Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Role of communication in interpersonal relationships
The role of communication in interpersonal relationships
The role of communication in interpersonal relationships
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Role of communication in interpersonal relationships
Carrlee Stainback
ENG-101
Professor Howell
26 November, 2016
Spread the Word to End the Word
As children, we are taught what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to. Language and communication are taught through a series of social interactions in and out of the classroom that we begin experiencing as young children. As we continue our education through high school and beyond, bullying, profanity, and discrimination begin to transform into something common and unfortunately, socially acceptable. Somewhere along the way the words "retard" and “retarded” became acceptable as a replacement word to describe something or someone that one finds to be "ignorant," "foolish," or "silly." I can’t tell you how many times I have heard these words being used on our campus inappropriately. Every time I hear these words being misused I become enraged at the oversight and inconsiderateness that is
…show more content…
Considering I have had the opportunity to meet and develop personal relationships with intellectually disabled individuals, I do not appreciate these words being associated with terms such as “dumb” or “ignorant.” Just like I do not appreciate, and take offense to the word “blonde” being paralleled with the words “dumb” or “ignorant.” During my high school career, I volunteered all four years with the Special Olympic events. The Special Olympic Games provide an opportunity of various games in competitive sports in the elementary, middle, and high school special education levels. The kids run the bases in baseball, score game-winning baskets in basketball, and break through the finish-line with arms and smiles as wide as they can be during the relay races. Seeing their smiles from ear-to-ear when they would receive their medals and sharing the excitement with the children is something that I will always treasure. They have so much passion, enthusiasm, and endurance during these events and that is truly the best reward to
This lack of correlation between facts and her claim happens throughout her entire article and really hurts the article's credibility. After listing a slew of facts and anecdotes her response was “I find these facts and statistics terrifying”, this explanation does not give any insight on why on I should stop saying “retard” or the consequences that saying has. Throughout her entire article the only real point that states why we shouldn't say the R-word is because it hurts her feelings. I belive that hurt feelings are not what I would call a good reason in an argument to ban the word retard. Her entire article is based on appealing to people's emotions rather than appealing to people’s logic. A great contrast to Patricia Bauer’s article is Christopher Fairman’s “The Case Against Banning the Word ‘Retard’. Although he uses less facts and statistics than Bauer’s article, he uses them in a more impactful way and states how the fact is connected on the use of the word. One such example of this is when he talks about the N-word as an
The human race is rather ignorant. We give a label to people that we think are challenged because they are not like the majority. The people that do label, are the ones who are truly blind or deaf. They see nothing, they hear nothing except what they want to hear or what they think they want to hear or see. For you see the "handicapped" can do things that non-handicapped can not. If one really thinks about it, they are not handicapped. If any one is handicapped it is the
It is true that retard people will feel uncomfortable and insulting when they hear the word “retard” because retard people deem that the word “retard” contains mock, disdain and discrimination from others. However, actually most of people only see “retard” as a word to describe a kind of mental sickness. Fairman, the author of “saying it is hurtful, banning it is worse” also argues that some bad words such as “retard” mostly are used as an academic word, he says that “he found nothing wrong with ‘calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards”(168). R-word is used to describe an academic mental illness most of time, and people do need a word like “retard” to functions as the name of this kind of mental disability. Before the appearance of “retard”, “idiot”,a word with worse meaning, did the same job and after the death of “retard” there must be a new word which also may be attached similar insulting meaning, accepting the same duty. Not only academic functions, some bad languages also can bring people senses of belonging. Although using new language more often instead of people’s original language can assist people more easily integrate into the new country, only motherland language contains an intimate feeling because original language
The Special Olympics date back all the way to the year 1968. Many see these Games as a time to honor someone who is able to “overcome” a task, but author William Peace sees this as an insulting portrayal of people with disabilities. Peace is a multidisciplinary school teacher and scholar that uses a wheel chair and writes about the science behind disabilities and handicaps. As a physically handicapped individual, Peace is able to observe a negative portrayal of disabled persons. In his article titled, “Slippery Slopes: Media, Disability, and Adaptive Sports,” William Peace offers his own personal insight, utilizes several statistics regarding handicaps, as well as numerous rhetorical appeals in order to communicate to the “common man”
In “A Movie, A Word, and My Family’s Battle,” by Patricia Bauer makes an emotional argument that you cannot use the word “retard”, no matter how you mean it, without offending a large group of people while also setting back years of progress.
