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Wednesday 31 August 2016

Information On The R Word Pledge

By Lisa Brooks


The R-word advocacy or rather pledge, can be simply defined as a national program or campaign that was incepted and practiced in United States, and it aims at typically discouraging people from using any offensive term, or any term that may evoke the emotions of certain individuals. The movement thereby seeks to encourage people to refrain from using dehumanizing terms or sentiments, for instance retard. The R word pledge therefore focuses on ensuring all people feel appreciated and accepted in the society.

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 movement sought to make this world a more acceptable and warm place for all members of the society, regardless of the intellectual capacities. The campaigns are held every first Wednesday of March, and the anniversary is celebrated on 31st of March every year. People from all parts of the globe are usually recommended to be very vocal and active in educating others against using dehumanizing terms and sentiments that may adversely affect certain individuals in society.

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.

The movement strives to let people know that referring to someone as a retard is not funny at all, and is not a joke. It is conversely, very harmful and offensive to many a people. It should therefore, never be used especially for derogatory reasons.

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.

Regardless of the fact that we all have our rights and freedoms of free speech, we also are entitled to petition choice of the language we use very carefully, so that we do not end up demeaning certain characters in the society in our utterances or even actions. Every person is very special in their own way, and therefore a person ought to come first at all times irrespective of their abnormalities and other conditions.




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