Oh, the uproars, the uproars! Here they come again.
The latest is over the movie, "Tropic Thunder," which liberally uses the word
"retard."
It’s a spoof, but I can’t image many who advocate for the disabled are
getting many laughs out of the use of "retard."
Just before this one, national radio show host Michael Savage created a
outcry by saying that autism is the "illness du jour" embodied by "a brat who
hasn’t been told to cut the act out."
How stupid is this man? Stupid enough to be called a "retard"? Gee, let’s
hope only he would be mean enough to use that word.
I’ve been in the newspaper business for 28 years; I’ve been the mother of a
child with special needs for 11. Pulling both of those roles together over the
subject of semantics has not always been easy.
My professional training is to cut to the chase, make sure meanings are on
the mark and tight headlines fit. Toss in years of working on news side, rather
than, say, features (where I mostly work now), hobnobbing with grizzled veterans
and I’m often enough on the block for an attitude correction. No more so than
when I had my son and my smug little way of thinking that my kids would be
perfect got upended.
I hate to think of years when I may not have been so sensitive. But I am also
smart enough to learn, and use, lessons. Early in my career, I covered a school
merger done for integration purposes. That opened my mind up to a whole other
way of looking at things, not all having to do with race.
So did the first time someone explained "person first" language to me. Saying
"a person with disabilties" rather than a "disabled person" shows you think of
the subject as a person first, disabled secondly.
That lesson was underscored for me as I pushed to have my son mainstreamed,
making sure others don’t bully him because he doesn’t always assimilate, making
sure they don’t know that what he is isn’t an act at all.
I have over the years tried to make sure that when I write, when I edit, when
I talk and when I observe, I am as sensitive as possible.
My career also means I respect freedom of expression. So dear old Mr. Savage
has every right to be stupid as a mossback fence post. The makers of "Tropic
Thunder" have every right to spoof and use a word that will make some of us
shudder.
And the Arc, advocates for the mentally retarded, has every right to issue a
statement against "Tropic Thunder," which its Greater Pittsburgh office did
yesterday:
"In our culture, words such as ‘retard"...carry a lot of baggage from the
days when people with disabilities were institutionalized...These hurtful words
also create negative stereotypes that lead to discrimination and often times
abuse.
"Today, children with all types of disabilities are included in all types of
schools. People are included in all types of jobs. They work, they vote, they
pay taxes."
I want to see "Tropic Thunder." Some of it sounds pretty funny (there’s a
character called Alpa Chino, and the sendups of the movies sound delicious).
I also want to see if the use of "retard" bothers me. I’ve got to think it
will.
But I have the right, too, to walk out.
And I have to right to applaud Arc, and to say, never use the word ‘retard’
around me or my son.