(re)Vision Department

The following comes to us from The Inclusion Daily Express:

Ethan Ellis: The "R" Word
(Star-Ledger)
February 12, 2010
EDISON, NEW JERSEY– [Excerpt] Recently, Rahm Emanuel and Rush Limbaugh have focused attention on a campaign by people with developmental disabilities and their supporters to remove the words ‘mental retardation’ and its derivatives from the American lexicon and replace them with ‘cognitive’ or ‘intellectual’ disabilities.

Both Rahm and Rush, unlikely collaborators from opposite ends of America’s political spectrum, unwittingly boosted the campaign to national prominence by using its most pejorative form, ‘retards’ in the same week. Typical of their individual political styles, Rahm invited some of Washington’s disability elite to the White House to witness his signing of the Special Olympians’ pledge to eradicate the word, while Rush tried to bluster his way though his faux pas by repeating it over and over again on his next show.

I support the campaign wholeheartedly. It brings back memories of being stared at by strangers because of my spastic walk and hearing mothers shush their kids when they asked; “What’s wrong with that man.” I can only imagines what it’s like to b called ‘retard’ everywhere you go.

There’s another reason, though. I strongly believe that every oppressed group has the right to define themselves, not be labeled by those who oppress or study them, often the same people.

Entire article:
The "R" Word
http://blog.nj.com/njv_publicblog/2010/02/the_r_word.html

Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by stevekuusisto