I know my blog is meant to be light hearted and fun, but today I want to talk about something more serious. I'm sure if you know me in person you've heard me say at least once "Please don't use that word" in response to one person calling another person or themselves "Retarded"
Mental Retardation is a serious life debilitating illness that 3 percent of Americans are effected by. The word retard is defined as - A person that is diagnosed with a mental retardation that causes them to have slow development. The word retard DOES NOT mean foolish or stupid and it is not acceptable to use it in replacement. When you call one of your friends or yourself retarded because they are being foolish, you are saying those two definitions are the same. You're making an actual illness a derogatory term. This to me is one of the most offencive things you can say and it makes me very upset that society has made it acceptable. You would never dream about making jokes about other illnesses such as cancer or autoimmune disease. I've never once heard any one say to their friends "You are such a cancer patient!" You would never dream of making jokes about that! So why make jokes about this? Using the word retarded in a derogatory fashion is just as offencive as any other minority slur. Would you call darker skinned people the N word?
One excuse I've heard people make when I ask them why they'd say something so offencive is, "But I know someone with down syndrome and I love them so its OK." How is that better? If you know and love someone who has such a challenge in their life you should be lifting them up and supporting them, NOT associating them with foolish behavior behind their backs. Would you make that joke in front of someone with down syndrome?
The fact is that people have the nerve to say something so stereotypical and ignorant, and then they become offended when they are called out on it. Well, I don't care who this offends, if you use the word retarded in a derogatory sense you are associating a serious illness with someone else's foolishness. If you know and love someone effected by mental retardation or want to help end this name calling, please repost this to your social sites. If enough people stand up to this minority slur maybe we can help spread awareness that: It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to call your self or your friends retarded when they are acting foolish.
