When Rahm Emanuel scolded liberal groups at a closed-door meeting in Washington last summer for planning to run ads against conservative Democrats, the epithet he chose was not the most intelligent one available. Several witnesses of the meeting told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, called the left-leaning advocacy groups’ plan “f—ing retarded.”
Although the meeting had taken place in August, the quote was not reported in the press until about a month ago. Disability activists reacted immediately. In recent months it has become clear that the terms “retard” and “retarded” have joined the glossary of words and phrases that public figures cannot utter. The stage has been set for a 1990s-style showdown over whether this word can ever be an innocuous epithet or is always too derogatory.
A bid to further eradicate the R-word from polite discourse was launched last week with a day of awareness for a Special Olympics-led campaign called Spread the Word to End the Word, with a goal to collect 100,000 pledges not to use the R-words any longer. Just this week, the Idaho Senate voted unanimously in favour of eradicating the words “mentally retarded” in state law, as part of a change of what it calls “archaic and sometimes offensive words.”
“It’s a time of change,” Jill Egl told The Washington Post earlier this month. She is co-executive director of the Arc of Northern Virginia, a support group for the disabled, and led a campaign to change the state code in Virginia to erase the word “retarded.”
But Christopher Fairman, a law professor and free speech advocate, says the campaign to make “retarded” unspeakable makes him fear “the targeting of people who really are not using words with the purpose of insulting – and yet, one slip and it’s blown well out of proportion.”
After the Arc of the United States – formerly, but no longer, the Association of Retarded Citizens – said Mr. Emanuel “needs to be taught a lesson in respect for people with disabilities,” Mr. Obama’s chief of staff apologized to Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver. Mr. Emanuel ought to have known he could get into trouble for using “retard” as an insult. His boss had apologized last March for saying on The Tonight Show that his 129 bowling score “was like Special Olympics or something.”
In 2008, screenings of the film Tropic Thunder had been picketed by advocates of the intellectually disabled for repeated utterings of “retard”: Two characters, both actors, decide the best Oscar strategy is to play a “retard,” but not a “full retard.”
More recently, comedian Sarah Silverman reduced a crowd to near-silence at this year’s TED conference in California by telling them she wanted to adopt a “retarded child” so that people would think she was “awesome.” The website TechCrunch reported that conference organizer Chris Anderson trashed Ms. Silverman as “god-awful” on a now-deleted Twitter message.
The campaign to hush the R-word has a famous advocate in Sarah Palin, former candidate for vice-president of the United States and mother to Trig, a son with Down syndrome, who will turn two in April. In a note to her supporters on Facebook, she called for Mr. Emanuel’s resignation, equating “retarded” with “nigger.”
“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,” she wrote.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh reacted in the way expected of a 1990s-vintage conservative, by complaining that people are acting “like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards.”
Prof. Fairman, who teaches law at Ohio State University, says the fuss over the so-called R-word is overblown, and he fears that 1990s-style linguistic inquisitions could ensue from campaigns to remove it from the English language.
While Prof. Fairman actually prefers the term “intellectually disabled” for his own speech, he will not be taking the Spread the Word pledge. “When people say “˜retarded,’ they normally just mean “˜stupid’.… Sort of like “˜f–k’ doesn’t mean sex most of the time, it sort of means anything but that,” he says. He authored a book titled F–k: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties. He has weathered flak from disability advocates for opinions published in The Washington Post and elsewhere questioning the wisdom of R-word witch hunts.
“Palin had made the connection between “˜retarded’ and “˜nigger.’ I don’t think there’s really as close a parallel between “˜nigger’ and “˜retarded’ as there is between “˜retarded’ and “˜gay.’ Calling someone retarded is like saying, “˜That’s so gay.’ I’m gay and my 21-year-old daughter says that to me. That’s OK. It doesn’t even enter her head that she’s insulting.”
So what to make, Prof. Fairman asks, of “Rahm Emanuel’s or Rush Limbaugh’s use, which started the controversy in Washington? I would say neither of those were derogatory because neither of them meant an insult at the intellectually disabled.”
The Spread the Word campaign can only work on the already converted, Mr. Fairman continues. “I can’t imagine a situation where someone would look at someone with Down syndrome and call them a retard. That kind of callousness and cruelty does exist, but it’s never going to be controlled by the sort of campaigns that we’re talking about.”
The few people who would taunt the intellectually disabled, he believes, “are going to find another insult to use” even if the R-word disappears.
Besides, he notes, for the time being at least, “retard” and “retarded” are recognized medical terms: Both can be found in the current edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (though possibly not future editions).
“I don’t think there should be any restrictions of the words we can use, even if it’s voluntary restrictions. Certainly, they have the right to try to change the public discourse but the problem that I see with it – and it’s a problem that I’ve seen with other taboo language – is that what starts as self-censorship can develop into … institutional self-censorship,” he says.
Indeed, legislation to scrub the R-word from the law is afoot in many U.S. states, including, most recently, Idaho. State Senator Les Bock was behind the bill intended to strike out dozens of uses of the terms “mentally retarded” and “mentally deficient” in state code and replace them with “intellectually disabled.”
“”˜Mentally retarded’ has been picked up as a word of disrespect or contempt or meaning someone that’s really stupid – or something that’s really stupid. A teenager might say, “˜Well, that’s retarded,’” he explained. “With the evolution of that word, it really has become an insulting word to use. Just like we don’t use the N-word any more, even though it might have been commonplace 150 years ago.”
He points out that there’s also one use of “lunatic” and one use of “idiot” in the code. “Lunatic” is to be changed to “person with a mental disability.” Mr. Bock’s son has schizophrenia, which gives him a personal interest in this topic. Meanwhile, “idiot” will become “persons without understanding.”
“Handicapped” will be stricken from the books as well.
The bill originated around the time Boise was hosting the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. The state senator said the bill is necessary to keep legislation in tune with the times. Moreover, he said, “I’m somebody who has strong feelings about human rights and the way in which we talk about each other. My view is that language is power and to the extent that we use language to put people down … it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
Maryland has already passed similar legislation, and other states are working to remove offending terms from government agencies’ names.
Such legislation looks pointless to critics such as Prof. Fairman, who argue that whatever word comes to replace “retard,” will become pejorative anyway.
“The history of the language of intellectual disabilities is a great story for why this is true. The terms “˜idiot,’ “˜feeble-minded,’ “˜moron’ and now “˜retard’ were all clinical terms. Each one as it is adopted takes on this pejorative, negative connotation,” he explained. “The same net amount of pain will still be here in the world, unfortunately.”
National Post
amcdowell@nationalpost.com
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