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The "R" Word| | In the past three hours, I have received one-hundred-thirty footprints. Apparently I am now big in Hong Kong.
Or I have a dedicated stalker thousands of miles away who has plenty of time to spare.
(Or maybe they just think my weblog is a good place to practice their English skills.)
This was something that Carrot shared in a MySpace bulletin. I thought it was worth sharing, as well.
Soeren Palumbo is a senior honors student at Fremd High
School in Wheeling, Illinois, and big brother to Olivia. During
Writer's Week (in March 2007), he gave the following speech to a
gymnasium full of his high school peers and faculty and received a
standing ovation.
Stop
the Use of the 'R' Word"I want to tell you a quick story before I
start. I was walking through hallways, not minding my own business,
listening to the conversations around me. As I passed the front door on
my way to my English classroom, I heard the dialogue between two
friends nearby. For reasons of privacy, I would rather not give away
their race or gender.
So the one girl leans to the other,
pointing to the back of a young man washing the glass panes of the
front door, and says, "Oh my gaw! I think it is so cute that our school
brings in the black kids from around the district to wash our windows!"
The other girl looked up, widened her slanted Asian eyes and called to
the window washer, easily loud enough for him to hear, "Hey, Negro! You
missed a spot!" The young man did not turn around. The first girl
smiled a bland smile that all white girls - hell, all white people -
have and walked on. A group of Mexicans stood by and laughed that high
pitch laugh that all of them have.
So now it's your turn. What
do you think the black window washer did? What would you do in that
situation? Do you think he turned and calmly explained the fallacies of
racism and showed the girls the error of their way? That's the one
thing that makes racism, or any discrimination, less powerful in my
mind. No matter how biased or bigoted a comment or action may be, the
guy can turn around and explain why racism is wrong and, if worst comes
to worst, punch 'em in the face.
Discrimination against those
who can defend themselves, obviously, cannot survive. What would be far
worse is if we discriminated against those who cannot defend
themselves. What then, could be worse than racism?
Look around
you and thank God that we don't live in a world that discriminates and
despises those who cannot defend themselves. Thank God that every one
of us in this room, in this school, hates racism and sexism and by that
logic discrimination in general. Thank God that every one in this
institution is dedicated to the ideal of mutual respect and love for
our fellow human beings. Then pinch yourself for living in a dream.
Then pinch the hypocrites sitting next to you. Then pinch the hypocrite
that is you.
Pinch yourself once for each time you have looked
at one of your fellow human beings with a mental handicap and laughed.
Pinch yourself for each and every time you denounced discrimination
only to turn and hate those around you without the ability to defend
themselves, the only ones around you without the ability to defend
themselves. Pinch yourself for each time you have called someone else a
"retard."
If you have been wondering about my opening story,
I'll tell you that it didn't happen, not as I described it. Can you
guess what I changed? No, it wasn't the focused hate on one person, and
no it wasn't the slanted Asian eyes or cookie cutter features white
people have or that shrill Hispanic hyena laugh (yeah, it hurts when
people make assumptions about your person and use them against you
doesn't it?).
The girl didn't say "hey Negro." There was no black person.
It
was a mentally handicapped boy washing the windows. It was "Hey
retard." I removed the word retard. I removed the word that destroys
the dignity of our most innocent. I removed the single most hateful
word in the entire English language.
I don't understand why we use the word; I don't think I ever will.
In
such an era of political correctness, why is it that retard is still
ok? Why do we allow it? Why don't we stop using the word? Maybe
students can't handle stopping - I hope that offends you students, it
was meant to - but I don't think the adults, here can either.
Students,
look at your teacher, look at every member of this faculty. I am
willing to bet that every one of them would throw a fit if they heard
the word faggot or nigger - hell the word Negro - used in their
classroom. But how many of them would raise a finger against the word
retard? How many of them have? Teachers, feel free to raise your hand
or call attention to yourself through some other means if you have.
That's what I thought. Clearly, this obviously isn't a problem contained within our age group.
So
why am I doing this? Why do I risk being misunderstood and resented by
this school's student body and staff? Because I know how much you can
learn from people, all people, even - no, not even, especially - the
mentally handicapped.
