by BlackSwan of Memphis 65 Replies latest jw friends
Isn't the word usually used for the very reason that the person you are frustrated with is most certainly NOT mentally retarded but is instead selectively acting as if they are?
I can be pretty sharp tongued on discussion forums, but personally, if I think someone is truly mentally challenged, I take a much softer tone with them, and give them huge amounts of leeway.
Black Swan:
I just got to this thread. I sincerely, apologize for a post I made earlier today. It was a stupid play on words and I thoughtlessly wasn't even thinking of the developmentally disabled when I made it. (that's what makes it "thoughtless".)
Please accept my humble apology and thanks for the empathy reminder. I highly value you as a poster and also the greater community of JWD.
Open Mind
Actually six Both ways.
People will call (often kids do this) people with challenges retards and make fun of them for riding the short bus...
I personally find the word so repugnant that when I was in High School I ended up in suspension for jumping on the back and pulling out the hair of a very popular jock in our school. He and his entourage decided it was hysterical to not only make fun of a teenager girl that was mentally challenged, but walk behind her making weird noises etc. Well I just about had enough and jumped on his back, and hit him with all my might, as he threw me against a locker. Personally didn't care that I got in school suspension, and of course he received a warning not to do it again.
I hate injustice, probably one of the reasons why I do the work that I do now. I have always felt that it was my job to speak for those that do not have a voice. I really think it should be everyones responsibility, and you would not see actions against others that you do today. JMO
Leslie
OpenMind; I really appreciate that.
I am not expecting people to apologize to Me.
The point is to get this out in the open and discuss it.
To talk about it, so that people like me, even if we are whiny over sensitive snots can get it off our (my) chest(s) and therefore help us as a community get that some stuff just is not cool.
In fact OpenMind you make the point, when the word gets used like that, basically it is that most of the time, though not all of the time, the person using it has not even thought of it like that and it is so accepted when it shouldn't be.
I hope you pulled out a huge chunk of hair, Leslie!
OH, thanks for clearing that up. I was really racking my brain. I guess I don't use that word very often so I didn't think of it. Either that or the blonde side was showing though. God, I was thinking if it was dumbass I was really in trouble. Ever since the 70's show it is permanently entrenched.
Perhaps the word Daft should be used instead of the insensitive R word. Honestly I have caught myself saying it in the past and force myself to stop or apologize because I know the effect it can have on people.
I got really pissed this weekend with the N jokes. All my guy friends who really aren't racist started in on them. Not one or two, but like twenty. I finally shouted at them and was super angry. They couldn't understand why. They used the cracker/honky thing too. But Cracker and Honky were never names given to oppressed or slaved people. That is not a comparison. There is no comparison. I find anyone who uses the term of any color to be ignorant. That however is just my opinion and well as long as it isn't said in my presence, it ain't my business.
I dont think of anyone that rides the short bus or is in the special olympics as "retarded" I have a great amount of respect and awe with what I see that "handicapped" people accomplish. Most of the time I feel like a lazy ass when I see the obstacles that are challenged. When I think of retard, I think its a person that has the ability to do something, physically or mentally and just for whatever reason is not getting it. i think of myself as retarded in many ways. I agree with IP_SEC that when people use offensive language it tells more about what fools they are. I have been called a woman in a degrading way. I had to fight many obstacles for some people in my life to look at me as a person and not who or what THEY thought I was. I hope this makes some sense. purps |
I'm reminded of a health care professional that I heard on the radio once.
She was using the term "retarded" and the interviewer questioned her on it. She said that is what many used in the field, just out of frustration. She said that people are always looking for a word that means "beyond stupid" and unfortunately the mentally challenged have been the brunt of that quest.
Way back before clinical diagnoses, the term "stupid" was used.
Then it was assigned the term "retardation" and people started picking it up
So they changed it to "Special needs" and people started using it
Then to "Challenged" and it was taken and so on.
Her thought was they could reclassify it to something absurd like "bouncing turtles" and the bullies in the general public would just take it up as well. She was tired of trying to correct ignorant people's misuse of the word and went back to the clinical term.
Her opinion really hit a point with me. I had never considered it before. Essentially, if someone is going to be inconsiderate, they will do so regardless of what measures you try to put in place to prevent it.
"People will call (often kids do this) people with challenges retards and make fun of them for riding the short bus..."
Ah, I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but it does. I may be too quick to use the term as a pejorative simply because even as a kid I wasn't the type to bully people who are truly challenged.
I'm curious what people who deal with this think, and how they deal with people close to them who are mentally retarded (is that even really a medical term?). Is the mentally challenged person usually "in" on the facts considering their mental challenges, or do the people around them tend to treat their condition as out-of-bounds?
