The R Word

[JessieWolfe]

So I often see the r word flung around (not meaning to hurt anyone emotionally of course) to express that someone isn't smart, doesn't understand a joke, calling themselves dumb for messing something up. I never really knew the effect this word could have on so many people until I met a co worker at my old vanilla job who had a daughter with Down syndrome.

This word can hurt so many people, I even find it incredibly offensive now that I have been made aware of how hurtful it can be to people. It can hurt people who know someone with a disability, who are family members of someone with a disability, or who has a disability themselves.

I'm really bad with words so I am going to link a website to read through I just want to raise awareness, hopefully make people think twice and reword sentences. I see this word in my chat and on Twitter more often that I would like to believe, and to maybe help tone down the use of the word would be amazing.

http://www.r-word.org


Edit:: definitely thought I had posted this in random discussion. Foruming with my phone is a weakness of mine haha

 

[blehxor]

Not gonna lie. I thought the R word was going to be "Rent" or some reason. Like about models bringing it up to get tips. The actual R word in this case is definitely one I've used and still do despite knowing it's a harmful word and offensive to many. One of those things you wish you could stop yourself from doing cold turkey but it's been a habit for so long it takes a lot of work and vigilance to avoid using. My mom was a nurses aid for all my life growing up starting since she was about 18-19 who often worked with the mentally handicapped and for her it was accurate and the norm to call them that. So I never knew any other way to refer to them. It's great you're trying to raise awareness about it and I do hope the message gets out there.

 

[KayleePond]

I think that for a long time as a kid, I just didn't really understand how hurtful it could be. Mostly other kids around me used it and then it became a part of my vocabulary, which sucks! As an adult, it wasn't a word that I used often, but did sometimes employ out of habit. Fortunately, years ago MrPond and I both decided that it was horrible and that we needed to completely erase it from our vocabulary. (Sort of related, but around the same time we realized that gypped refers to gypsies [seriously, how could I not have realized?! Heard it since I was a kid I suppose] and cut that out, too.) We would help each other by saying something or giving a "look" if the other said it. Fortunately it's been gone from our vocabulary for a while now and I'm so glad it is!

It sucks when these hurtful things become integrated into the way that we express ourselves. I imagine that most people picked it up as kids not really realizing the full meaning and so it just becomes so natural to say it. Hopefully more people will realize that using these sorts of terms is hurtful, sad, and totally unnecessary and it will leave the world's vocabulary forever.

Sadly, this has been a trend in use of medical terminology going back a looong way. Basically every medical term to define someone who is Intellectually Disabled has become a common word used by people as an insult.Not to be vulgar, but some of them we don't even treat as taboo at all like moron, idiot, cretin, and imbecile. SHIT! Those words are used all the time! I think even as a kid "retarded" at least had this feeling of "I shouldn't be saying this", but I certainly never have had that sense for words like "idiot". Fortunately, they've finally changed the term, very purposefully, to something that is too dull and straight-forward to become a slur: "Intellectually Disabled". I can't imagine someone shouting that on the school playground! I'm sure that people will still find a way, sadly, but hopefully we can at least cease with The R-Word and discourage using these sorts of hurtful terms.