Sure - that would be ideal. But the reality is that a lot of people won't have that experience. In the meantime, making people aware that the term is offensive to people is a start - and those that care about not offending people might change their behavior. This isn't something that will change over night. But like any number of changes in society, awareness is a key to changing things over time. To discount a movement like this as overly PC is stupid because we've seen the same arguments before and then society eventually moves in that direction, not because it's PC but because it makes sense. To also dismiss it because it doesn't completely solve the problem or isn't the perfect solution is equally silly. People use certain language because people laugh or join in and it gives them validation. Take away the audience that supports it and you'll slowly eliminate the problem.
A lot of these people aren't kids. They should know better. Anyone from High School up should know better. I know that I'm not going to change their mind and I don't feel that I've done anything to turn enightened people against my stance. I do this because I have too. Kevin is my son. He's my blood. If he wasn't my son, I wouldn't make the sacrifices that I have to do raise him. He is and I am going to continue doing whatever I can to help him. We had a single mom who was in our group who has a severely autistic daughter. Her boyfriend is absolutely wonderful with her daughter. He's everything her real father could hope to be. I saw the woman getting on him for some normal relationship drama stuff one day. I walked over to her and told her to cut him some slack. I said..."He is a better man than me, he is doing this because he wants to, I am doing this because I have to." I am not going to butt in to your relationship but I want to remember the enxt man in your life may not be as accepting of the duties associated with caring for your daughter. (Her own father sure wasn't) I remember the first Autism school that I visited. I watched the buses pull up in the morning dropping of 1 or 2 kids per bus. All the buses had different school districts on the side of them. Then this one big bus pulled up with about 20 kids on it. I asked what School District the bus came from and the response from the Principal was the Group Home. As these kid came off the bus many of the kids much less affected than my own son, tears welled up in my eyes. In my mind, I associated each of them as having parents who gave up on them. I know now that I was wrong in some cases as some parents are just not equipped to care for these kids. But I knew that day, that I was in for the long haul. Didn't want Kev to be one of those kids getting off that bus.... He's 16 now, 6-1 and 215 lbs but he's still that little kid that needs more help than the rest to get by. What he doesn't need is to be the butt of jokes. So you are right.... people who uses that word and me are coming from different places. People who use that word are coming from the wrong place....
i didn't read all of the op, i know people associate me with political correctness, but i really don't care about a lot of insensitivity but i don't like the word "r****ded". its a word, yes its not meant to make fun of mentally disabled people when you call something r****ded its just an ugly word its like using the c word in referencing a woman.
mental r****dation literally translates into someone who's mental growth is so stunted that they are backwards by the time they reach a certain age. they will never have the mental growth of someone older than __ age.
^ age is just a measurement. It's "less advanced than usual for that age." You can't "erase" a word from the dictionary. You can't even stop people from using it. All PC stuff aside, it matters HOW you use it: Don't try to offend someone with the word. Use it to denote that someone has that mental problem. How difficult is that?
Is it really asking that much to not call someone a r****d? Is it that important to you? I can't believe there's a 5 page thread full of people defending their right to call someone a r****d.... And I don't buy the slippery slope logic. We're only talking about one word here.
Everyone can say whatever they want - that's their right. Hopefully, discussion on the topic leads to increased thought and consideration of the words we choose to use and how we use them. https://twitter.com/HuffPostLive/status/309340233814650880
+1 It's always so strange to me when people get upset because a group asks that a derogatory word not be used.
I'm not here to satisfy you nor was I trying to be funny. Just making a point. But since you know my level of self-consciousness so well, you sir, must be the internet.
It's like if I met someone and they said their name was James. "Nice you meet you, Jim!" "I prefer to be called James, thanks!" What ******* would keep calling this guy Jim?
I like this. I think that an important component of it is that you met James. Until people with disabilities are James, Jim, and Kim it's much easier to call them names. Maybe that's overly idealistic.
There is a new term: intellectually disabled. There will be another after that. These new names won't affect r****ded in slang.
There's nothing offensive about assuming he goes by Jim. I don't think there are many of those associated with special needs kids who like people using that work. I could have never met a mentally-r****ded person to know that it's not an accepted term. At this point, there's really no excuse for ignorance on this topic. And if there is and it's pointed out that this is an offensive term, that should end the discussion right there.
Thanks for this thread emjohn. This is one of those threads that exposes quite a bit about the people behind the monikers.
Except they're not saying it directly to James. They're calling their idiot friends Jim and James and his family are getting offended. BTW, I don't really care either way. Just wanted to touch on your analogy.
OK, if a friend of James' said he didn't like to be called and they didn't like him to be called Jim, anyone calling James Jim would be an *******.
To those that take offense of the word, when you hear it being used between two intellectually capable people, do you associate it with the mentally challenged? Chris Rock's bit seems relevant NSFW audio <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/U8g5v__EepA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
