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No Excuse For the R-Word

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By LUIS VIERA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

One of my favorite songs has always been Merle Haggard's "The Fighting Side of Me," in which the country legend sings about the hippie protestors whose politics got on his "fighting side." Recently, my "fighting side" was riled up when I heard of the controversy over the new Ben Stiller comedy, "Tropic Thunder," in which the word "retard" is repeatedly used so as to further ridicule the developmentally disabled. For many, this was the last straw in a history of hurtful insults.

It seems odd how we have made so much progress in the fight for tolerance for so many groups, and yet we are still stained with the public and accepted ridicule of the developmentally disabled. Why is there such acceptance of ridicule for a group whose history, according to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, involves a level of "degradation" that "in its virulence and bigotry rivaled, and indeed paralleled, the worst excesses of Jim Crow"? Why is there such accepted insult towards a group that is disproportionately marginalized, unemployed and unwanted? Why do the intolerant among us wish to add to the stigma that centuries of isolation and even persecution have created for this population?

Whether the answer to this lies with malicious intent or simple insensitivity, it is clear that the time has come to put an end to this. Timothy Shriver, president of the Special Olympics and son of the great Sargent Shriver, has an answer to this in his campaign against what he calls the "r-word." I encourage everyone to go to www.r-word.org and see this compelling campaign that has a simple goal: To end the inappropriate and demeaning use of the word retard.

Why should this word be left on the ash heap of vocabulary history along with other words that malign other communities, such as minorities and gays and lesbians? The truth is that when persons ridicule those who have developmental disabilities, they attack not only that person with autism, Down's syndrome or a general intellectual disability, but they attack an entire community. They attack a sibling, whose love for their disabled sibling knows no end. They attack a parent whose expectations of a normal life for their child came to a crashing halt with the diagnosis, and are reminded of society's rejection every time they hear this word. And they attack the most fundamental ideal of every major religious faith: that every person, regardless of who they are, has an intrinsic dignity that must be respected.

I write this as a proud brother of a person with developmental disabilities, and as someone who knows firsthand about the sting of the "r-word." Every time I hear it, it reminds me of the ridicule that others, crippled intellectually by their own ignorance, have heaped upon my brother and others like him. And I think about the families I have been privileged to know who have raised children with disabilities, and their struggles, and how the use of this word demeans them. I am reminded of how, for all of our talk of equality, millions of Americans are still denied even a public dialogue that gives them comfort. And every time I hear it, that speaker walks on the fighting side of me.

Let us put an end to the negative use of the "r-word."

Luis Viera is a Tampa lawyer.

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