Last year my sister told me that I had to stop using the R-word..."Retard"/"Retarded".
She told me that I had to take a pledge not to use that word anymore, because it is derogatory to people living with special needs.
Hmmm, good point sister...
I said okay, and she directed me to the Special Olympics website, where they have an online pledge for people to sign up and commit to not using the r-word anymore.
I signed up, pledging that I would stop using the r-word in my everyday conversations.
Initially I found it very difficult to refrain from dropping r-bombs. -- I never realized that the r-word was a staple in my vocabulary, and that I dropped it about a thousand times a day! It took me quite awhile to come up with new ways to express myself.
Crap!
Anyways, now I am a changed woman.
There have been a couple of times that I have slipped, and the r-word has come out of my mouth, but for the most part I am doing pretty good...
Anyone else interested in taking the r-word pledge?!
I haven't said this since I first stepped into anti-oppression training in high school.
ReplyDelete"Gypped" was hard to remove from my vocabulary, and even though I've been told it's offensive, i have a hard time not saying "lame." And thankfully, I've never said "That's so gay."
Oh, why is "lame" offensive?
ReplyDeleteIt's an old term used to refer to people who were physically disabled. However, I don't think anyone uses it in that sense anymore, so I don't have as much of a problem using it as other words - I still use it. When you think of it, there's probably a lot of terms in common vocabulary that have offensive connotations, and it's hard to isolate all of them.
ReplyDeleteOh I agree completely...
ReplyDeleteIt's actually really hard to keep up with what is okay, and what is not okay to say these days...
When it comes to the r-word, I have stopped because it was pointed out to me that it is not a good word because it is hurtful to many people. -- Had my sister not pointed it out to me, I would still be dropping r-bombs like crazy...
I know that a lot of people don't know or realize that some of their vocabulary could be offensive to others(I am sure that I still have some words in my vocabulary that are questionable that I am not even aware of) and in the case of the r-word, I think that a lot of people probably just aren't aware...I know I wasn't!
Jeffrey Vallis has a similar, recent blog about saying, "That's so gay..."
ReplyDelete