Before I start, let me preface this article with the fact that I have nothing against mentally disabled people. In fact, one of my great friends who I still keep in touch with while away at college has Down Syndrome. That being said, I am okay with the word "retarded." What I am not OK with is the derogatory connotation that surrounds the word. "Retarded," according to Dictionary.com, means: "characterized by a slowness or limitation of intellectual understanding and awareness, emotional development, academic progress, etc." It is a real word! Now, I know my friends who are mentally disabled are not slow in all of these areas. I have friends with mental disabilities who are amazing at Scrabble or remembering birthdays—much better than I am at these things. Therefore, I do not entirely agree with the definition, but that is not going to be the focus of this article.Instead, I intend to tear into what Dictionary.com says in its second definition.
Dictionary.com states "retarded" in its second definition as: "Slang. Stupid or foolish." Why have people turned it into a derogatory slang? Why do we associate the word "retarded" with stupidity? I certainly do not. Foolish? My friend who never forgets a birthday after only being told the birthday once is neither stupid nor foolish. Mentally handicapped people are brilliant in their own way. It is the people who use the word "retarded" to mean "stupid" that I associate with extreme foolishness.
In high school, I remember hearing about the campaign, "Spread the Word to End the Word." I know the campaign meant well, but when this campaign came out, I felt like people starting using "retarded" more. They would say, "That class was retarded!" then throw jokes out like, "Hey "R" word haha! Can't use that!" It just brought more attention to the word's slang use. I don't think we need to stop using the word "retarded." I do think we need to learn its real meaning and stop using it to mean "stupid" and "foolish." And maybe this article is doing the same thing—drawing too much attention to the slang, but instead of taking away from this the slang meaning of "retarded," I ask that you focus on its real meaning. Let's learn what it means and get rid of the slang. Let's be the generation that makes it a real word again and appreciates the mentally handicapped as brilliant people.
