally handicapped.

There is this belief that the most hurtful thing could be language rather than actions. Most especially if you are already aware about the impact of your oral transgression. Thus, saying that there is no mistake that words do hurt. So if you have been peppering the words either retard or retarded, it means you are also spreading hurt.

This term has been considered as a hate speech since it can offend persons having intellectual or developmental disabilities and even to other people who are showing care and support to them. This can both exclude and alienate them. It is emphasizing some negative stereotypes that are surrounding the disabled persons. According to some, they still believe in a traditional way of segregating and hiding away these people from the society.

And since it became a casual description for the flaws and negativity, the word retarded could be no longer appropriate for the persons with intellectual disabilities. Thus, using this in any ways such as not being intended to be offensive or as slang, it would still be hurtful. The reason is because this is still associated with the mentally disabled persons.

There are really a lot of people who do not understand how much they hurt other people when they hate or maybe they have not realized yet that they are hating. However, they need to know that at times when they take preemptive dismissal, dehumanize, and mock them, these are forms of hate already. This can be more hateful than sexism, racism, etc.




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