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.

The campaign is held annually, on the first Wednesday of the month of March. Nonetheless, people from all parts of the country can aid in spreading this advocacy message, throughout their particular societies, communities and schools all year round through pledge advocacy rallies, youth rallies, online activation and other platforms that can be used to send the message to as many people as possible.

It is also important to look into the history of this said pledge or movement. It was basically established in the year 2009 during Special Olympics World Youth Summit at the winter games. It was solely created by the youth suffering from intellectual impairment, as well as those that do not. The main motivation and inspirations of this campaign was literally powered by united passions to promote positive impacts made by intellectually disable persons.

The history of this advocacy mission dates back in 2009, during the World games at the Special Olympics Globe Youths Summit, in 2009. Since then, the movement has been holding annual celebrations on the very first Wednesday of March, each year.

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.

Many people wonder about where they can find more materials that can help them host R-word events in their areas. The materials can be downloaded from various resource pages, and other merchandise that can be used to host events in the R-word store.

There is also some controversy surrounding the alternative terms that should be used in place of retard. Many experts believe that using intellectual disability is an ideal replacement for mental retardation. This is because many believe that retardation evokes the term retard, and thus brings up very demeaning and painful memories of ridicule and also rejection.

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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