I know this because every morning I wake
up and I come downstairs and I sit across from my sister, quietly
eating her Cheerio's. And as I sit down she sets her spoon down on the
table and she looks at me, her strawberry blonde hair hanging over her
freckled face almost completely hides the question mark shaped scar
above her ear from her brain surgery two Christmases ago.
She
looks at me and she smiles. She has a beautiful smile; it lights up her
face. Her two front teeth are faintly stained from the years of intense
epilepsy medication but I don't notice that anymore. I lean over to her
and say, "Good morning, Olivia." She stares at me for a moment and says
quickly, "Good morning, Soeren," and goes back to her Cheerio's.
I
sit there for a minute, thinking about what to say. "What are you going
to do at school today, Olivia?" She looks up again. "Gonna see Mista
Bee!" she replies loudly, hugging herself slightly and looking up. Mr.
B. is her gym teacher and perhaps her favorite man outside of our
family on the entire planet and Olivia is thoroughly convinced that she
will be having gym class every day of the week. I like to view it as
wishful thinking.
She finishes her Cheerio's and grabs her
favorite blue backpack and waits for her bus driver, Miss Debbie, who,
like clockwork, arrives at our house at exactly 7 o'clock each morning.
She gives me a quick hug goodbye and runs excitedly to the bus,
ecstatic for another day of school.
And I watch the bus
disappear around the turn and I can't help but remember the jokes. The
short bus. The “retard rocket.” No matter what she does, no matter how
much she loves those around her, she will always be the butt of some
immature kid's joke. She will always be the butt of some mature kid's
joke. She will always be the butt of some "adult's" joke.
By no
fault of her own, she will spend her entire life being stared at and
judged. Despite the fact that she will never hate, never judge, never
make fun of, never hurt, she will never be accepted. That's why I'm
doing this. I'm doing this because I don't think you understand how
much you hurt others when you hate. And maybe you don't realize that
you hate. But that's what it is; your pre-emptive dismissal of them,
your dehumanization of them, your mockery of them, it's nothing but
another form of hate.
It's more hateful than racism, more
hateful than sexism, more hateful than anything. I'm doing this so that
each and every one of you, student or teacher, thinks before the next
time you use the word "retard," before the next time you shrug off
someone else's use of the word "retard". Think of the people you hurt,
both the mentally handicapped and those who love them.
If you
have to, think of my sister. Think about how she can find more
happiness in the blowing of a bubble and watching it float away than
most of us will in our entire lives. Think about how she will always
love everyone unconditionally. Think about how she will never hate.
Then think about which one of you is "retarded."
Maybe this has
become more of an issue today because society is changing, slowly, to
be sure, but changing nonetheless. The mentally handicapped aren't
being locked in their family's basement anymore.
The mentally
handicapped aren't rotting like criminals in institutions. Our fellow
human beings are walking among us, attending school with us, entering
the work force with us, asking for nothing but acceptance, giving
nothing but love. As we become more accepting and less hateful, more
and more handicapped individuals will finally be able to participate in
the society that has shunned them for so long. You will see more of
them working in places you go, at Dominicks, at Jewel, at Wal-Mart.
Someday, I hope more than anything, one of these people that you see
will be my sister.
I want to leave you with one last thought. I
didn't ask to have a mentally handicapped sister. She didn't choose to
be mentally handicapped. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I have
learned infinitely more from her simple words and love than I have from
any classroom of "higher education." I only hope that, one day, each of
you will open your hearts enough to experience true unconditional love,
because that is all any of them want to give. I hope that, someday,
someone will love you as much as Olivia loves me. I hope that, someday,
you will love somebody as much as I love her. I love you, Olivia.
Soeren Palumbo
The bulletin ended with the statement "If you think the R-Word should be banned please list your name and repost this bulletin", which I think is a rather ignorant statement to make. "If you are against the use of the R-Word" is something I can get behind. "If you think the R-Word should be banned" is asking for a violation of the First Amendment.
Anyway, I thought it was worth sharing, considering how hardly anyone protests the use of "retard" and its derivatives.
I am still too busy to write up that other post I promised. I do not want to post what I have so far because I would rather share it in its entirety. It is a complicated matter and I do not want to leave anything out and removed from its context. What I will say about it now is that the post will address how Domina and I missed Rocky Horror and why Domina and my mother and sister are not on speaking terms any longer. | | | Posted 9/25/2007 3:31 AM - 35 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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