Op-ed on the "r-word"

John Franklin Stephens, a Special Olympics athlete and a Global Messenger from Fairfax, VA, has this op-ed in the Roanoke Times. Mr Stephens, 26, has Down syndrome. Here is an excerpt:

So, what's wrong with "retard"? I can only tell you what it means to me and people like me when we hear it. It means that the rest of you are excluding us from your group. We are something that is not like you and something that none of you would ever want to be. We are something outside the "in" group. We are someone that is not your kind. I want you to know that it hurts to be left out here -- alone. Nothing scares me as much as feeling all alone in a world that moves so much faster than I do.

You don't mean to make me feel that way. In fact, like I say in some of my speeches, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers," and it works out OK most of the time. Still, it hurts and scares me when I am the only person with intellectual disabilities on the bus and young people start making "retard" jokes or references. Please put yourself on that bus and fill the bus with people who are different from you. Imagine that they start making jokes using a term that describes you. It hurts and it is scary.

Last, I get the joke -- the irony -- that only dumb and shallow people are using a term that means dumb and shallow. The problem is, it is only funny if you think a "retard" is someone dumb and shallow. I am not those things, but every time the term is used it tells young people that it is OK to think of me that way and to keep me on the outside.

That is why using "retard" is a big deal to people like me.

Patricia Bauer op ed: A movie, a word, and my family's battle

Patricia Bower has written this op ed in the Washington Post about the "Tropic Thunder" controversy. Patricia Bauer is a veteran journalist and mother of an adult daughter with Down syndrome. She also reports and provides commentary on disability issues at her blog PatriciaEBauer.

Here is the beginning of her article:

Margaret and I were lingering in front of the multiplex one evening last summer, a mom and her adult daughter laughing about the movie we'd just seen, when a gaggle of cute pre-teen girls sauntered past.

The one in the lead jerked a thumb in our direction and made a goofy face to her friend. "Look. Retard," we heard her say, and Margaret wilted. Her chin trembled. One by one, the other girls turned to look, nudging one another and whispering. The last girl spun all the way around as she slowly walked by, eyes fixed on my daughter.

In her size 6 jeans and Old Navy shirt, Margaret hadn't done anything to attract that unwanted attention. But then, my blond, blue-eyed daughter lives every day behind a face that can be a lightning rod for such talk. The beautiful face I've loved for 24 years displays some of the characteristic signs of Down syndrome, a chromosomal anomaly associated with varying degrees of cognitive impairment.

Last week lightning struck again, not just for Margaret, but for millions of Americans with intellectual disabilities. Ben Stiller's highly anticipated "Tropic Thunder" hit screens across the country...

More here....

On-line petition protesting "Tropic Thunder"

via American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)

Dear Entertainment Industry,

As people with disabilities, their friends, families, and supporters, we affirm the value, equality, and dignity of every member of the cross-disability community, including those of us, our family members, and peers with intellectual disabilities.

We, like all Americans, connect with the humanity of TV and film characters to add levity to our lives. We talk about what they do with our friends and co-workers. We laugh with the characters, cry with the characters, imitate their fashions, their haircuts, and their words. While we enjoy sharing joys and bearing pains with them, we are stunned when they insult, disrespect, and misrepresent us.

What constitutes hate speech can only be defined by the community it seeks to reference, and as a community of people with disabilities, we adamantly declare the "R-word" and its prolific use in the film "Tropic Thunder" a prime example of such hate speech...

...Read the rest and sign the petition.