To use the term “retard” directed at someone in a derogatory way, is most defiantly “hate speech”. It is not that it is unfair to the person it is directed at (most likely having no real disability), it is however very hurtful and hateful for the family member or someone with an actual disability to have to hear, even if just in simple passing. It’s also not fair that television and the movie industry can simply toss the word around as if it is not going to hurt anyone. They have no idea who could be watching. The last thing a person with a disability needs is to feel less about themselves. By using a hateful term like “retard” to a person that has no real disabilities can only make a person with a disability feel even worse. The word should not be used. It is hurtful and disrespectful.
To say the word retarded is “hate speech” is wrong. Yes maybe to the poor person who is being called the retard by their classmates and peers, but not to the person with an actual disability. First of all- no one would call someone with a disability retarded. That is a very outdated term for something we now call “special needs”. By advocators for special needs programs to say the word “retarded” is hate speech, they are just throwing themselves under the bus. You would not find a mother or father saying “yes- my child is retarded”... so how can they assume that by using the word, this is who a young child on the playground is comparing their peer to. If this was the case, female dogs should take offense to the term “Bitch” and homosexuals should be offended anytime something is deemed as “Gay”- even though this is a term that they openly use to disclose their sexual orientation.
