Information On The R Word Pledge

By Lisa Brooks


The R word movement is ideally a national campaign in the United States that is usually aimed at encouraging all the citizens to avoid using offensive and dehumanizing terms such as retard. This term has a long history since it has been used for quite a while. The R word pledge thereby advocates for the believe that the usage of this term retarded in everyday or even colloquial speech is unacceptable, hurtful and very dehumanizing to the many individuals that have intellectual incapacities.

This advocacy forum hence is dedicated to ensuring that all and sundry respect all the members of community, their intellectual, personal or developmental problems notwithstanding. The advocates behind this movement also hold very strong opinions that mentally impaired persons should not be sidelined or overlooked under whatever circumstances, since it is not by their fault that they are the way they are, but is a natural force or fate.

This campaign under discussion is basically a youth-driven advocacy movement, and it is supported by two organizations namely Special Olympics and also Best Buddies International. These are the key organizations that have played a big role in the movement, since its inception. The movement was created by the youth having intellectual disabilities, as well as those without, and participated in Special Olympics Global Youths Active Summit. This was at the Special Olympic Winter Games that were held in 2009.

The history of this advocacy mission dates back in 2009, during the World games at the Special Olympics Globe Youths Summit, in 2009. Since then, the movement has been holding annual celebrations on the very first Wednesday of March, each year.

There has however been controversy that elicits from the fact that people are not sure of the intentions of the movement, and whether it seeks to ban the term retard completely, or if the term can be applied under certain contexts. The effort and intention of the advocacy is usually aimed at drawing the attention to the reality that large numbers of people living with intellectual impairments are normally hurt and feel offended when they are called retards. The main goal is to raise as much awareness as possible on the adverse impacts of this demeaning term.

Many people wonder about where they can find more materials that can help them host R-word events in their areas. The materials can be downloaded from various resource pages, and other merchandise that can be used to host events in the R-word store.

The general aim of the initiative is to let the society know that using this word is highly offensive and wrong, and so people can think way before they speak and also realize their words possess a lot of power. The campaign encourages people to have conversations about using the said term, so that they realize whoever is listening whenever they use the R word, and also who they might be hurting.

In culmination, the campaign against using dehumanizing terms like retard is very important, as it helps people with intellectual as well as development problems feel appreciated and accepted in the society. It aims at educating and making people aware of how harmful it is to use the term retard.




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