Thursday, February 22, 2018





Campaign against use of the word 'retard' targets social media

The West Australian Government has helped launch a social media campaign aimed at getting people to stop using the word "retard" to demean people with disabilities.

Disabilities Minister Stephen Dawson said the word appeared on social media every five seconds and was used casually and unthinkingly by people every day.

"The R word is insulting and disrespectful — not just to people with disability but also to their families, friends and carers," he said. "It's never OK to use the R word — not in humour or frustration.

"People should stop and think about whether they would use the word on someone they love before they direct it towards somebody else."

The campaign is being run by not-for-profit disability advocacy group Avivo.

Mr Dawson said Twitter users who used the word would be targeted with a tweet containing one of the campaign's videos, which focus on people with a disability sharing their experiences with the word.

SOURCE

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The mentally handicapped are at a serious disadvantage and do not need to be disparaged.

Anonymous said...


The word "retard" was picked because the words in use before it "imbecile" and "idiot" had gained such negative connotations.

Changing the word doesn't get rid of all that baggage because the baggage will eventually follow to whatever new word you use.

Bird of Paradise said...

Mentaly Hapicapped people are a heck of a lot more intelligent then any liberal collage professors and the whining little snowflakes

Anonymous said...

"Its never ok to use the R word?"
Never?
What about fire retardants, or traffic retardants, or musical notation?