For example, people with intellectual disabilities get called the R-word.
People used the R-word to say that it was okay to discriminate against us. Some people still use the R-word that way.
It still hurts us to hear the R-word. It makes us feel bad about having an intellectual disability. It makes us feel scared that people will hurt us. You shouldn’t use the R-word for any reason.
Foundations for Inclusive Advocacy – Autistic Self Advocacy Network
The neurodiversity and disability rights movements have put monumental effort in getting the r-word removed from law and society, culminating in Rosa’s Law. Its resurrection is very disheartening.
CW: The R-word is used in full in some of the quoted materials below
President Obama struck the r-word from the federal government when he signed Rosa’s Law in 2010. It got unanimous approval. Hard to imagine these days.
@slooterman
“When self advocates, people with intellectual disabilities first started getting out of institutions in the 70s, one of the first things that they made a campaign was please stop calling us retarded. Please stop dehumanizing us with the word retarded. We don’t want you to use that word anymore. Because we’re not retarded. We’re human beings just like you because just because we experience the world differently, process information differently, speak differently, doesn’t mean that we are slow, doesn’t mean that we, we are hindered. We’re hindered by your attitudes and by the structures of society, not by our disability,” said Marcum.
The word originates from the medical world and is tied into the medical model of disability – the idea that people with disabilities are somehow “limited” because of a diagnosis. But the activists Marcum described look at disability in a different way – through the social model, which is the belief that rights and access for people with disabilities are restricted by societal perceptions and systems, not a diagnosis. This shift in perspective is where a lot of activism efforts are rooted in, including those to change the language people use.
And while it’s been 50 years since people first started calling for the change, it was only officially recognized 11 years ago by the United States government. A bill named Rosa’s Law, signed during the Obama administration, replaced references to “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in federal law.
Rebecca Cokley is the US Disability Rights program officer for the Ford Foundation, but worked in the White House when Rosa’s Law was passed. She remembers hearing the word used in almost every bar in Washington, D.C. at the time.
“It’s so offensive, you know, it was part of the justification for the sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities, the education and employment segregation of people with disabilities and, frankly, the institutionalization of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Cokley
She also felt that in particular, the use of the word by Schumer shows where the US still stands in terms of how people with disabilties are treated.
“It shows us, you know, how far we still have to go and how, frankly, we’re, people with disabilities, let’s be really specific, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, are not seen as equal or deserving of respect by our nation’s leaders,” said Cokley.
BARBARIN: I noticed that the R-word had come back – I want to say, in full force – around the midterm elections in 2022. A lot of times, anybody who displays what we consider deviant behavior, whether that be political opinions that may not agree with the status quo or, you know, societally, we cast them out using ableist language.
The power of words, disability, & ableism : It’s Been a Minute : NPR
BARBARIN: I think what it really does boil down to is some of our insults towards each other have their own basis in disability. So, like, the word idiot described people that were public charges that weren’t capable enough to live on their own and handle their own affairs, however, were disabled enough that the community had to take care of them.
The power of words, disability, & ableism : It’s Been a Minute : NPR
BARBARIN: And whenever we decide we want to insult somebody or throw hate to somebody, we attach them to a disability regardless of whether or not they have one. Even if it’s not just saying the word, we see this a lot when it comes to political conversations around competency in office, right? A lot of people want to attach our elected leaders to disabilities to say that they are not capable of being elected leaders. Now, whether or not you agree with them is immaterial. It’s the fact that people see disability as one of the most discounting things and a way to take somebody out of the conversation or out of the discourse or out of the power that they have already.
The power of words, disability, & ableism : It’s Been a Minute : NPR
“Retard” is a bullet sent at a child when it gets said.
Choose strength not shame: Ben Foss at TEDxSonomaCounty – YouTube
The R-Word codified structural oppression.
BARBARIN: Another one is lame. Like, you can find lame in the Bible. The – Jesus healed the lame man, and that’s always kind of been back and forth as a descriptor for disability. And additionally, it’s not just, like, a language thing. It’s structural. Like, when we look at anti-trans legislation, you can see that they put the provision to have trans people tested for autism because if they are then diagnosed with autism, they are seen as less capable of handling their own medical affairs and could potentially be put in things like conservatorships and guardianships, which then could impact their ability to vote. Because in about seven states, there are restrictions on people in conservatorships and guardianships voting. The attachment of things to disability has always kept people and their rights on the chopping block for a very long time. We talk about Buck v. Bell and sterilization.
