TAKING BACK HURTFL WORDS

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My name is Jamal I am a diagnised aspie. I had the idea that simlar to blak peopl who have taken back the wrd "n***a" and now use it to addres eachother us aspies, should take back the dredded "r" word. Now I know we hav all suffred a grate deal to this wrd but i think that it would disarm this wrds powr to hurt us if we used it arselves? what do yall think? as in "wats up my ret*d?"not bad IMO.

Thats a good plan ret*d!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUF2i8Anh00[/youtube]

Perry Brother's think so aswell

As an Autistic person with niece that has Downs Syndrome, I think your idea is repulsive.

We're not mentally ret*d. If you are a ret*d, feel free to use it. I'm not, so I won't. Save the word for the people it's actually been used on.

you guyz clrly do not undrstnd my idea im simply sugesting we remov the stigma of the word by usin it oursleves. wht u hav said is simply hurtful. I dnt rly believ that anyne of you have aspergers if u did u would understnd the pain ths word has brougt and the pain it continus to bring! if it is disrmd it will nolonger bring this pain.


PS to mr. danlionfirewrks I do not know what u consider aspergers to be because. It has definatley hindrd and yes even "retardd: my life!

I don't think so...

I've been called that by my family dozens of times as an example, especially by my Older Brother. He accuses anyone with a mental illness as ret*d, especially me and he thinks people with autism will never have any true life. He is cruel, sick, and I cannot wait until he moves out of our house...

That has in no way disarmed the word as a racial slur and it will still get you your @ss kicked if you throw it around like its meaningless. Its one thing if you're in the club, but its still hurtful and vicious if it comes from anyone else.

Using ret*d that way would it no way lessen its impact as a cruel slap in the face. My Autism is a severe handicap, but the one thing I am most definitely NOT is intellectually challenged and that's what 'ret*d' used as an epithet means: stupid.

For Autistics as a community to throw it around as slang, would only convince the neurotypical world of a negative stereotype they already have. We want them to realize that Autistic DOESN'T mean stupid. Not reassure them that it DOES.

"ret*d" has a specific meaning. You need to have an IQ below... some specific number. It might've been 70. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, you cannot be diagnosed with Asperger's if you are mentally ret*d; it's in the diagnostic criteria. This does not reflect on how your Asperger's affects you; merely, the specific term for it.

This particular term has never been applied to me. (Actually, it's been applied to me once in my entire life, and not seriously.) I've been called fatso more often, and I've had people feel negative things toward me that they didn't express by name-calling. (They have expressed them in other ways.)

"ret*d" speaks only to your intelligence. It is not the correct term. By definition, we have average or above average intelligence. It is possible to be autistic and ret*d, but also not a requirement. ret*ds have trouble with the skills tested by IQ test. We have trouble with social skills, executive function, personal grooming, sensory integration... have I forgotten anything?

No one's denying that maybe ret*ds should take back the word. No one's saying Aspies aren't called bad things. No one's saying we haven't been called mean things. We're just saying we're not (necessarily) ret*ds.

Have you been called ret*d? That's a different issue. Are you ret*d? Then worry about this issue, by all means; if you are ret*d, I can only wish you luck.

I'm guessing the reason others were offended is because they perceive you as trying to usurp their rightful title, and make light of the challenges faced by actual ret*ds. Think of it this way: how would you feel if a mentally ret*d person tried to claim to be an Aspie, and use that title?

Achsully most aspies and high function autys have iq of 705 or lower acord to my bro who is psyhc major at UCLA dos that make them retardd???? yes!! dos it make the tless people NO!!!1

2willsrd i wil ask that you do not qute me whe n i use the N word i am blck IT IS OUR WORD! but retrad we cn be ours yo help me tak away its power!! !

p.s.. i have run it by my friends at my hs and the like the idea and say we cn start a :a equliy club"

p.s.. f*k you for making fun at mspelling i hav comorid dyslexia!!



