The Right Words?

photo credit: CNN

So, the Special Olympics is heading an ad campaign targeting 18-30 year olds.  The campaign uses slurs against many groups in an attempt to illustrate that such language is hurtful to all groups, including those with mental disabilities.  While I think that the ad is thought-provoking, I think that it is sending the wrong message.

The picture above, with hyphens censoring the words “nigger,” “spic,” and “fag,” seem to me to illustrate that society does not use these terms anymore because they have been deemed offensive, yet the word “retard,” which is equally as offensive to its respective group, is still in widespread use.

Now, I fully agree that all of these words are offensive and should not be used; however, I do not think that society has stopped using any of these words, which is where I take some offense with the ad.  I hear the word “nigger” quite often, and not just in rap music. The word “fag” is everywhere. I’ll admit that I’ve never really heard “spic” and actually had to look it up, but then again I live in an area where the Latino/Hispanic population isn’t that high—so I’m assuming that it is still a problem in other areas.  I don’t like that the ad seems to portray that there isn’t a problem with these words anymore, as if they have been exterminated from the English language.

As for the word in question, “retard,” the main problem with this word is that it holds other meanings aside from an offensive term for the mentally impaired.  The word “retard” (emphasis on the second syllable) as a verb means “to slow,” and I see it often in science writing in the discussion of the extermination of bacterial growth and similar instances.  I think it would be hard to eliminate the use of this word because it does hold another alternate meaning that is still in use in an academic setting.  Unless the alternate use is eliminated I feel as though we will always have a problem with the offensive meaning of the word.

“Mentally retarded” was most likely applied to the mentally impaired because they were “slower” at learning than the normal population, and in the past it was probably quite a politically correct term.  I’m not sure what happened from then up to now—but the fact is that kids today throw it around in an insulting fashion and apply it to every possible circumstance.  Other similar offensive terms include “speds” (short for special education) and references to “riding the short bus” (buses for schools that educate the mentally challenged.)  I think that it’s embarrassing how free kids are with these words, but I don’t think that this ad does a good job of making them think again before using such language.

Thoughts on the ad’s effectiveness or ways to improve it?