Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Here is what she said:
"made me look retarded"
She is the head of a major public school system in the USA. She sets the example for the entire system and all the students.
I remember my friend in elementary school who had a brother with Down Syndrome saying that her brother was retarded.
And the ARC was the Association for Retarded Citizens until 1992.
Does language change? Yes. Do people's brain-tongue connections always keep up with the changes? No.
Using it as a term to describe people with intellectual disabilities was, at one time acceptable. The language had changed.
Using a label for one group as an insult for another group, has never been OK.
For example, it's OK for me to describe someone as a woman. Perhaps I'd describe you that way. It wouldn't be OK for a man to stand up at a board meeting and say "You're like a woman" about another man who acted emotionally. It's OK for me to describe someone as "black", but not to tell a white person doing something I don't like to "stop acting black".
The way in which she used the term has never been OK. It wouldn't be OK if she used the term intellectually disabled in the same way.
Now, however, that the term has been removed from the law, it wouldn't be OK for her to use the R word to describe someone, but it would be OK for her to say something like "We are hoping to hire someone with expertise in intellectual disability, to advise the board on improving our special education programs."