Letter: Please refrain from using this word

I was in the same store twice in the past week, and both times heard people use the word “retarded”.

This is a word that shouldn’t be used by anyone to describe people or situations (“This line is retarded.” “What, are you retarded?”). It certainly shouldn’t be coming out of the mouth of anyone who considers themself a person with good character traits.

With the school year beginning, let’s all please work to remove it completely from our vocabularies – students, young adults, teachers, parents, store owners, etc etc etc…

Please take a moment to use your smart phone for a good cause and research the harmful history of this word (as well as any other slurs – ableist or racist – you can think of).

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23 COMMENTS

  1. What has Lakewood become? Why are liberals running Lakewood? The saying always goes; ” Strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, week men create hard times, hard times create strong men.” Let’s try to be strong men!

  2. I agree with this letter writer. People who don’t agree probably don’t know the origins of the word or its negative meanings. A simple google search can go a long way. You’re welcome

  3. To the letter writer- could be they were just discussing the 2024 presidential elections and one was saying Biden is retarded and therefore won’t be in the running as much as he says he is.. nothing so bad with that comment…

  4. This is just part of the latest “frummie” slang trend. Code words for peer acceptance like “not normal”, “amazing”, and “retarded”. Sorry, no Derech Eretz to be found. Shameful.

  5. its funny how lakewood has such sensitivity for some things like kids OTD where a letter writer was hammered about asking bums to get high and loiter somewhere else, but when a person who might have a down syndrome child or special needs kid r”l asks for people to not use a certain term they get crucified as a leftist snowflake liberal. sheesh!! relax!!

  6. Who cares when or why people stopped using it. The fact is, people find it offensive, and if it hurts even one yid that hears it, you can be oiver on countless lavin, so why risk it.

  7. This isn’t a leftist or conservative issue, it’s being a kind human being. I would correct someone’s speech if I heard them use such a word.

  8. I will never forget, years ago a new shy girl in High school whom I was friendly with came over to me horrified on the first day of school. She had been shy and sitting quietly afraid to open her mouth when some girls approached her and asked “Are you retarded?” and then walked away. She felt horrible. She probably still has the scar today, though I’m not even sure if she is frum today anymore.

    Train your children.

    Even when casually using the word about something that’s crazy… people find it offensive when that word is used.

  9. As a side note, when you hear these stories of people (especially politicians) using the term ‘Jew them down’ meaning to nickel and dime someone, do you get upset or do you say to yourself stop being a liberal?

  10. Power of speech by chofetz chaim.
    However if you have a problem go over to that person and discuss your issue. Being silent in the moment then being a keyboard warrior later doesn’t help but divides.

  11. I fully agree with the letter writer. This word has been banned from all official documents i.e. medical, educational, government about 15 years ago (perhaps more) as it has a very strong negative connotation. Instead of labeling a special needs person as ‘retarded’, which was done not so long ago, the person is described to be with ‘developmental delay’ or ‘cognitive disability’.

  12. Just because someone is a disabled person doesn’t have to be called that word!!!!!! I know someone who is disabled and he plays the keyboard and is a singer

Comments are closed.