White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has come under fire from all corners over his mouth flashing…again. This time it is not over your usual F-bombs, but over the use of the word ‘retarded.’
According to the LA Times:
In an unguarded moment, Emanuel had referred to a group of liberal Democrats as “retarded.” When reports of the remark began circulating, the former Chicago congressman — already famous for his foxhole profanity — moved to express his regret and promised to help leaders of the disabled community sensitize the public on the issue.
Actually, there might have been an expletive in front of the word in question.
Sarah Palin, mother of a child with Downs Syndrome, got very indignant and had the following to say:
I would ask the president to show decency in this process by eliminating one member of that inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, and not allow Rahm’s continued indecent tactics to cloud efforts. Yes, Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm’s recent sick and offensive tactic.
The Obama Administration’s Chief of Staff scolded participants, calling them, “F—ing retarded,” according to several participants, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.
Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities — and the people who love them — is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking.
A patriot in North Andover, Massachusetts, notified me of Rahm’s “retarded” slam. I join this gentleman, who is the father of a beautiful child born with Down Syndrome, in asking why the Special Olympics, National Down Syndrome Society and other groups condemning Rahm’s degrading scolding have been completely ignored by the White House. No comment from his boss, the president?
SNL, always on top of all things political, did the following skit, mocking Emanuel:
I have to ask, when did ‘retarded’ become a bad word? It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that the word was used without anyone blinking. There were kids in EMR classes (Educable Mentally Retarded). I understand that calling someone ‘retard’ is rude. It always has been. However, saying that the Smiths have a retarded child seems rather harmless to me. Retarded, developmentally delayed, intellectually challenged, all words or phrases which mean that an individual has somewhat diminished intellectual capacity, seem to be words we must tiptoe around. I am not sure what I should say and not say. As long as we are being polite and not cussing and carrying on, why have some of these words become verboten? Who gets to decide what is polite and what isn’t or what is politically correct?
I find it increasingly difficult to keep up with PC. I feel certain I have been unintentionally offensive.
So the real crime is rudeness…not the choice of word, and the real crime is deciding in the court of man and not the court of God, using a word as a rude comment toward the Class” it was originally descriptive for or using it in a different context that associates a negative concept understood by all who use the word, at a different “class” target than the “class” described by an initially harmless word, evolved to a rude word, guilty by association and not by context..
Therefore in the language of “politically correct” manipulators of free thought and free speech, it is a crime punishable by man to call a democrat “retarded”…so rest my case….the issue is context….
This is the problem with modern day political correctness attacks…people who believe in them passionately eventually make them crimes of association, not of action, or of context (truth)..eventually they become real crimes punishable in a court of law…just look at history and what happened to people when you hurled insults at people who you disagree with, or the government, king or the emperor or the pope for being “retarded” or some other “not nice” term (and many really were retarded and mentally impaired by bad health)…you were put to death….
This is why free speech needs to be protected, groups need to stop being offended just because someone uses a word or has a negative thought about them (were any really “cognitively impaired” or DNA damaged people actually being individually offended, and actually felt a crime had been commoitted on them?) No…
But a whole “class” of citizens, just like covert teenagers quickly siezes the opportunity to vanquish an enemy and obtain that all coveted revenge and power of gossip and scandel (contrived and manipulated way beyond the truth)
This is the corrupt nature of such people and thier pursuit to social group dominance, acceptance by a clique, and obsessive, even psychotic pursuit of social political power and religious power used way outside of the common law to create new social power by condeming words and free speech…Keep this up and a certain “class” of citizens in our country will have all the power they need to imprison and oppress everyone else of a different “class” than they are they don’t like, simply based on the fact that they don’t like what was said about them…When that happens say goodbye to Democracy and say hello to religious and political oppression….again for the upteenth time in history.
Imagine the power of the word “witch” to put people to death over comments they made to explain the nature of the chemistry of the earth or the movement of the planets, or the suppression of all religions and beliefs other than one…the politically correct one… to condemn what a person says out of context and make them guilty simply by association and emotional feelings and beliefs or personal opinion (judge and jury) is nothing short of re-inforcing the worst of human oppression techniques, regardless of who was really offended or not….
Pinko, there is a huge difference in using the N word and ‘retarded.’
