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.
How come when Rush Limbaugh uses the word “retard” he gets a pass? How come Sarah Palin says nothing about Rush Limbaugh’s use of the word?
At least he didn’t call anyone an effin’ Negro.
It really is so hard to keep up these days.
I thought the etiquette about the word “retarded” is that it should not be applied to people who in fact have mental disabilities. There is a wide range of causes of mental or developmental issues and “retarded” just reflects a kind of catch-all dismissiveness of the complexity of these conditions. On the other hand, Emmanuel wasn’t calling Sarah Palin’s child “retarded” and was not referring to anyone else with a diagnosed mental disability. He was talking to/about persons with no known mental or neurological problems and essentially telling them they were not acting intelligently. Can’t see the problem there. Particularly since we have made strides in educating people about the inappropriateness of the word when applied to people with real issues, it seems that the objective should not be to ban the word (as has been pretty effectively done with the N word) totally, but to confine its use to situations where it does not demean people with real problems. ( I am a little worried that Sarah Palin might take offense if my mechanic tells me he has to retard the spark on an ignition system).
Funny that this administration seems to gravitate towards this type of humor.
Barack Obama in 2008: “It’s like the Special Olympics” when asked about how he was progressing in his bowling practice at the White House bowling alley.
Make that “2009”. It just seems that long.
She has… maybe you should just do a quick google search before just blurting things like this out.
Palin Camp Rips Limbaugh, Hits His “Retard” Comment As “Crude And Demeaning”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/04/sarah-palin-rebukes-rush_n_449963.html
Well, Obama has to acknowledge his core constituency!
Surely it’s obvious how labeling liberals “retarded” is an insult to retarded people.
I thought the “Special Olympics” jab was a lot uglier–the implication being that Special Olympians are awkward and unskilled. I do agree with NoVa about Emanuel’s likely intent.
Actually Starry Flights is right. At first she said what Rush said was hilarious.
She tried to side step the issue by Implying that Rush wasn’t an elected public figure.
She needs to stop being a hypocrite over it.
I was a psych major. When I was coming along, there were classifications of ‘retarded.’ Educable, Trainable, Severe and profound. This designation didn’t just go away, it was being used in the field until very recently–past 10 years recently.
I think saying someone is handicapped might also be going that direction.
My question is still, who decides when a word is not PC? Why is it ok for Rush to laugh over comments and not Emanuel? The answer seems obvious on that one.
All sorts of people have ‘special needs.’ Saying that just doesn’t cover it. Too general.
Funny how come being an ‘illegal’ hasn’t yet made it to the PC table.
I don’t see anything wrong with ‘illegal immigrant’… do you?
According to Rahm it sounds like progressives fit into the ‘profound’ classification judging by his use of ‘f#@$ing retarded’.
No, and that isn’t what I said. I said AN illegal.
Illegal is an adjective, not a noun. Secondly, I expect it is hurtful to be called AN illegal, especially if one isn’t sure of one’s status.
From a nerdy grammatical standpoint, I hate just “illegal.” “Illegal” what?
Call it what it is: Illegal immigrant.
Uh-oh–is “nerdy” still OK?
Agreed, re grammatical point of view. I don’t think wanting people to speak correctly is nerdy. I hope valuing correct speech always is important to someone.
I dislike the word “retarded” but “retard” is over the top.
Calling someone or something retarded is meant as an insult. That’s like using the word “disabled” as an insult.
I don’t think there is anything PC about wanting to avoid this word. Furthermore, a scientific term would be more accurate. “Cognitive impairment” is probably closer to the mark.
On what planet was Starryflights right when she said “How come Sarah Palin says nothing about Rush Limbaugh’s use of the word?” Moon?
If you bothered to read the article I posted from one of your favorite sites, the Huffinton post, you would have read that Palin believes Limbaugh’s repeated use of the word “retard” yesterday was “crude and demeaning,”. She said this the very next day after Rush’s comments.
I know you both despise this woman but give me a break. Saying she said “nothing” about Rush’s use of the word and then you trying to back that statement up is bit of a stretch.