KEEP ON SPERGHIN!

The average score for an autistic of 70 on an IQ test is not a valid result. The IQ test is designed for NTs and autistic people do not think the same. I do not believe you are an idiot, and the vast majority of Autistics are not either. People with downs syndrome are typically unable to express complex thoughts and are unable to read or understand the use of a keyboard.

Blacks who want to be taken seriously do not use variations of the word niggardly. You will almost never hear an eldery black person talk like that. Sit down with an elderly black person and discuss it with them.,

The same thing is true of the word ret*d. It is a vile and hateful word. The words cruelty will not lessen by you believing it is true about you. That your friends think this is OK, shows they either don't care about you or suffer from the same delusion about the power of words.

hello

Alright, if you're dyslexic I won't make the remark I was going to, and will instead ask politely if you mean 75.

Though I doubt the validity of IQ tests performed on children, and would rather get retested, when I was little (I don't remember exactly how old), I scored rather well; my performance IQ was only 99, which is about average, and my verbal IQ was... I forget the exact number, but well above average. I seem to recall it being high enough to qualify for Mensa, not that I was particularly interested. Is your IQ, in particular, in the ret*d range? Have you been tested?

Do you think you could get one of those programs that recognize your voice and automatically transcribe what you say?

Wait a second. Are you in special ed? Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, but if you're a dyslexic Aspie (especially if your spelling is this bad, no offense) whose friends would agree to using the word "ret*d" to describe themselves, it seems rather likely. And in that case, it would make a great deal of sense for you to have been called ret*d for that reason, regardless of whether or not it's actually correct. I begin to see where you're coming from.

To answer your questin no i am not in specul ed my dsylexia is noit a completley crippling i am actully smarter than most kid at my school (including NTs). If a retardd person wanted to use ths word thats GREAT. im not saying we r reatrded but i dnt no about yall i have very often been called a ret*d because NTs cannot accept that i thnk diffrently from them! Aspies are nt ret*d i know, bt many of us are called this. not all of use black people are n****rs but we are all called this so we use the word to fight back. so us aspis shouild use ret*d, we couold turn the world intoo a positive word to denote are greater imagination nd creativ intelligenc? THINK how much we ould confuse NTs when thy try to us it to hurt us and we just laff it off?

I figure this is a more appropriate place for my reply. I do understand how it feels. I am white and I grew up in a neighborhood where I was the minority. I got called names growing up and I learned it was only stupid people who were the racist. Part of military training is learning about racism, the root causes, and what to do about it. I lived in Central America, Germany, Italy and Israel. I was regularly discriminated against and sometimes asked to leave shops for no reason. More importantly, I saw how people in other countries discriminated against others.

Did you know Hispanics discriminate against each other based on skin color. Did you know the direction of the discrimination changes back and forth depending on the density of skin color in the local area?

Do you know that one Italian or German can tell if another is not from their town? Did you know they get discriminated against because they are different?

Are you aware the majority of the world lives in tribal communities? Are you aware that they tribal feuds are common across the world?

Racism is ignorance. Having a chip on your shoulder because you met stupid people in you cocoon only perpetuates racism by making you the one with the problem. The vast majority of people here do not understand the bigotry against them for being autistic. This forum is a non racist zone. Deal with it.

My main issue with that is technically autism is not mental retardation. Doing as you suggest will further connect autism-retardation, which is inaccurate even though many LFA's can count as "ret*d" due to low IQ's. I personally feel that the words should be eliminated b/c using the n word as an example; every black person I've met who uses the n-word to address other black people gets highly offended if someone else who is not black uses it. Either a word should be freely used by everyone with a positive connotation or it should be eliminated.

If someone who is actually ret*d referred to themselves as such, it wouldn't be them taking back the word they'd be parroting it from hearing it from other people. Someone whose IQ is below 70 would most likely not understand what they are saying in the way you are describing (taking back the word).