‘Retarded’ came along and replaced words like ‘imbecile,’ ‘idiot,’ and ‘moron,’ which were used to designate the degree of mental retardation.
Whatever word or words take the place of ‘retarded’ will work its way into being a word to insult. I don’t think people want to insult those who are ‘challenged’ as much as they want to insult their friends and enemies by the comparison.
@Moon-howler
However, if you insult via comparison, you are insulting both parties.
Let’s say I can’t stand you and I tell someone else whom I can’t stand, “God, you are JUST like Moon Howler!” I’ve now insulted both of you.
I don’t think the N word is anything like “retarded.” My point was that they are different. The N word isn’t used as a status in schools or medical records. “Retarded” is, though.
But “mental retardation” is in the DSM and ICD, thereby making it a clinical diagnosis.
Please explain how “retarded” is used as a status in school. Do classroom doors say “retarded students only”? Not in any school I’ve ever worked in.
And BTW, “retarded” is no longer used in the state of VA in special education. A law was passed changing the label from “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability”.
@michael “Emma, to understand what I’m saying you should look up the linguistic origin of “fat”, “stupid” and “ignorant”.. They have all changed context….just like every other label put on classes of people…”
Michael, if you are going to lecture me about linguistics and language origin, you are most definitely barking up the wrong tree. This isn’t the right forum for that sort of debate, and I’m not intending to sound arrogant or mean here, but with all due respect, you should really have a clue what you are talking about (and maybe with whom you are talking) before you even go there.
So calling folks in wheelchairs “go-tards” is right out then?
Just as an aside…I think that the “for unlawful carnal knowledge” thing is an urban myth. My mom once told me about it when I was a kid, but I bought a book about curse words (I know…pretty classy of me) when I was in college, and it said that this was an urban legend, and that the word most likely came from Old Germanic or Latin. I guess we could all look it up. Not the point of this thread, but I thought it was interesting:)
@michael I challenge you to call a coworker fat, stupid or ignorant, and then explain to him or her that you meant it only in the “original” context.
Let us know how it works out for you.
DG – you are correct about the origins of “for unlawful carnal knowledge”.
“The word has probable cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German ficken (to fuck); Dutch fokken (to breed, to strike, to beget); dialectal Norwegian fukka (to copulate), and dialectal Swedish fokka (to strike, to copulate) and fock (penis).”
From Wikipedia – also check snopes
Wow, hope those don’t get me in moderation!
I had to come back to this thread. HH is correct in that using some form of the word retardation is, or at least used to be a clincal diagnosis. Naturally you wouldn’t put a sign on the door of a classroom that said ‘Retarded Class.’ But how far do we go with PC? Should someone go through all the dead records stored in some basement somewhere and white out all references to ‘student is classified as having mild mental retardation?
I am not sure that mild cognitive impairment sounds a bit better. There aren’t but so many ways to sanitize ‘doesn’t learn as fast as the rest of the kids.’
How about using the word retarded when we are referring to other things, like Susie is totally socially retarded? Will we become that careful about the term alcoholic and all of its little derivatives like James is a chocaoholic?
This topic will continue to bother me. The lines seem too blurred on this one.
MH, I’ve often felt the way you have. “Mental Retardation” is still in the DSM and psychologist use it for diagnosis.
I was in the classroom when EMR and TMR were still in use. I actually LIKED those classifications because it helped to guide what needed to be taught. I knew that the students with the EMR label would need basic functional academics and some vocational skills. I knew that the students with the TMR label would need functional life skills and vocational skills.
Like you said, “to retard” means to slow. It only became a nasty term when people started throwing it around to insult one another. I’m in and out of a lot of high schools and middle schools working with children with cognitive disabilities on a daily basis (well, at least when the roads are clear and schools are open!). I can say this – 99.9% of the “general” education students who come into contact with the students with cognitive disabilities are kind, caring and have NEVER used the word “retarded” directed towards them. And believe me, they know that there is something “off” with the kids.
Most of the time, the term is thrown around by teenage kids who are trying to one up each other.
