Posted on May 28, 2011, in still thinking. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
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People who look and act and speak like that young woman get beaten up, killed, and raped just for being who they are, and the word they hear when it happens is “retard”. That’s a hate slur. She shouldn’t have to hear it on a daily basis, and she likely does — with sniggers. And its casual use just reinforces the idea that that kind of violence against people with disabilities is OK.
I chuckled a little at ‘spread the word to end the word’, but I got the point.
It’s a very correct approach by (what I assume are) whites (a long with some other organizations maybe), and a noble effort at the very least.
BUT.
Nigger/negro, chink, faggot etc were never ‘common words’. What the heck are these white folks talking about? They’ve ALWAYS been slurs, just not to them.
Just becaus white people used them freely to disrespect other ethnicities or groups they were common words? That’s White Supremacy in effect right there. It is total failure to describe them as common words, how come so many groups were behind this but didn’t pick that up?
Strange they didn’t put ‘cracker’ in there. How come? Maybe because it was a common slur/word used between whites themselves?
That being said, as a non-white male I’ve got serious bias that doesn’t easily accept other comparisons to the word n*gger or other racial slurs. Mostly because the racial slurs have a history behind them that is longer and more brutal than the word ‘retard’.
Also, the word retard, although used as an insult/slur and though it might uphold minor power structures and afford privileges (to non-handicapped people like myself), it doesn’t kill or lead to the death of handicapped people, the exclusion or persecution of them. And lastly, wasn’t the word retard in use way before it was a slur…?
That actually makes retard the ONLY common word in the whole campaign. Oh, the whiteness – the irony!
Someone please correct me, lest I appear ignorant and blind to my own privilege -_-
From the youtube description:
While I don’t love the “compare it to nigger to impart gravity” thing, I’m pretty okay with this. I’ve used a similar tactic before to help people understand that slurs are not okay (e.g. explaining that dyke is a hate slur, just like the n-word). The comparison is not perfect, but it makes a point to an audience that is at a 101 level, which, let’s face it, most Americans are. I think the major difference is the way “retarded” is used compared to their other examples; it’s often used as an insult against people who DON’T have developmental disabilities, as opposed to solely being directed at the actual marginalized group (akin to “That’s so gay.”). But I think you need to keep it simple and short for PSAs, so I think this kind of approach will get the point across to the average person.
In the U.S., we have a pervasive history of discrimination against people with disabilities. And of course there was the eugenics movement. I also have reservations about comparisons to other racial slurs but don’t feel completely comfortable with my reasons. Some of them seem to be too close to oppression olympics.
I’ve also used these kinds of comparisons, and know for a fact that they don’t always work for other people. Many people simply don’t understand and don’t care.
The “common words” thing–lots of times people say that a certain word is no longer used because it has “become a slur” or is “no longer politically correct.” Which makes it obvious that they never got it.
“Also, the word retard, although used as an insult/slur and though it might uphold minor power structures and afford privileges (to non-handicapped people like myself), it doesn’t kill or lead to the death of handicapped people, the exclusion or persecution of them. And lastly, wasn’t the word retard in use way before it was a slur…?”
This is untrue. During the Nazi era, people were killed precisely for that. “Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust & People With Disabilities” by Suzanne E. Evans documents this. Also, in the USA, eugenics was practiced. North Carolina recently examined the results of its eugenics program. People with intellectual disabilities were forcibly sterilized.
If this is not death, exclusion or persecution, then what is it?
The word and all of the other slurs that have been used to refer to the mentally disabled throughout history have always served to dehumanize and most certainly to “exclude and persecute” them. That dehumanization also most certainly lead to the deaths of countless mentally disabled people (especially those who were both mentally disabled and POC). Eugenic practices were not unique to the Nazi movement. As mentioned upthread people with mental disabilities in the US have been forcibly sterilized and made subjects of medical experimentation without consent or proper patient protections .Commitment of mentally disabled people to asylums in the US and all over the world lead to all kinds of inhumane treatment and grizzly abuses, which in the US were mostly not outlawed until the ’50s and ’60s. And today mental disability is still a major risk factor for physical and sexual abuse.