03 February 2010

Should Rahm Emanuel have called Liberals "retarded"?

The question isn't a matter of accuracy or truth, but one of political correctness.  To be precise, he referred to liberals as "f***ing retarded," but the controversy is about the second word, not the profanity.  According to Slate,
The current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—which is used by psychiatrists to make clinical diagnoses—still employs the phrase mental retardation to describe people who score below about a 70 on IQ tests. However, most who work in the field—including psychologists, activists, and bureaucrats—prefer the term intellectual disability.
They conclude that "Government offices have also been moving away from mental retardation" - a statement that needs to be interpreted strictly in context.

Several months ago I read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune online discussing the same topic.
The adjective “retarded” appeared in a headline on the front page of the Star Tribune last week, prompting complaints from dozens of readers who find the word to be hurtful, insensitive and out of date. They argued thoughtfully and passionately for alternatives such as “mentally challenged,” “developmentally disabled” and “cognitively delayed.”

The Star Tribune newsroom’s stylebook governs our use of terms such as “handicapped” and “developmental disability.” Here’s the entry on mental retardation, last reviewed in the late 1990s: retarded, mentally retarded. Use these terms rather than “developmentally disabled,” a hard-to-understand euphemism.
They note that the style will be reassessed, but close with a passage from the New York Times (citing the Philadelphia Record) illustrating how much style has changed since the nineteenth century:
The most pitiable case that has yet come under the notice of the Lunacy Committee was discovered last week in Fountaindale, Adams County, where Jacob Miller, a wealthy farmer, was found living with his eight imbecile children...

The mother of this miserable family had died several years ago insane, her reason having given way under the terrible strain to which she had been subjected. The poor woman had given birth to 11 children between 1860 and 1874, and not one of her numerous offspring was possessed of a sound mind...

Five of the children are driveling idiots, past all hope of improvement... The oldest child is the worst of all, scarcely possessing the instincts of an animal... It was learned that Mr. And Mrs. Miller were blood cousins of the first degree, and to this fact alone the members of the committee attributed the imbecility of their offspring. The father, however, had no explanation for the matter, and he looked upon the affliction as a stroke of Providence...
More at the link.

4 comments:

  1. I wonder if anybody would object to "retarded" if it hadn't been adopted for use as an insult. The proposed alternatives, at least, wouldn't work so well as insults. "F***cking developmentally disabled" and "f**cking cognitively delayed" don't have quite the same ring to them.

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  2. I rather like "f**cking intellectually disabled" though. Has a nice ring to it.

    (note: Personally I find anyone who has to resort to the use of a stong swear word for emphasis to be a bit bereft of vocabulary anyway)

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  3. Rahm is famous for his foul mouth. Retarded, then, is just another dirty word, not to be used in polite society.

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  4. The R word is likened to the N word in my vocabulary and sphere of experience. It is something that isn't acceptable.

    As an Aspie being subjected to the R word, in derogatory terms or not, was and still is a common experience.

    It's also a load of crap.

    Some of the most intelligent and caring people I know are not neuro-typical and there is nothing about them that isn't capable. And that's the meaning of the slur, isn't it, labelling oneself superior whilst another inferior, declaring innate inequality?

    Rahm Emanuel isn't my favourite person to start with, and hearing this from him doesn't surprise me in the least. Now, I'm not sure in what context this statement was made, a lot of the public and private spheres don't seem to be well educated or caring these days, but there is a distinct difference, in polite company or not, between making a heated comment and making an unacceptable one.

    This comment is just a heated comment but on closer inspection it reveals a deeper unacceptable motivator inside Rahm Emmanuel.

    When former President Clinton went to Ted Kennedy asking for support for Hilary and used racist comments against Obama it's no wonder that Kennedy decided to fully back President Obama.

    The R term is tipping word in today's climate. The debate here should be a closer inspection of Emanuel as a person.

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