"Retarded" used to be a garden-variety insult, but it may be the next candidate for prime-time bleeping.
E. Duff Wrobbel never gave the word much thought — until his daughter was born with Down syndrome. When she was just a baby, Wrobbel was driving with her when another car cut them off.
"And I actually said that word," says Wrobbel, who is a professor of speech communications. "And then I stopped my car and got teary. And I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just said that.' "
Now, Wrobbel has joined other activists who campaign against the word "retard." To them, it's not a hilarious put-down; it's hate speech. (The word has been retired by medical and social service organizations, which prefer the term "intellectual disabilities" instead.) They petition TV networks and comedians, and organize against movies like last summer's hit film Tropic Thunder, which coined the term "full retard" to describe a certain kind of unsuccessful Oscar-baiting role.
No comments:
Post a Comment