People who are hurt or want to claim the’ve been hurt (whether they deserve it or not) always target people who label them any way they can, that includes outrage over name calling…
As a label becomes a percieved offense to a “class” in a “class segmented society” that politically supports the concept of class hierarchy (8A, ethnicity, religion, gender, race, disability class) in order to gain benefits for themselves based on that class, but reject disadvantages of belonging to a class, a new label to name that class is chosen, until it too becomes an insult…
It’s covert social politics to put a label on anything you lijke and don’t like, and if you can express enough outrage over it, that label can go from being a perfectly acceptable social label to one that is identified with anger and inconsideration and social embarrassment.
“most” humans, especially in certain “classes”, love scandal, they love to see people caught in some imagined conspiracy or social gossip trap, it is the mean nature of people who love a social fight and social battle of wits and politics and revenge.
This blog does this all the time…its a form of intimidation and gaining power over others to accuse them of name calling and other politically correct scandalous behavior, it’s the covert petty character assassinations of young gossiping teenagers that now as adults that never grew up, continue to covertly get their way by spreading rumors and scandalous claims of perceived insult. It is a sign of our times that such petty behavior has gone mainstream by a class of our citizens that wield power from accusation and gossip.
Here are some other perfectly good words that have become “PI” according to social advocacy groups looking for political power in words and name calling….to gain more power for themselves and their own class…
“Garbage man”
“fat” or “Phat”
“ignorant”
“stupid”
“jerk”
“moron”
“heffer”
“gringo”
“hooter”
“cheap”
“bitch”
“bastard”
“pig”
“whitey”
“red-neck”
“homer”
“homey”
“defect”
“dirtbag”
“tree-hugger”
“mentally challenged”
“chico”
“chick”
“babe”
“overweight”
“mongrel”
“wigger”
“bertha butt”
“belula butt”
“butthead”
“hispanic”
“chink”
“oriental”
“darkie”
“white on lice”
“girlyman”
“fag”
“faggot”
“queer”
“geek”
“goofer”
“head”
“paleface”
“spic”
“wasp”
“scank”
”
etc, etc, etc
I won’t even get into the really offensive words that have reached the status of cuss words or indecent to those of the religious keepers of what is acceptable and what is not…
When any label becomes negative, then we will have new words to replace all of the above that mean exactly the same thing, its code for “I don’t like you” because you don’t belong to my “class”….
To address what Moonhowler was asking about education, I don’t know who makes those decisions. I do know that within the last 5 years, PWCS changed their EMR and MMR classifications to MICI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) and MOCI (Moderate Cognitive Impairment).
I would hope that the decision to change the classifications would either come from parents of students with those particular needs or the educators working in special education. Perhaps a recommendation was made to the school board or to the superintendent’s office. I can try to look into it.
In any case, I don’t think any one party or group of people have a monopoly on offensive terminology. I know that there is a lot of backlash over being politically correct, and I understand that keeping up is frustrating, however I think we all have some work to do. Terminology changes over time, and it is OK for us to change with it. People are generally pretty resistant to change, though, so this is not always easy to take.
I guess we could ask ourselves what the motivation seems to be…a word or term used in private frustration or publicly, on purpose, to provoke. Does it even matter? I am not sure…I hope, though, that we never get to the point where we just don’t care anymore and start using offensive words just to provoke others. I think we can all look around and see a lot of this in the media and in our friends or family.
The thing is, I think Rahm Emmanuel, Rush Limbaugh, and the countless others who have used this term should know better. That being said, I can certainly understand slipping up, since the term was wildly popular as an insult in my youth.
When such a slip happens, it makes me feel better when a politician or person in the media doesn’t endlessly defend themselves and just admits to a mistake. I know that Emanuel meeting with a Special Olympics delegation is an extremely CYA move, but that doesn’t mean the dude won’t learn something.
This is a difficult topic, Moonhowler…
Personally I think we have a free speech problem gone berserk as a result of the political advocacy of a certain class of our citizens…personally I don’t give a crap what people think about what I say…its their problem not mine….
