San Francisco students push to end use of the r-word

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I have to agree with this. I don’t hear the word very often but when I do it is used in a derogatory manner.
 
I was at a loss to come up with the “r” word that offended San Franciscan students.
Race?
Republican?
Thanks for the article.
jt
 
While I agree with them that people should not call others the “r-word,” I have problems with these “resistance” movements who operate like speech monitors.

People who use derogatory language often get what’s coming to them in the long run, and policing free speech can be very dangerous.
 
This is a typical liberal reaction.

they are going to wipe the word from the dictionary and take every book/ paper ever written and wipe black any occurence of this word.😛
 
I agree with not using the word ‘retarded’ in a derogatory way and support people demonstrating against this.

Where I would disagree is if the government or university would outlaw this word and impose penalties on any who do use it.
 
Well, it must be a SF thing. Most civilized people everywhere stopped using that word years ago. Perhaps some students at that university were using the word excessively.

It reminds me of the USNA graduates I served with that used the expression “that’s so gay” excessively. It was annoying more than offensive at the time, but now it’s just offensive.
 
Catholic_farmer said:
Well, it must be a SF thing. Most civilized people everywhere stopped using that word years ago. Perhaps some students at that university were using the word excessively.

It reminds me of the USNA graduates I served with that used the expression “that’s so gay” excessively. It was annoying more than offensive at the time, but now it’s just offensive.
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It’s common in the Ireland and from what I can gather, Australia. Presumably that extends to the UK too. So I would not say that most civilised people stopped using it.
 
This word did not used to have the negative connotations. I remember going to a Knights of Columbus tootsie roll fundraiser (where they trade Tootsie Rolls for donations for the physically / mentally challenged) about 10 years ago. All of the Knights had aprons that read “Help the Retarded”…ugh. They have since changed out those aprons!

I’m glad the word is being phased out, but don’t really want “word police” either.
 
ShrodingersCat said:
It’s common in the Ireland and from what I can gather, Australia. Presumably that extends to the UK too. So I would not say that most civilised people stopped using it.
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It is not common in Australia. I almost never hear it. I don’t think I have ever heard it used to describe the disabled and very very rarely is it used in a derogatory manner about anyone/thing else.
 
phil19034 said:
While I agree with them that people should not call others the “r-word,” I have problems with these “resistance” movements who operate like speech monitors.

People who use derogatory language often get what’s coming to them in the long run, and policing free speech can be very dangerous.
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Imagine being against this.
 
shockerfan said:
This word did not used to have the negative connotations. I remember going to a Knights of Columbus tootsie roll fundraiser (where they trade Tootsie Rolls for donations for the physically / mentally challenged) about 10 years ago. All of the Knights had aprons that read “Help the Retarded”…ugh. They have since changed out those aprons!

I’m glad the word is being phased out, but don’t really want “word police” either.
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I also remember those aprons, my uncle was active with the KOC, and you are right, back then, it was not viewed as negative in anyway.

But I think its highly likely, that eventually words like physically or mentally challenged will be viewed in the same light that most people view the R word today, looking back just 10-20 yrs, its easy to see how some words have come to be viewed as negative, so it should be obvious, descriptive words most people believe to be correct/ acceptable today, will eventually be seen as terrible and wrong.
 
Maybe it is a problem in SF. Retardation has been used as a clinic term for decades. When used as a noun, I get the insult. But for goodness sake, one has to call this sort of developmental issue something. Now, some place have gone to the more wordy, developmental disability. However, in a few decades will there be a movement to do away with the disability label?

I guess the language used, except when used as an insult, is worth considering, when I have finished resolving all the other more serious societal ills. God forbid we spend money on actually helping people instead of changing signs and letterheads.
 
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