Last Updated on 17/11/2019 by Alex Squire
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “No, Thank You.”
I hate the word retard. This word is often used to refer to people with learning disabilities such as Autism. But the people that use it are completely ignorant. They seem to think that disabled people are idiots, and that they have no purpose in life. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every disabled person is a human being. We all have thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Every disabled person is able to accomplish great things in the right environment, and with the right opportunities. Never write off a disabled person without understanding them.
Why denigrate a person because they may not be as clever as you? It’s not their fault. They didn’t choose to be disabled, so don’t act like they did. It’s not okay to make jokes about people with cancer, so why is it okay to make jokes about people with mental disabilities?
Some people even use the word to refer to disabled people in general. They seem to think that if the person has a disability they can’t possibly be clever. In fact using the word retard says more about the speaker then who it is aimed at. It shows that they have a deep-seated ignorance of disabilities. There are many different types of disability; some are completely physical and some are psychological, and some are mixture of the two. If you label disabled people as being stupid then it shows that you yourself have much more to learn then the people you are insulting. Do yourself a favour and educate yourself, and then you will see why the word retard should be banned. It has no place in modern society.
It’s true that people who talk like that do it out of ignorance…. and a need to make themselves “better than” someone else.
Yeah their lives are obviously not good enough, so they have to belittle someone vulnerable to make themselves felt better.
That word is worse than ANY four-letter word I can think of (worse than the “c” word or the “f” word). We were taught from a young age to NEVER use that “r” word. Had my sister Beth Ann lived, she would have been called that heinous word–and I would have been in lots of trouble for literally beating people up. I’m glad you addressed this!
I wouldn’t blame you if you had beaten people up for using the word! It would have been well justified in my opinion.
Thank you for posting this…I loved it. When I first saw the prompt, this horrible 6-letter word was the first one to pop into my head. My amazing younger brother is mentally disabled and it stings like a knife whenever I hear people use the R word. I’m so glad I’m not the only one that thought to ban this word first!
Glad you liked the post, thank you for reading it. I can’t think of a word I wanted to ban more than that one. there is just no need for whatsoever. I hope that there are many more people that feel the same as you and me and hate this word.
I agree with you and would never use the word myself but I also think if it were to be banned then that would apply to everyone. If I ever called someone that I would be in very big trouble from work and would also be hated but nobody says anything with one disabled person calls another it. I heard that word regularly at college. It’s the same as the ‘n’ word. A white person would never be allowed to say if but a black person can say it all the time. X
Yeah I see what you’re saying. it does seem a bit hypocritical if disabled people are allowed to use it and others can’t. I agree that it should be banned for everyone, because that way it will just die out if no one says it. otherwise if disabled people keep using it themselves it will keep the embers burning so to speak.x
This is such a great post! Everyone is individual and everyone is human – We as a race shouldn’t discriminate and you never know what someone is capable of just by judging a book by its cover.
Thanks Amelia, I’m glad you liked it! You are absolutely right, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, everyone is capable of doing amazing things 🙂