Friday, July 01, 2016
You must not even call yourself a "retard"
Tennis: Australian Bernard Tomic has been criticised over his use of the word 'retard' during a Wimbledon press conference.
The 23-year-old was responding to a question about being made to wait on court for his opponent, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
In a post-match conference, Tomic was asked: 'Tennis etiquette requires that both players arrive on court at the same time. You were kept waiting about eight minutes. Any idea why?'
Tomic replied: 'Yeah, well, I think because he was up in the locker getting something taped on as when I left and I thought he was leaving, so I just happened to walk out.
'Yeah, I did get to the court prior to him very early, and unfortunately I had to stand on court like a retard.'
Ciara Lawrence, who has a learning disability and is a campaigns support officer at Mencap, branded the Australian's language 'damaging and offensive'.
She said: 'I'd like the player to apologise and would encourage him to meet people with a learning disability so he can understand why the word is so damaging and offensive.
'Time and time again I hear this word used as if it has no effect. People clearly don't understand how upsetting and offensive this is to people with a learning disability like me.
SOURCE
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7 comments:
"Unfortunately I had to stand on the court like a mentally challenged creature of indeterminate species and gender." There, made it all better.
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Comments in Chinese or Russian will be deleted as I do not understand them. Spammers: Don't bother. Irrelevant comments will not be published
People in the public eye to such an extent should have more sense than to talk without thinking of the consequences, even if PC lacks much sense (think - does loose talk help your image or career, or doesn't it? - use your brain cells if you have any!)
It is unfathomable to me why individuals feel "hurt" being called what they are. If you are retarded/gay/whatever you know that and know that you have a much more challenging life than those who are not. It is how you deal with that challenge that defines you.
MDH
Some idiot just wrote an opinion piece on news.com.au about how he had a brother who was mentally disabled and how butt-hurt he was by this.
I have a child with autism. Was I upset at Bernard Tomic's statement? Not at all - because it has nothing to do with my child or anyone else. Bernard Tomic just used an expression for someone who looks stupid. That doesn't apply to my child so no reason to be upset.
Anyone who understands the word retard is not one. Anyone who took offense is reacting on behalf of someone else who doesn't comprehend the word. The dictionary definition of retard is to slow things down. The definition has been applied to those with learning difficulties but just like the word gay, retard has been misused and abused in today's society.
Anon 8:35 Your kid is probibly at lot more intellegent then a lot of these little wanks on the honorrolls
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