Let me tell you a story.
When my son was 2, he was formally diagnosed with autistic disorder. I say "formally," because we had known for a while that he was autistic, but because the label cannot technically be given to a child under the age of 2, we had to wait until then for the official label. I remember that day so well. I was standing in the children's hospital, after the doctor made his pronouncement on my child so unceremoniously, and without cushion: "Well, your son is autistic. We need to run xyz blood and urine test..." and he kept talking from there about what tests we needed to do. I don't remember much about what he said after that, because my body went numb. I even knew the diagnosis was coming, so it wasn't like it was a shock. Still, I felt the floor fall away from my feet, and felt the room spin, and my breath catch in my throat, and fought the urge to vomit. I don't remember much after that, except looking at all the people walking around me, hoping they couldn't tell that I was silently falling apart, hoping that I was putting on a good enough show.
I'm telling you this, because when your child is autistic, and you choose to educate them within the public school system, they get a comprehensive battery of tests and evaluations every 3 years. This testing is mandatory, and within this testing is included IQ testing. The first time they did this battery of tests on my son, he was 3. Then at age 6, then again just recently at age 9.
When he was 6, that was the meeting where they first told us he was mildly mentally retarded. I remember that meeting as well. I remember sitting in that chair, trying to hold it together, trying not to cry as I listened to the teacher and the therapists go down the list of everything my child could not do and/or had failed at. I remember the same numb feeling taking over my body, the same feeling of the breath going out of my lungs, and the sensation of the room spinning again. I remember the look of pity on the teacher's face at the beginning of the meeting, because she knew; she knew what was coming, and she knew how I would react. I remember wanting to run out of that room and just vomit my guts out.
My child is mildly mentally retarded. I have heard his cousin, other children in the park, and talk show hosts refer to him as a "retard." Each time cut like a knife, and elicited a response of pure and absolute fury in me. Each time brought back those same feelings of sitting in those rooms, hearing those words again, feeling the floor fall away.
HE IS MY BABY. I would die for him. I would rather cut off one of my own limbs than see him ever suffer pain or humiliation or to know that he is being mocked.
Hell fucking YES the word "retard" offends me. It offends the hell out of me. People fling it around like a stinging barb, meant to wound and inflict shame. It is RARELY used as anything other than an insult in today's world, and anyone with a lick of common sense knows that.
Here's my point in posting this: what Rachel Jeantel said on the stand made me flinch, as I always do when someone uses "retarded" in a derogatory way. I would have chewed on her words mentally for a while and flinched a few more times as I saw them again covered in the news, but that would have been it for me, and I would have gotten over it. She might not know better, and as the saying goes, when you know better, you do better.
BUT....to see those words not only repeated here but CELEBRATED, CHEERED, LAUGHED ABOUT and then have it taken a step further and see posters say that people who are offended by it need to "get over it" is just beyond the pale. The posters on DU supposedly DO KNOW BETTER. I cannot believe the things I am reading. Because the use of retard as an insult in general, not just by this young woman, offends me, according to various posters here, I :
-must be a closet Zimmerman supporter
-am a pearl clutching whiner
-need to just get over it, they're just words
-probably see my own child in a negative light anyway
Those are just the highlights.
What the young woman on the stand said made me flinch, yes. I could have quickly gotten over that. What has me sitting here, literally feeling nauseated, is seeing people who supposedly champion disability rights and supposedly know better and are supposedly freaking fans of the Kennedy family WHO STARTED THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS, who are the ones responsible for THIS campaign:
http://www.r-word.org/
laughing with glee about this insult being used.
It is disgusting. I can't believe it. I really can't. It hurts.
= new reply since forum marked as read
disagree on a philosophical level (and which I won't go into here, as it would be inappropriate), I appreciate the OP for its heartfelt opinion.