The reality is there will always be people who are more stupid or ugly or different than others, no matter what label you put on them…
Context…context…context…now that’s a novel concept….
And it just rolls off the tongue….effortless!
@michael I’m not sure I would know of a particular time in history where it was ok in polite society to call someone “fat”, “stupid”, “ignorant” etc. I’m not sure those words were really victims of PC.
I’m sure Shakespeare did not mean this in the kindest sense:
“Thou ruttish weather-bitten flax-wench!”
Emma, I just spit my coffee out!
That clip is very funny. I’m sure Emmanuel enjoys it. Some might now know, he has an older brother who is a big player in Hollywood and the character of Ari on Entourage – a great character – is modeled after him. (Presumably to include all the homophobic and sexist comments that flow free-form out of him).
I guess we should generally not use the word in the way Rahm used it, especially when angry. In an ideal world. At the same time, Sarah Palin is such an a**hole oppportunist. I don’t see how anyone could take her seriously.
Back on the subject of Emmanuel, I’m sure he’s a negative influence on Obama’s failing Presidency. Perhaps after he resigns we can see a more centrist Presidency. Did anyone see the interview with Obama during yesterday’s pregame show? Defensive and unsure. I recognize a defensive President who can’t lead when I see one, because we’ve lived through 9 years in a row of this now. Obama as yet has no plans to move away from the hard left and to represent the majority of Americans, that much is clear to me.
Hopefully his brother was joking when he said this :
“According to Epstein, Emanuel made racist and anti-gay remarks and prevented her from sending a script about Navy SEALs to actor Wesley Snipes, saying, “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Everyone knows that blacks don’t swim”. “
To Wolverine (and any one else who cares about the concept of a 2nd covenant)…this is an important concept so I’ll post it again..in the context of name calling and hatred toward others…Levitican Law and punishment under Levitican Law is a religious concept that people of faith (most religions who also control political parties) use to justify their bad and hateful behavior all the time (in the name of God)…This is the MAIN REASON WHY “MASONS” (and likely the Templars that came before them after punished and exiled by the Catholic Church), founded our NATION (the US), 1/3 of people signing the Declaration were Masons, men of outstanding character, to have a seperation of Church and State, because it was so oppressive and cruel to humans of all “class” categories…it is fundamental to our concept of Democracy not to allow Religious punishment to creep into our government and politics…
Radical Right wing Christians and other Religions that advocate punishment of others hate people all the time…name calling is just one of their tools, and social, political correct, advocacy for their “class” benefit is another of their tools (both Democrats and Republicans use these hateful tools to accuse others of wrong doing…and to gain power for their class group, as in the above outrage at what one man has said, taken out of context…to express and justify the political anger of others to bring people they oppose down… Sarah Palin is a scary member of this group of Obligation Keepers, capable of hating others not like themselves….
Praying for these people to stop and wake up will not happen in my lifetime, and will not change them…only divine intervention after death, and punishment by God after death can change them, and help them to see how wrong they were as they lived on this earth…
The reality is “divine intervention” on earth is almost never measurable, and almost always a misinterpretation of natural events…
People pray, because they are afraid of “death”. They pray because they want something from God that they can’t get by themselves, either material wants, or life after death…
I draw a clear and distinct line between those Christians like myself (liberators) who focus on a personal relationship with God and a personal conversation that benefits my soul (non-believe is the only unforgivable sin)…and those Christains or other religious fanactics (of all religions) that take the role of God, and punish others for human behavior as if they have the right to judge others and punish others based on their belief and interpretation of morality…. These are “obligation keepers” or keepers of God’s LAW as a means of enforcing earthly punishment of man…for man’s behaviors and man’s beliefs…based on the Levitivan LAW rather than the 2nd covenant law…Christians really get these two mixed up all the time, Levitican law is obsolete, except to those religions that still use the old testament or a part of it (Kuran, Nostic, Torah, etc.)
Only God has the right to that role of judge, jury and punishment, everyone else needs to focus on their own behavior as it impacts others.
