Have you been to http://www.r-word.org/? It’s a great website that explains that the “r” word, “retarded” is as offensive to people with intellectual disabilities as the “N” word is to black folks. Many people use these words without thinking. Someone you think is uninformed is a “r”. Something that doesn’t make sense, you might say, “that is so “r”". It’s offensive. Is it offensive to everyone? NO. But it’s offensive to individuals with intellectual disabilities. I can’t think of a single use of the word that is positive, or carries positive connotations.
Recently someone told me that my use of the “c” word “crazy” was offensive. When I used the word, I meant silly or wacky. But I used the “c” word, and that lady is recovering from mental illness. Boy, was I ashamed. I never set out to offend people, but the word I used was offensive.
What did I do? First I apologized. Then I told everyone I knew what i did, like I’m telling you. I told everyone that I was not going to use that word again, and that if they heard me say it, they should immediately correct me. Guess what happened! The people around me started correcting themselves also. And if they said it, they corrected themselves in front of me. Now, a whole group of people I know are no longer using the “c” word, and what’s more, we’ve all started looking at the other words we use. We may not mean offense, but they are offensive. So we need to change.
What do you think? Are there other words you know of that are common words that are offensive? Let’s all learn together!
Guess what! When I spell checked, the spell checker told me the word “lady” was bias language, but didn’t identify the two bias words I used. We need to tell WordPress!
Well, that’s nonsense. The bias in usage of the word “lady” is only a matter of it being out of current fashion, since it is more used by older people. Spell checkers have given me incorrect guidance thousands of times. If that one were true, then the use of Lord in prayers is biased, because it’s from Middle Ages usage. Retarded, on the other hand is a word describing a medical, genetic or diagnostic condition. Medical terms do change, and are sometimes replaced due to bias.
Many bias words are racial and change over time such as “oriental”, considered insensitive by Asians, and “Hispanic” which most Latinos refuse to use.
Interesting post!
Well, that’s a new one on me. If “hispanic” is incorrect, what is the correct term? Should it be Latin American?
There actually is a bill in congress right now to change all the wording in law to take out “retarded”. It will be one to watch.
It’s “Latino” or “Latina”. That’s why I used to word. (I live near Los Angeles.)
THE word…yikes, I can’t type today.
Where I live, there are a lot of black people. What do you think of the census this year? People can choose to designate themselves as black, African American, or Negro. Apparently there were so many write ins ten years ago that they added the latter.
That’s amazing. I hadn’t heard about that. Negro would be like lady, since it was the label of choice for black people prior to the 1970s. You never hear “black” in those old Sidney Poitier movies except as an insult. The fact that Rev. King used Negro as the most polite term might have had influence too, plus there’s still the NAACP. I guess I can see why Negro connotes respect to some.