The R Word Pledge And The Reasons Of Its Importance

By Douglas Howard


A national campaign has been launched called The Spread the Word to End the Word in which the main goal is to encourage the people to make a pledge on stopping the use of retard word. According to the advocates of this campaign, it is very hurtful whenever the term will be used in colloquial and everyday speech. It dehumanizes those individuals with intellectual disabilities. The use of languages that respect the persons dignity is being advocated.

The advocates have their belief as well that individuals with cognitive disabilities or with some developmental disabilities can be capable of enjoying life experiences. They also have casual references, stating that spitting out this term to one particular person can make him or her less than human. And for this reason, having the R word pledge is very necessary.

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 saying the retard word, it is just like you are saying that someone is stupid or mentally handicapped. And most of the time, this is being said in a most disrespectful way. And thus, simply implies that stupidity is considered to be the main characteristic that the individuals who are mentally handicapped possess.

There is one belief before and even until now, it states that words spoken are much more hurtful than actions done especially when you are aware already on the impact of own oral transgression. And thus, saying no mistake is stated that words can really hurt. So when either of the words retarded or retard are being peppered, you are spreading hurt as well.

Hate speech is a common expression that is termed for this since it is not only hurting those having some developmental disabilities like intellectually but as well as those who are caring for them and supporting them. This can both alienate and exclude them. Some are still believing and continuously applying the traditional rule of hiding away and segregating these people from a 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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