Meghan Schader: Please Do Not Use the R Word: Part 2

Meagan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

As I’ve written, some people have begun incorporating the words “retard” and “retarded” (known in disability circles as the R word) into their political identities; people are using the R word as a way to signal their frustrations with political correctness. Hence, public usage of the R word has increased significantly.

I want to help other euthanasia opponents understand why it’s important to resist this fad.

So I’m offering a more detailed account of a few of my experiences of being called the R word; I think they might help euthanasia opponents understand why participating in the R word craze trivializes the word’s connection to disabled people’s experiences of abuse, even if the people using the term as a badge of honor don’t mean it that way.

One day at church when I was eleven, another girl randomly walked up to me and said, “Meghan, you’re a retard and everyone hates you.” “That’s not a very Christian thing to say,” I answered. “I’m not Christian, I’m Episcopalian,” she said. (LOL).

This girl was not alone in using that term. During one Sunday School class when the teacher finally told an aggressive bully to stop calling me the R word, he said, “She’s like an animal, she has no feelings anyway.” This abusive behavior spread among other children in the class, until pretty much everyone was calling me the R word and saying that they hated me. The problem became so severe that my parents pulled me out of Sunday School.

In sixth grade there was one bully who not only called me the R word, but also taunted me with comments like, “Did your mother drink when she was pregnant with you?” “Did your parents lose a bet with God or something?” “I’m going to throw acid on you in science class.” Then he stole metal pellets from the science classroom and threw them at my head. After that, the principal ordered us to attend a peer mediation session with two peer mediators and a police officer. The bully had no compunction. He proudly admitted that he had, in fact, called me the R word, threatened my life, etc. “Yeah I hate her; everyone in the school hates her,” he said.

These are only a few examples; I could go on and on about all of the times that bullies did vicious things while calling me the R word.

In short, when you use the R word to prove how bravely politically incorrect you are, you are ignoring the term’s link to dehumanization and prejudice.

So, please: Don’t use the R word.

Meghan is a disability instructor and a member of the EPC-USA board.

• Previous article by Meghan Schrader on this topic: (Read).