She used the r-word to describe the President.
Then, when called on the carpet about it, stated that she hated all the political correctness in the world today, and that before you know it there would be an entire book of words you could no longer use.
You would think that as someone who creates much of her celebrity as a writer, Ann would have a thesaurus of words with which to make her descriptions. You would think that being asked not to use a word so closely associated with the degradation of those within the special needs community wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean it’s not as if she doesn’t have hundreds of other words she could have chosen.
No, Ann, of course you weren’t talking about one single individual with intellectual disabilities.
You were talking about all of them, my child included.
Perhaps she was deliberately going for the shock value. I say it’s time to give Ms. Coulter the opportunity to feel the jolt.
By simply having the maturity, the empathy, the respect for individuals with special needs, this woman could have set the bar higher in how we refer to those who can’t fight back. Instead she made the case for herself, and others with the same mindset, that it is perfectly okay to draw attention to herself on the backs of children like Parker.
The rhyme of ‘sticks and stones’ lies. Words do hurt. They make it harder to change the stereotype of a child or adult with special needs. Words make it easier to treat those with intellectual disabilities as though they don’t deserve the same rights as their typically developing peers.
As a writer, Ann Coulter knows the power of a single word.
Unfortunately she lacks the character to accept the damage caused by the words she uses.
Twitter: nehimomma
Oct 24, 12
Until the conservative right just refuse to listen to her garbage any longer..she will still spew slurs. They have the power, hopefully they will use it.
We watch O’Reilly most every night. I wonder if he’ll pick up on this, and if so, what he’ll say. I totally agree with you.
I almost think that people like Ann Coulter shouldn’t be given a forum and that that is exactly what she wants- therefore her gain if people continue to post it. She is clearly antisocial with no regard to who she might offend. I so wish that everyone would completely ignore her so that she has no power- because she obviously has no talent.
Chris,
Actually after I posted this I got started thinking the same thing. I didn’t realize that she had used this word so many times. Once I found that out I started thinking that she must be getting some kind of buzz from doing it again and again.
But I do have to say, that I really love how our community stands together and advocates. xoxo
She’s exactly right. That’s where the words moron and idiot (and dumb) come from. And I don’t like those words either. People make a slur out of a harmless, descriptive term, showing their ignorance of the value of the individuals described. And then the slur becomes part of everyday speech, used to refer to anyone who the user considers “stupid” or less-than.
Thank you for your beautiful and eloquent post and for standing up for Parker and for all of us with intellectual, cognitive, and/or developmental disabilities who have had the r-word levelled at us in judgment far too many times. I especially appreciate that you included the video of Coulter defending her choice so that we can all see that it wasn’t just a regrettable slip but something she stands firmly by.
There are so many other words or phrases she could have used to indicate that she felt the president had a poor standing in the debate — even insulting words. I think secretly she wished she could use “the n word” and because she couldn’t, she went to the next thing she could think of . . .and Ms. Coulter needs to understand that there is no difference between the n-word and the r-word! Both use the way a person was born to insult others. Both are an act of exploiting a vulnerable people.
So thank you for standing up, Tammy and Parker. We don’t need to “feed” Coulter too much, of course, but it is important that we make our voices heard so I’m glad that we all joined in this blog hop. It brought me out of “hibernation” and got me active blogging again. And it allowed me to meet lots of wonderful people through the hops. So even if our protest was ineffectual in all other ways, I think some good came from it and I’m glad to be standing up beside you and saying that it is unacceptable to use the r-word like that!