Notes On The R Word Pledge

By Lisa Brooks


The R word movement is ideally a national campaign in the United States that is usually aimed at encouraging all the citizens to avoid using offensive and dehumanizing terms such as retard. This term has a long history since it has been used for quite a while. The R word pledge thereby advocates for the believe that the usage of this term retarded in everyday or even colloquial speech is unacceptable, hurtful and very dehumanizing to the many individuals that have intellectual incapacities.

The campaign is held annually, on the first Wednesday of the month of March. Nonetheless, people from all parts of the country can aid in spreading this advocacy message, throughout their particular societies, communities and schools all year round through pledge advocacy rallies, youth rallies, online activation and other platforms that can be used to send the message to as many people as possible.

Therefore, mocking them and using very offensive terms to refer to them, is very erroneous and should not be acceptable in the current day and era. They should thus be respected for what and how they are, since mocking or ridiculing makes they feel less appreciated or unwanted in society. This lowers their self-esteem and makes them detest themselves.

The history of this advocacy mission dates back in 2009, during the World games at the Special Olympics Globe Youths Summit, in 2009. Since then, the movement has been holding annual celebrations on the very first Wednesday of March, each year.

This campaign is exponentially important, and has made great impacts since it was incepted in 2009. Respectful language that is inclusive of all persons is very essential to this movement, especially for dignity as well as humanity of persons having intellectual disabilities. Nevertheless, some people in the society do not fully recognize the demeaning, dehumanizing, and hurtful effects the word retard poses to intellectually disable people. It is now time to give some credence and attention to the minority, and revamp the consciousness of societal members to the hurting effects of using retard.

The movement strives to let people know that referring to someone as a retard is not funny at all, and is not a joke. It is conversely, very harmful and offensive to many a people. It should therefore, never be used especially for derogatory reasons.

There is also some controversy surrounding the alternative terms that should be used in place of retard. Many experts believe that using intellectual disability is an ideal replacement for mental retardation. This is because many believe that retardation evokes the term retard, and thus brings up very demeaning and painful memories of ridicule and also rejection.

Regardless of the fact that we all have our rights and freedoms of free speech, we also are entitled to petition choice of the language we use very carefully, so that we do not end up demeaning certain characters in the society in our utterances or even actions. Every person is very special in their own way, and therefore a person ought to come first at all times irrespective of their abnormalities and other conditions.




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