What Really Happens When You Use the R-Word

[GMDino]

(10-03-2017, 12:04 PM)michaelsean Wrote: What is it now referring to?  Not a mentally handicapped person anymore.  It's not used that way.  Like I said, "idiot" used to be a professional term, but nobody bats an eye at its use nowadays.  I personally don't going around saying "********" because while I'm sure I said it 1000 times as a kid, there was a stigma attached to using it because it meant something more.  

It's the meaning behind the words that give them power.  It's why black people can say a certain word and I can't.

I was teasing my son while we were school shopping about him dropping the highest level classes for the next highest level (I can't remember the nomenclature the school uses...but like from AP to honors or whatever) and I said not worry I took sped classes in high school too.  

(I didn't want to go to any science fairs so I chose the "slow" biology class and everyone freaked (parents/counselor) because I wasn't going to be on the "fast track" anymore.  I never made a better decision in school!  LOL!)

Anyway he said (laughing at me) "Wow...that's bad." and it took me a beat to realize that "sped" wasn't something kids used anymore...and that 30 years after I graduated high school it wasn't acceptable.  I probably hadn't used the word IN 30 years!  So I laughed and explained myself and we moved on.

We all have words in our vocabulary that shouldn't be used...sometimes they slip out.  Knowing that they are inappropriate is half the battle to ending the use of them.