In 2010, President Barack Obama signed Rosa Law—a federal law that removes the words mental retardation and mentally retarded from medical diagnoses and replaces it with intellectual disabilities. It was changed to discourage the use of hate speech toward those who have been diagnosed with cognitive disabilities. And that is exactly what the word retard is. It is a derogatory, offensive, and exclusive form of hate speech targeted at those who have different mental disabilities.
By using the r-word as a synonym for stupid, idiot, or moron, you are insinuating that someone who has an intellectual disability also portrays those characteristics, which is far from the truth. My little sister was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. She is many things, but she is not stupid, an idiot, or a moron—she is actually quite the opposite. She is care-free, funny, occasionally silly and incredibly attentive. She has bettered my life in so many ways and she, nor anyone else, should suffer from hate speech because of who they are.
If you are still not convinced, let me put it in perspective for you. The r-word is like any other minority slur. It is inappropriate and outrageous to say to anyone, or even say jokingly to your friends. It alienates and strips the dignity from the group of people you are referencing. You wouldn't dream of calling a black person the N-word and it's unacceptable to call a homosexual a queer—just like it is not okay to call person with an intellectual disability a retard.
Take a moment to watch this powerful 30 second video put out by Glee in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q
According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, the definition of retard is: to slow down the development or progress of (something) as in "The chemical will retard the spread of fire."
Nowhere in that definition does it reference an intellectual disability. Likewise, the synonyms for the r-word do not closely resemble those of an idiot or moron.
There is really no reason to use the r-word as a descriptive term for anyone, whether they have a disability or not. I challenge you to take the pledge to refrain from using the r-word in your everyday life. Help stop the hate speech and click the link below to pledge.
http://www.r-word.org/Default.aspx
