The R Word Pledge And The Reasons Of Its Importance

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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 also believe that individuals having cognitive disabilities or some other types of development disabilities have the capability of enjoying their life experiences. And having some casual references on the term can surely make the person feel like he or she is less than human. And this can be one of the reasons on why the R word pledge would be very important.

Retard means so much to disabled persons each time they are able to hear it, and also to their friends and families who love them and care of them. They said, it would be really hard for them to avoid to make a comparison between them and normal people. And most of the time, they are thinking that they are types of people which not even one would wish to be like, making them feel 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.

A number of people until now do not clearly understand that they are already hurting others due to hate. It maybe because they have not come up to a realization yet that they do hate. However, knowing they do are hating is necessary such as when they mock them, taking preemptive dismissal, and dehumanize them. There are more hurtful than the racism and sexism.




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