In other words stop accusing others of not being politically correct, accuse yourself…
In other words according to Christ, you can only change yourself to solve a problem, forgive others to solve a problem, turn the other cheek and love others to solve a problem, you can’t hate them and be a new testament Christian, and you can’t change others without them wanting to change themselves….unless you can justify killing them…. and that is called state sponsored warfare….or a legal system…
Religions around the world that believe in Levitican law have been throughout history more oppressive, evil, destructive, cruel, inflicting of misery, and exercising both physical and political tirture and hateful condemnation of man than any other form of oppressive and dictatorial government bent on the cruel treatment of “classes” of humans they don’t like and are incapable of loving….this is why the Bible says, the greatest threat and greatest evil will come from within the Church (that is scripture and you can look it up if you wish)….
You can’t follow the teaching of Christ if you can’t love and forgive others (rather than punish them yourself) for their behavior’s even when you don’t agree with them.
If is just as hateful to accuse another of political incorrectness as it is to utter political incorrectness if what you realy intend is hatred, and not just personal free speech to express frustration…
Frustration is human, even God gets frustrated according to the Bible….but he deals with it by loving others as he loves children….
If Palin cared at all about the issue she would have framed this as a request rather than a call for resignation. I know I’m speaking to the converted here, most people here agree that she’s a poor excuse for a politician, but this is a new low for her. What a shameless negative worthless excuse for a person.
Hello, Palin did an about face. She first said Rush was hilarious. It doesn’t matter about the back pedaling…I know about her first response.
And no, I don’t hate her. Life’s too short to hate someone that. She is just a sound bite on steroids. Most of us view life a little more multi-dimensionally.
Sound byte on steroids, that’s a good one Moon-howler.
Michael, how about posting something about religion on an open thread, especially such a long post. And before you ask, yes, it is my business to monitor things like this.
It might be very interesting but this is a thread about political correctness.
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…
Moon, how about not? How about letting me post whatever I think is relevant to the topic as I understand it, not as you understand it, or do you enjoy judging and censoring others even though you claim to be impartial?
Religion and behavior of man as it comes from it’s religious origins is relevant to name calling, very relevant…according to history and according to the origons of hate and malice…
As always I want to encourage people to look beyond the obvious and self-reflect, that is how people change their behavior….not change others….
I don’t think your job as monitor..is beyond censoring legal language as described and enforced by the FCC…everything else is just your opinion…
Pinko, the word ‘retarded’ has been around a long time. When you look at the definition of the word, ‘delayed,’ I don’t think it is an offensive word at all.
I think the problem comes from the fact we don’t like calling attention to the fact that some people are that way. I am trying to figure out in my own mind how being delayed or impaired, challenged, or disabled is any better sounding that retarded. Up until about 5 years ago, retarded was perfectly appropriate in educational circles.
Calling people ‘retards’ isn’t nice. It never has been. It used to be fairly mild on the scale of insults, however. Those who got creative would make some comment about someone having to catch the short bus, which of course was not limited to learning issues.
I also have a huge problem with a new political correctness I see creeping in….and that is this idea that someone is less of a person because they don’t bring a pregnancy to term when there is an impaired fetus. That is really treading on personal ground.
Diversity Gal is correct, this is a difficult topic, for sure. And I thank her for telling us the right terminology.
Political Correctness has religious roots and comes from ferver to enforce a persons beliefs on others…
Soundbite on steroids….yeah, that is a good one. Hey….do you hear that? It’s a chanting in the distance! What’s that they’re saying? They sound like zombies! {Yes……We……Can……….Yes……..We……Can………..Hope……….Change…….} God, they sound lifeless, soul-less! Run!! It’s the Sound-Bite Army!
I too have a problem with the new political correctness creeping in, it destroys democracy and suppresses debate and open exchange of feelings and beliefs and opinion, something essential to a Democracy and well understood by the Freemasons (even today)…so it this sense I agree with you Moon.. I just don’t like being censored…based on the opinions of others…
Michael, the bottom line is, I really don’t give a rat’s ass what you think my job is or isn’t. When you pay the bills, then you can set the rules. That’s how it works. The first amendment actually applies to the owner or his or her designee.
