Disability, Ann Coulter, and the Anti-Collegiality Industry

In general, power relations are best treated with irony and accordingly I’ve always been fond of Gramsci’s assertion that his own practicality consisted “in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall – that is my strength, my only strength.”

Again with the “R word” from Fox commentator and arch conservative pundit Ann Coulter. The following excerpted article comes to us from Inclusion Daily Express and it expresses the proper measure of dismay and disappointment from people in the disability rights community concerning Ms. Coulter’s strategic use of retardation as political metaphor, tricked out with overtones of racist irony. Beyond that. I think Coulter’s name calling has strayed glibly into fascist rhetoric, a matter that stands at the core of her very deliberate decision to insert retardation as a political trope.

 

Parents, Special Olympians Respond To Ann Coulter’s Use Of “R-word”, Again

(CNN)

October 24, 2012

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA– [Excerpt] Parents of children with special needs are demanding an apology from conservative political pundit Ann Coulter for tweeting after Tuesday’s foreign policy debate that she approved of “Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.”

It appeared to be a response to critiques of Mitt Romney’s debate performance, but it wasn’t the first time Coulter used the “r-word” during this election season. And, it’s not the first time blogger Ellen Seidman has called her out on it.

“At this point, I’m thinking the woman must surely be aware that the word is offensive, and she chooses not to care. That’s pretty vile and heartless,” said Seidman, the mother of a special needs child who shares her world on the blog “Love that Max.”

“You want to slam the president, go ahead. But you can’t think of any other word to use? Come on.”

In an open letter directed at Coulter posted Tuesday on the Special Olympics blog, John Franklin Stephens, a 30-year-old Special Olympian with Down syndrome, described what the word meant to him: “I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Entire article:

Ann Coulter’s backward use of the ‘r-word’

http://tinyurl.com/ide1024123a

Related:

Ann Coulter’s ‘retard’ remark: Special Olympics competitor pens open letter (The Guardian)

http://tinyurl.com/ide1024123c

An Open Letter to Ann Coulter (Special Olympics)

http://tinyurl.com/ide1024123b

Spread the Word to End the Word

http://www.r-word.org