MANCHESTER, Conn.
When the Journal Inquirer reported the other day about the criminal sentencing
of a "mildly retarded" rapist, representatives of groups serving the mentally
retarded protested. The complaint was: "People don't use 'retarded' anymore."
They likened it to the "N word" and the name of Washington, D.C.'s football team, the Redskins.
These comparisons were false, as the former was always an epithet, the latter
always a way of evoking the supposed savagery of aboriginal people.
But disparagement attached to "retarded" only recently. Indeed, until a few
years ago Connecticut had the Department of Mental Retardation. What happened?
Children began abusing the word with their peculiar cruelty. But more than that,
society declined to enforce standards. Instead, those who behaved decently were
told to change their terms. As usual government was the first to be intimidated
by the special interest.
Language evolves. Over the long term it belongs not just to the dictionary but
to everyone who uses it. But capitulation to the slob culture is fairly resented
and resisted. What is happening with "retarded" is only what long ago happened
with "Jew." People heard "Jew" spoken with sneering contempt so often and were
too meek to object that they began assuming the word itself to be disparaging.
So now there are few Jews but lots of "Jewish people."
The language police know perfectly well when disparagement is intended and when
it is not, know perfectly well that a newspaper story about a rapist with mental
retardation is different from the schoolgirl mocking a classmate as "retarded."
But today's culture requires the decent people to change, not the miscreants.
This has taken the country Through the Looking Glass, wherein Lewis Carroll's
Humpty Dumpty berates Alice for doubting that words can be so flexible.
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,'" Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I
meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means
just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many
different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty
began again. "They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the
proudest. Adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs. However, I can
manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"
If news organizations are to be accurate, credible, and understood, they must
stick to descriptive reality and not be intimidated by political correctness,
avoiding what is merely preferred by elites or euphemistic and vague, like the
term coming into fashion for the retarded and others, "special needs," which, by
design, conveys little and can mean anything. Old Hump would be very happy with
that.
And what do we do when the kids start sneering at each other, "That's so
'special needs'"?
There will always be cruelty. People should stand up against it, not capitulate
to it at the expense of the language.
The big problem for the retarded in Connecticut long has been the shortage of
group homes for retarded people living with aging parents, who fear that upon
their death there will be no familiar and comfortable home for their kids. Those
who care about the retarded should worry more about that than about contriving
euphemisms.
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn.