Palin uses 'retard' issue not to support, but to tear down

Palin uses 'retard' issue not to support, but to tear down

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2034937,CST-EDT-esther08.article

　

February 8, 2010

BY ESTHER J CEPEDA

Over the years, I've known many people whom I considered less advanced in mental, physical or social development than is usual for their age. Faced with such a person frustrating me, I never came out and called them "retarded," though that's the very definition of the term. I'm persnickety about words and, frankly, I've chosen more colorful language.

Oh, that Rahm Emanuel had done the same and relied on his panoply of "f-word" conjugations.

In case you haven't heard, President Obama's notoriously foul-mouthed chief of staff bowed to pressure and apologized to Tim Shriver, the CEO of the Special Olympics, after it came out in the Wall Street Journal that Emanuel had used the term "retard" to describe fellow Democrats who weren't playing ball on supporting a particular version of the health-care reform bill.

Next thing you know, Sarah Palin is waving around her Down syndrome baby Trig to shame one of the highest-profile actors in the Obama administration in the name of common decency toward those with developmental disabilities.

The entire indignation rests on the popular notion that other people are responsible for one's own self-esteem and is fueled by the human ability to seek insult -- and find it -- at every turn.

Don't get me wrong. If it were up to me, everyone would be perfect, and we'd all love each other and co-exist in a state of loving, utopian harmony; but that isn't the case, is it?

But let's specifically get back to developmental disabilities.

Developmental disabilities exist and are even more prevalent today than ever before because of better awareness and more diagnosis. As I earned a master's degree in special education, I got to study, teach and hang out with students living happily and unhappily with behavioral and emotional disorders, autism, cognitive and physical disabilities of every stripe in kindergarden to high school classrooms.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that among the "kids who ride the short bus," the word "retard" is used in the exact same connotation as Emanuel used it -- without regard to a specific disability, not as a slur against those with medically documentable limitations, but as a razz.

Let me be 100 percent clear: I am not saying it's OK to use the word "retard" as an insult -- it's not nice. And if special education advocates want to use this incident as a platform upon which to spread awareness of how one word damages a particular segment of the disabled population, that's great. The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, formerly the American Association of Mental Retardation, is already doing work in this area.

What I am saying is that a person -- or group of people -- can spend a lifetime looking for insult and finding it. This " 'retard' as a slur" thing is a minor kerfuffle that will now take on a life of its own not because a concerned mother feels the need to advocate for a group of people but because she wants to tear someone else down.

I guess you could say I was lucky that most of my teaching years were spent in primarily Spanish-language classrooms. It cut down on the number of times I had to hear someone use the word "retard" or its descriptive form, "retarded." But there were other slurs, there always are. In any language, in groups of any ethnic makeup or age, people say insulting things; it's human nature.

But even the kids who ride the short bus know to shrug stuff like that off. Or respond viciously with the kind of foul language that would make Emanuel's face burn. That's human nature, too.

Comments

[blackmamba]

Great point with a word that has dual meaning. There was no intent to slur any group. Within the vast range of human physical and mental ability we all have differing skills.

But the word is certainly an apt description of both Sarah Palin and her husband Todd along with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, Pat Robertson, Bill O' Reilly, Bill Kristol, Britt Hume, Fox News and Karl Rove.

[Lee Kay]

Love the "kerfuffle"!!! Myself I keep practicing pronunciation of "tlapalería" when I drive ... Always enjoy your column.