Furthermore, I never claimed to be impartial. That is almost a joke.
Slow…the destructive power of twitter is evidence of this new political correctness….soundbites so terse and without true meaning, they change all meaning of truth and depth of understanding of what people are really saying, and only convey emotions and feelings of hate, anger, and passion. We could use emoticons and get just as much understanding out of soundbites…people who do this (…gasp…) are morons who don’t know they are….
So fine Moon, censor me..if it makes you feel better, until then, I’m writing what I want to write and convey the message I want that I think is relevant to the topic, whether you do or not…some others may not agree with just your opion however and may benefit from a broader or wider perspective, regardless of how others think it should be “narrow”
Michael, I wouldn’t count on public opinion being on your side.
I have asked you nicely. You have responded not so nicely. I asked you to put long off topic posts on one of the open threads. You have refused. I have not censored you, I have asked you to relocate.
And putting you in moderation won’t make me feel better. I hate doing that. However, I will do what I feel is in the best interest of the blog. Blogs are not free range entities.
Now, moving on….back to politically correct speech….
Again, this (impact of religion and free speech) is not a long off topic post..it is relevant to understanding why people call each other names, why “classes” of people call each other names and create rules of political correctness.. and why free and open speech on any topic opposing others is often censored and oppressed by others when they don’t agree with what is said. I appreciate your offer to not put me in moderation..I really do, but I disagree that I have responded “not so nicely”, which is a metaphor in my opinion (only) for “I don’t like being challenged, that’s not nice”…. either way I’m not attacking you personally, I’m defending my right to say what I want..in thye context I want others to understand it…if they can or if they want to understand it…
In a democracy instead of a dictatorial autocracy or state of monarchy..this right to defend the right to state “opinion” regardless of length, is a right covered by the constitution and the bill of rights created by the Free-Masons who founded our country, and will remain a right until oppressive and likely religious based political parties (as they have in history) take it away as a means to control people, power and politics to benefit only themselves….This is what political correctness by a particular “class” of citizens and non-citizens who do not understand democracy attempts to do…circumvent free speech…and oppress political debate….and debate of ideas…a concept the Greeks understood for its power to solve problems and create the widest enduring concepts of peace and prosperity…Free Masons understood this too…and put that concept into our Bill of Rights…
So that is what I’m defending…not trying to not treat you “nicely”.
@Moon-howler
I actually don’t think “delayed” is as bad as “retarded,” probably because “retarded” has been abused as a term. I know when I was growing up, calling something or someone “retarded” wasn’t a big deal. I also know people who still do it, but they don’t mean anything by it.
That said, think of other words we have moved away from in a formal context. For example, the four letter word that starts with an “F” used to be a legal indictment (“for unlawful carnal knowledge”). We don’t use that term in the court of law anymore, and I doubt we would ever return to using it even if we decided to dump PC all together. Why wouldn’t we? There are too many negative social connotations. The word has been misused and abused. To me, the same thing goes for the word “retarded.” Calling someone “retarded” connotes disrespect.
Our English dictionary and language change based on popular usage. Consider how many words that used to be considered slang or “made up” have recently been added to our dictionary.
Speaking of dictionaries, try looking “retarded” up in the online Urban Dictionary. You will find some unsavory entries. If a word is that popular in the Urban Dictionary, we might want to reconsider using it in formal, standard, business or scientific language. Again, usage dictates meaning to a large extent.
Finally, I don’t think anyone is trying to deny that some people are “retarded” or “delayed.” I think it’s a matter of what people prefer to be called and what their loved ones prefer, what is deemed respectful and what is not.
I guess to some extent it should be up to the particular groups what designation they prefer. That being said, it still baffles me that the “N” word is completely taboo for everyone but the people it used to refer to–who use it in some of the foulest, most misogynistic music in history.
@Emma
I agree. However, you don’t see the “N” word being used in court or school records anymore as “retarded” is.
Emma, agreed. And if a word is a rude word, then it is a rude word for everyone. No exceptions.
I am not speaking of words that can be used rudely, but words that are rude, regardless of connotation.