Spiral_Staircase
War Child
joyfulgirl said:
I say "that's so retarded" too sometimes and it has absolutely nothing to do with the handicapped. I am also a fairly left-wing liberal as most of you know and even have neices with Down's syndrome. I just think these words have evolved past their original derogatory meanings and unless used in a pejorative way directly towards gays and the handicapped they really have no connection anymore.
Hmm...I think I would tend to disagree. If the term "retarded" had evolved so much that it no longer would be applied to someone with mental handicaps, I'd probably agree with you. But that's not the case. It may not have a connection for the person who is using the term as a slur, but it very well may for someone who is mentally retarded, or someone who is gay. Thus, I think it's a great idea to try and show kids that saying "that's gay" or "that's retarded" is an insensitive, potentially offensive way of communicating. Should we prosecute people for saying these things? That's ridiculous.
Am I devastated when one of my students tells his friend who is acting like an idiot that he's "retarded"? No. I know that he doesn't mean that his friend is actually mentally retarded. But depending on what I've been going through that week with my daughter, it's sometimes upsetting. There's a good chance my daughter will wear that label some day (she's still too young to be diagnosed anything other than "Globally Developmentally Delayed"), so I would honestly be more at peace if fewer 8th graders were throwing that term around at each other.