{"id":206,"date":"2009-09-08T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html"},"modified":"2009-09-08T20:04:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T20:04:00","slug":"language-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Language, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

NPR ran a story tonight: “Rethinking ‘Retarded’: Should It Leave The Lexicon?” (http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=112479383<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I wrote a response:<\/p>\n

<\/span> “You’re such a retard” implies, “you’re acting the way I imagine someone with an intellectual disability would act.” “That’s so retarded,” a more passive usage, implies, “That’s messed up in a way that reminds me of people with intellectual disabilities.” And, in both cases, the implication is that it is a bad thing to act the way someone with an intellectual disability would act. I have a three-year old daughter with Down syndrome. She has introduced me to a world of children and adults who often go unnoticed by the rest of society. Many of them learn more slowly. In my daughter’s case, her physical development is delayed. And yet my daughter also teaches me about joy and compassion and patience and any number of virtues I hope to cultivate in myself, any number of virtues I hope to see in the world around me. No one is thinking of my daughter when they use the word “retard.” And yet that word only reinforces our culture’s history of failing to see the value of individuals who are outside the norm. To remove “retard” and “retarded” from everyday usage would be one more step towards recognizing people with Down syndrome and other genetic differences as whole and valued human beings, with much to offer. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NPR ran a story tonight: “Rethinking ‘Retarded’: Should It Leave The Lexicon?” (http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=112479383). I wrote a response: “You’re such a retard” implies, “you’re acting the way I imagine someone with an intellectual disability would act.” “That’s so retarded,” a more passive usage, implies, “That’s messed up in a way that reminds me of people with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nLanguage, again - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Language, again - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NPR ran a story tonight: “Rethinking ‘Retarded’: Should It Leave The Lexicon?” (http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=112479383). I wrote a response: “You’re such a retard” implies, “you’re acting the way I imagine someone with an intellectual disability would act.” “That’s so retarded,” a more passive usage, implies, “That’s messed up in a way that reminds me of people with…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-08T20:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Language, again - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Language, again - Thin Places","og_description":"NPR ran a story tonight: “Rethinking ‘Retarded’: Should It Leave The Lexicon?” (http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=112479383). I wrote a response: “You’re such a retard” implies, “you’re acting the way I imagine someone with an intellectual disability would act.” “That’s so retarded,” a more passive usage, implies, “That’s messed up in a way that reminds me of people with…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2009-09-08T20:04:00+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html","name":"Language, again - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-08T20:04:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-08T20:04:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/09\/language-again.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Language, again"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}