The power of words, disability, & ableism : It’s Been a Minute : NPR
The historical use of the r-word also had legal implications as the word was often used to justify affecting legal areas for people with disabilities. Their basic rights human rights were curbed based on diagnoses and discrimination. Some examples of affected human rights include, but are by no means limited to:
Marriage and Family Laws: In some regions laws prevented people with disabilities from marrying, often citing their “r*tardation” as a reason for such restrictions. This is evident in
California’s eugenics law, enacted in 1909, which allowed officials to order the forced sterilisation of people they deemed “r*tarded” or “feeble-minded” as they were believed to be unfit to have children, infringing on their right to family life.Guardianship Restrictions: The legal field used the r-word to justify the appointment of guardians for people with disabilities. These guardianships often resulted in the removal of decision-making rights and personal autonomy from people with disabilities based on the assumption that they were incapable of making decisions related to their healthcare, housing, finances, and personal relationships on their own. An instance of such legislation was the New South Wales, Guardianship Act 1987 in Australia.
Inheritance Disputes: In cases involving inheritance, derogatory language was sometimes used to question the competence of disabled people as heirs with regard to managing their share of the estate. This is reflected in the United Kingdom, The Poor Law 1834 which imposed restrictions on the inheritance rights of individuals who received poor relief, which includes disabled people.
The R-word — its history and use. A look back into the origins and… | by Jacob Antigha | Medium
The R-Word is rooted in eugenics.
In the early 20th century, the eugenics movement promoted the idea that methods such as selective breeding and involuntary sterilization would improve the human race because such methods were to be used in a way to get rid of people…the kind of people who eugenics described as r-words and feeble-minded, and not because they cared to be medically accurate in their vocabulary.
“It’s a nasty part of our country’s history that’s not very fun to confront. It’s not very pretty to think about ways in which Nazi eugenics policies were practically modelled on American eugenics policies.”
— Nathaniel Comfort, author of “The Science of Human Perfection”
The R-word — its history and use. A look back into the origins and… | by Jacob Antigha | Medium
Historically, children with disabilities were segregated from mainstream education and placed in special education settings, which were derogatorily referred to as “schools for the mentally retarded.” This segregation brought attention to the differences between the two classes of children leading to children in mainstream education fostering the divisive “us vs. them” mentality. As a result, the formation of biases, and discrimination that most often took the form of bullying, began.
The R-word — its history and use. A look back into the origins and… | by Jacob Antigha | Medium
Who gets the label?
African American students continue to be three times as likely to be labeled mentally retarded, two times as likely to be labeled emotionally disturbed, and one and a half times as likely to be labeled learning disabled, compared to their White peers.
DisCrit-Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education
I type to talk. Without typing I have no voice to tell you I am smart. I spell my thoughts because I cannot speak with my mouth. Thoughts remain imprisoned in my mind escaping only through my finger on a letterboard or keyboard. I tell of my experiences of being autistic in my writing and blog. Without typing I am misunderstood as retarded and unteachable. You cannot tell from my exterior that I am following everything you say. Understanding comes easy to me.
Typed Words Loud Voices
People often think that people who cannot talk are retarded. It is very hard to believe that people can be so pessimistic. I am not retarded. I am very sagacious. I like to type words that are difficult because I want people to know that I am intelligent.
Typed Words Loud Voices
This time, though, she was kept in the hospital for nine days, feeling increasingly ignored and disrespected by the medical staff. She says they treated her as if she was faking her illness and kept demanding psychiatric evaluations rather than addressing her physical problems. Eventually, she figured out why: A hospital doctor had learned that she was autistic and had written on her chart that she probably had “mental retardation.”
When Hospitals Mistreat Disabled Patients – Pacific Standard
The R-word will never be reclaimed.
For instance, “handicapped” and “retarded” are both used much more often, and are therefore more risky to play around with than “cripple.” That’s why you won’t find many disability activists and proud disabled people using “handicapped” or “retarded” either as reclaimed terms or ironically.
Spread the word to end the word.
Spread the Word to End the Word is an on-going youth driven campaign to raise the consciousness of society about the dehumanizing and hurtful effects of the word “retard(ed)” and encourage people to pledge to stop using the R-word. The campaign is intended to get schools, communities and organizations to rally and pledge their support.
The Spread the Word to End the Word campaign asks people to pledge to stop saying the R-word as a starting point toward creating more accepting attitudes and communities for all people. Language affects attitudes and attitudes affect actions.
Change the conversation and help eliminate the demeaning use of the R-word from today’s popular youth vernacular and replace it with “respect.” We are asking for your help in creating a more accepting world for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and all those people that may appear different, but have unique gifts and talents to share with the world.
For the last 10 years, the Special Olympics have campaigned to end the use of the word “retard” and “retarded.” Its “Spread the Word to End the Word” emphasizes the hurt the “r-word” causes people with intellectual disabilities.
Thanks to the Special Olympics, many people now know that saying the r-word is not acceptable. Since the campaign began in 2009, more than one million people have taken the pledge to stop using the r-word.
The R-Word is a slur. Treat it that way.
CW: includes a review of slurs
