Should the Term “Retarded” be Derogatory?
July 26, 2009 – 8:59 pmIt was recently discovered that the proposed health insurance bill refers to mentally disabled individuals at the “retarded”, a term that many persons see as outdated and offensive.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first record of the usage of the word “retard” is from circa 1489. Then, the word meant to keep back, hinder, or impede.
Today, the word “retard” is used in commonly used as a replacement for the word “idiot” or “dummy”. Not only has the definition of the word changed, but the nature of word has been altered as well, being more commonly spoken as a noun, as opposed to it’s original verb tense.
The word “retard” was first found printed in American newspapers in 1704. It was used to describe the slowing down or the diminishing of something.
The current U.S. bill refers to: “A hospital or a nursing facility or intermediate-care facility for the mentally retarded . . .”
Some have suggested that this phrasing could cause more problems with advocates for the developmentally disabled, who were angered recenly when President Obama referred to his poor bowling skills on “The Tonight Show” as “like the Special Olympics.” (President Obama later apologized).
So, is this Politically Correctness out of control? Or is the use of the word retarded appropriate when written in the context of referring to the, now commonly labled, developmentally disabled?
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