Amanda Harrinauth

"The R-word is hate speech and it’s a slur against people with intellectual disabilities." According to the Arc Monroe blog. 

The R Word is short for "mental retardation" in which, the term popularized itself in the United States in the 1960s. Initially the term was used within the medical community, unfortunately, it made it away from medical textbooks to the mouths young and gullible folks, who believed it was cool new slang, rather than  terminology to damage the hearts of those with intellectual disabilities. 

I heard it for the first time while I was in middle school. One of the more alarming facts was that I heard it coming from the mouths of other special education students. These were my peers and classmates, I guess they felt since they could pass (many of their disabilities were behavioral rather than physical) I guess they felt like they had a right of passage, if their friends, in general education classes could use the term, what was stopping them? 

After all they were not wheelchair users, students who needed speech devices or students who made unconventional hand gestures? Right?...Wrong. My classmates were too cool to be associate with special education classes. I was different than all of my peers, I was the only student who couldn’t participate in standard PE. Hydrocephalus (water on the brain) that required a shunt system in my brain, I was considered medically fragile.   

I would join my fellow classmates, in room 111. I guess this was my first time hearing, special education classes had a hierarchy. Room 111 was referred to as the severely handicap at the time, in order to respect these students, I will be referring to them as "High support need’s class" this class consisted of everything, my classmates never wanted to be. Room 111 still sticks in my heart, as they were some of the kindest and and patient kids you would ever meet. They would welcome you with smiles and sometimes give me a hand drawn pictures that they made in their art class.  When the PE period concluded sometimes, I would stay and have my lunch with them. I didn’t see anything wrong with them, they were students are just like everybody else. Those students taught me respect, love and kindness. 

I remember a comment made, by one of the aids in my history class, "you better stop doing that or you will go to room 111," she said that to my classmate as if it was supposed to be a punishment. The futures of the kids in room 111 may look a little bit different. Is that necessarily a bad thing? 

The R Word is considered derogatory language, why would we use it to describe another human being?  

In the 60s when the term became popularized, medical professional’s had little choice in terminologies. Now fast forward to 2025, not only medical professionals, but we have a wide range of vocabulary to describe people and the situation’s we encounter. The R word has no place in society to describe a human being. Society needs to remember that we all struggle at different part of the journey in life. 

When I was a college student back in 2014, I studied the harmful effects of using the R word to describe others. My presentation was set up in a classroom style. The audience was composed of my fellow classmates, my professor and my dad and my sister. My good friend Alex acted as the videographer and filmed my presentation. I begin my senior thesis presentation by individually walking up to each student, and asking them what their name was. I wanted to create a dialogue, similar to when students meet their teachers on the first day of school. “Hi, what’s your name?" “Joe” he responded, "No! Your name is 'idiot,'" I said with authority handing him a name tag demanding that he put it on for everyone to see. The intention was to allow my classmates to feel the same humiliation that special education students on a daily basis. After I finished passing out about 15 name tags, filled with derogatory slurs related to disabilities. Before the introductions were over, I asked my classmates, to ask me what my name was. The room broke out into an uproar, "What’s your name?" In a shy, unsettling voice I answered, "My name is Retard," placing label upon myself. Ending the presentation with 2014s Special Olympics, "It’s Not Acceptable," campaign starring actors Jane Lynch and Lauren Potter.

The 30 minutes that I spent giving my presentation and explaining my story had a lasting effect on me. In the middle of the presentation, a few of my female classmates begin to cry, many of them had their own personal struggles with dealing with children with having intellectual disabilities. 

I would continue to have conversations with my friends in the disability community about the R word.   

While I was a college student I had the honor of meeting disability rights activist, Judy Heumann. She told me that the word was hurtful to many of us and she would never use it. I maintained a relationship with her for the last eight years of her life. It was part of Heumann’s mission to end the stigma for folks with intellectual disabilities. The message from Judy Heumann was very clear, I am one of millions individuals with an intellectual disability who must continue to carry the torch that she helped light. 

In 2018, I took the next step in my journey, I became a registered Special Olympics athlete. In the summer of 2019, after joining Special Olympics only 11 months prior, I joined the athlete leadership program in Northern California. If you want to spread the word to end the word, this was one of the best platforms to have. 

I traded in writing academic papers for heartfelt poems. These were poems that were written with truth. Telling my truth would be something different, telling the truth would include everybody. As I’ve said countless times, in my speeches over the years, society can do themselves a favor and just refrain from using the R word. As I mentioned earlier we have a large vocabulary, find another word to describe The events of your day, the people you meet and and even yourself. No one deserves to be put down. 

The misunderstandings that individuals have when they commonly use the R word is that it is meant to be funny. You hear most people laughing when they use it. The R word is not a term of endearment, it is the exact opposite. It is a term of shame and blatant disrespect.

I understand that we have freedom of speech as a first amendment right, does freedom of speech include hurting other people you may know and perhaps that you may not know? When you usually the R word to describe someone, you were just not offending that one person, you are unknowingly offending thousands of people with intellectual disabilities, just like myself.