In "The Case against Banning the Word ‘Retard’" a professor of law at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University named Christopher M. Fairman, writes those who are under the power of “word fetish” are not satisfied until they stop the use of the word from others. In today’s society, an approximate of 60,000 people had pledged to support to ban the word retard also known as "R-Word" on a website called www.r-word.org because they believed this words use was "derogatory." Fairman believes that we should not ban words because of two reasons, one being that banning words leads to government language control which institutionalized word taboos, and two being that the words themselves are not the problem due to the evolutions of the meanings and uses.
The r-word is one of the most repulsive words in the English language; it humiliates people and is used colloquially without second thought. The word “retard” causes nothing but anguish. The r-word was first used in a medical discipline (e.g. “mental retardation”). The pejorative forms of the word “retard” and “retarded,” however, are used in society to deride people with intellectual disabilities. I find this social injustice unacceptable, especially because the r-word is often used to call people without intellectual disabilities “stupid.” When the r-word is used incorrectly, it reinforces the painful stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities as being less-valued members of society.
During the 1920's, separate schools were established for the blind, deaf, and more severely retarded (Reddy, p5). However, students that were considered mildly disabled were educated in regular schools, just thought to be 'slow learners'. Soon educators started to develop separate classes for disabled students. The reasoning for taking them out of the normal classroom (exclusion) has not changed in the last eighty years. People today, who are still in favor of exclusion, have the same justification for their belief. It was thought that students...
In recent years, a rise in verbal abuse and violence directed at people of color, lesbians, and gay men, and other historically persecuted groups has plagued the United States. Among the settings of these expressions of intolerance are college and university campuses, where bias incidents have occurred sporadically since the mid-1980's. Outrage, indignation and demands for change are the responses to these incidents - understandably, given the lack of racial and social diversity among students, faculty and administrators on most campuses. Many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate, have adopted codes or olicies prhibiting speech that offends any group based on race gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That's the wrong response, well-meaning or not. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content.
should never be defined or recognized by their disability but rather on their strengths and how far each
The “Politically Correct” movement’s purpose is to bring historically condescending terms, offensive music and art, and controversial educational content to an end and replace them with more positive and less-offending references. Offensive and demoralizing efforts are wrong, but the censorship and deletion of words and phrases that do not contain the intention to demoralize are taking political correctness too far. Politically correct (or “PC”) antics have created a social decline that is growing worse with each generation, specifically regarding areas of art, education, language, and our right to freedom of speech; the degradation they have brought to the American psyche has even led to name-changing.
When I was teaching middle school, I heard some of my students calling one of my GLBTQ students a “fagot” and “queer” among other derogatory labels several times. However, when I heard those words, I intervened promptly. I told those students that type of language was not tolerated in my classroom and in our school and dealt with those students accordingly.
Words can hurt. Words can especially hurt when they are used in a negative way to describe one’s race, gender, social class, age, religion, or physical ability. Generally, no one wishes to be called a name that is disrespectful to themselves, the group they’re associated with, or their beliefs (Gallagher). Originally, this is what political correctness was supposed to help eliminate-the cruel behaviors against groups who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. The current definition of ‘political correctness’ according to the Oxford dictionary is “The avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.” (Definition).
People say oh it was just me and my friends talking were not trying to cause any harm, but in reality they are. Trust me, I know how bad it hurts to hear someone say “retarded” because I used to say it myself until my little cousin was born with down syndrome. I never realized how bad it could hurt someone until I witness how bad it could effected my cousin. Just imagine having a family member with some type of disability hear someone say the word “retarded,” you surly would feel good about it. You would want to protect your family member from feeling different and out of place from others.
Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life. To begin with, full inclusion in the education system for people with disabilities should be the first of many steps that are needed to correct the social injustices that people with disabilities currently face.