I would hope that someone doesn’t go through schools records – that’s taking it too far. My mom graduated from college in 1970 with her degree in elementary ed. She showed me her child development book which broke down IQ (no lie – I’ll try to scan it some time and send it to you – it’s funny). It looked like this:
0-25: Idiot
25-50: Imbecile
50-70: Moron
70-80: Borderline
80-90: Low Normal
90-110: Normal
110-120: Superior
120-140: Very superior
140 and over: Near Genius
It’s funny to note that now we used the 15 point standard deviation bell curve for IQ measurement.
Think back about other terms that are no longer used:
“idiot savant” is now “autistic”
“mongoloid” is now “Down Syndrome”
“behaviorally disturbed” is now “emotionally challenged”
Granted, “mongoloid” is pretty bad and racial, but when my mother started teaching in the 70’s, students with DS were segregated into one class, regardless of ability, and were labeled “mongoloid”.
I’ve always felt that if used correctly, “retarded” isn’t a word that is hateful. The sad thing is that it’s been used as an insult and has become a hateful word. If you look at the old IQ chart, many of the terms are now insults – idiot, imbecile, moron.
I suggest that those who were the orginal targets of Rahm Emmanuel’s tongue lashing might be inclined to compose a new hit song: “The “R” Word That Should Be Banned is Rahm!”
@ Wolverine, I hope it was a big crowd. I wouldn’t want to be that whistle blower.
The new R word…that’s the ticket.
I don’t mind salty language at all. I mind it being directed at people. That is just verbal abuse.
@ HH
I definitely believe you about the classifications although by 1970 they were more or less used as a ‘see how far we have come’ setting. Mongoloid…I had forgotten that one but yup.
That’s what’s sort of neat about the Geico commericals. There are no cavemen left alive so no one to be insulted. We can all call each other Cro-magnon and Neanderthal. Whatever terms we sanitize to, someone will pick it up and make it a word of derision.
I don’t think the average kid is cruel towards challenged kids. I think they are cruel towards their un-challenged friends with these words.
Unfortunately, I must leave a message for Michael (the blogger). Michael had the affrontery to go tattle on me to the dark side.
@Michael, if you are going to tattle, at least be truthful.
You told them so many lies you must be tripping over your own nose. I was not a founder of this blog. I joined like everyone else did. Secondly, I did not censor your words, I asked you to stick to topic and to post things off topic on the open thread. You flung a fit and started belly aching about censorship.
Let’s discuss censorship. A spam filter censors. I would say all blogs censor to some degree. It is the right of the blog owner or his/her designee to censor whatever they want. Magazine and newspaper owners have the same rights. I am sure you get that so stop lying. Stop saying I censored you.
What I did do is get sick and tired of the crap you were giving me. I also got sick of people emailing me to control you because you were sabotaging the threads with your own agenda. Tomes on off topic subjects are not generally liked by most bloggers.
Because you continued to defy my request (post on the open thread when not on the topic) and because you continued talking back and annoyed others, I placed you in moderation. I did not ban you. In other words, I decided when and if your posts would go through, sort of a cyber time out.
You were placed in moderation by me, not by Alanna or Elena so make sure your buddies over on the dark screen know exactly who did the dastardly deed to you. Because you lied to your buds, I think time out will just turn into a permanent situation.
Sorry Michael. When you are a guest, you have to go by the house rules.
Posted on the National Institute for Literacy list serve on disabilities:
On 11/02/2010, at 9:36 AM, NORA ONAYEMI wrote:
> Hello Brant,
> The word “retarded” is obsolete and no longer acceptable in Mental health. It has been replaced with Challenged/disable.
>
>
> Best,
> Nora A. Onayemi
> Montgomery College AELG Program
> ESL Instructor
> 301-442-5173
>
@Diversity Gal
Well, that’s what I get for being a Van Halen fan in the 80’s (hee hee).
@Moon-howler
MH, kids are cruel to challenged kids when they
1. don’t know the other child is challenged;
2. or don’t understand the challenge;
3. or think the behavior is funny or worth making fun of;
4. don’t understand the ramifications of bullying/making fun of challenged kids.
Odd, I see the words ‘idiot,’ ‘imbecile,’ and ‘moron’ all the time. No one winces or even looks embarrassed. Those 3 words were used to describe ‘challenged’ people and where they fell on the intelligence scale.
I guess I am wondering why they somehow haven’t been earmarked for obsolescence?