LAist: Who Do You Think You're Calling Retarded?

Chip Whitley

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:00:52 -0800

I like how when referring to people that offend you by saying “retarded”, you describe them as being morons. You may not realize but BOTH retarded AND moron were official classification of a level of IQ. As a commenter said: A word only has the power we give it. Your ignorance of outdated proper (it was at one time) usage does not make it an insult. If someone said “Wow that is a queer little house, I like it a lot” they are not somehow insulting it. Just because they did not use the term as the common slang term does not make it wrong. If someone says that guy is sick (referring to his health) are you foolish enough to only assume he is using slang and really meaning “cool”, “awesome”, etc…? Or the same with the slang “sweet”? I assume a person writing an article will not be using slang (unless it is relevant) as their usage is expected to be of the professional type so if you look up the dictionary definition then you will see he was not being insulting in the least bit (only for those doing their best to find anything and everything offensive so they have something to “protest”/complain about). I also think it is funny you are worried about you being PC when you are doing just the opposite. You stated: “Handicapped is a term used only to refer to things like parking, not to people.”, how can a parking space be handicapped? Once again you are mistaken as Handicapped means: “having a physical or mental disability”. Also why would you insist that average vocabulary be changed to the exact same meaning medical vocabulary? Do you think using less understood verbiage makes it less offensive? You stated: “Replace the phrase birth defect in your vocabulary with the word congenital.” Did you know that congenital means “existing at or dating from birth”. AND congenital has NO reference to defects so in the end you would say “congenital (existing at or dating from birth) defect” instead of “birth defect”. THEN you contradict your previous encouragement by saying “But don't feel as if you need to change your everyday speech.” Do you hear yourself? That is exactly what you are suggesting. “People who use wheelchairs say they are going for a walk, blind people say they saw that article in the paper today, And deaf people say that they heard about your new job.” I may be wrong but I have yet to hear someone in these categories claiming they do things they do not have the ability to do. Deaf people would say “found out about”, or the blind people would say “I read the article”, or those in wheelchairs would say “I am going out” or “I am going to ramble”(which means to move aimlessly from place to place, to explore idly or specify where they are going. Not referring to physically walking, but doing it for the same reason as someone going for a walk). I know people like this and they never talk as you say. Also this would not be PC if they did. “Brain injuries” is just different wording to brain damaged, you are just rephrasing with medical usage that means exactly what the “insulting” average usage means. Why are not the medical phrases just as insulting? Oh, right because of the insult that we give words. Impaired is not flattering? I did not know words to describe defects and disabilities were supposed to be. I mean you can’t use Traumatic Brain Injury because that is just not flattering… Deaf just means: “lacking or deficient in the sense of hearing”, which once again is simply different wording. And you are not even accepting the PC term of hearing impaired, that is funny. Deaf and Dumb are actually terms to describe deaf mutes. It is not in fact calling them stupid, though I could understand your confusion as you seem to only understand slang. Also you just contradicted yourself again… Why can I not use Deaf in that terminology when you advised I do earlier? Normal means average. Calling someone not normal is not an insult (unless you believe it is) it is just referring to them not being average in one way or another. Some say I am not normal and that is true. Until the majority of human kind is deaf then being deaf is not considered a normal/average trait (the being deaf and nothing else). Why would anyone say that a person refer to all people who are not disabled “non disabled”? The only reason to do so is when it is conversationally relevant or if it is of note because the non disabled are the minority. I have never heard someone who is handicapped say “Bob over there, who is non disabled, sat on that bench over there”. Also I don’t go around even referring to the handicapped that way. Anyone who does is being narrow minded and hypocritical. I would recommend using a dictionary before making statements about phrases and words as if you are some kind of authority because clearly you are not, as almost everything you said was contradictory, hypocritical, and lacked understanding.

Elise Thompson

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:10:40 -0800

Very interesting. Thanks for the input. I did not take into account social factors. I have just noticed that people with CP are often treated as "slow", so I wanted to clarify that it is not the same as being developmentally disabled. I wonder what the incidence is of people with CP having a secondary disability caused by the same etiology

Gollum

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:18:28 -0800

Elise Thompson

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:46:14 -0800

According to the Little People of America Website, some organizations do use the word "dwarf", although they usually say "little person" or "person of short stature". I think some people's issue might be that "dwarf" labels the person by focusing on the disability. Maybe saying "a person with dwarfism" would be more acceptable. I do not happen to have any friends in that community, so I welcome comments. Website for Little People of America: http://www.lpaonline.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=44394&orgId=lpa

Elise Thompson

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:34:07 -0800

I used a photo from Hawking's website, so I am not sure if it has been digitally enhanced. His eyes look bluish in the photo to me, and it is how I remember him looking when I met him.

Elise Thompson

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:31:55 -0800

I used the picture of Hawking, a person who does not have a developmental delay, but a physical disability, in my attempt to illustrate two things - first, some disabilities are so incapacitating that falsely assume people's cognition is affected when it is not. So don;t make assumptions about people's abilities. Secondly, compared to Hawking, most of us are pretty slow ...it's a matter of degrees.

Johnny

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:13:36 -0800

Bottom line is to be sensitive to others period. If people just put some thought before speaking there would not be issues like the one in the article. Damn those 'tards from Fox!

guest

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:23:00 -0800

p.s. i meant to say, excellent article. i think it's also worth pointing out that there is a significant difference between physical and mental disabilities and as crude a term as it is, "retarded" generally refers to the latter. someone with cp, or als, like hawking, might not expect to fall into that generalization.

guest

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:05:10 -0800

@ marc: in a perfect world, we could. but unfortunately language is nothing except the meanings we have given the words, and despite what the word originally meant, any typical english speaking person hearing the word "retarded" doesn't think "slowed down", they think "moron". i don't think the comments section is the right place to launch into an explanation of signifier vs signified, but hopefully you get what i'm saying. @ fredcamino: funny, but out of place. i thought you types were told to move on after the first paragraph?

csharp7

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:28:55 -0800

I thought 'dwarf' was appropriate - since the medical condition is called 'dwarfism'. I have heard the word 'Achondroplasia', but I think that's not the only disorder that causes dwarfism.

guest

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:47:08 -0800

Was the above photo modified with Adobe® Photoshop™ software? I thought Stephen Hawking was a person with blue eyes.

fredcamino

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:09:34 -0800

I think that in language, brevity and conciseness is key, therefore I would have preferred the use of the abbreviated but instantly recognizable term 'tard.

marc

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:26:08 -0800

i just think words only have the power we give them. retarded means slower than normal development. why cant we just use the word for what it means?