Critical Statement

I am writing Project 2 on why the "R-word" is unethical. For my creative piece I am going to take the word "retard" and turn it into the word "respect". As you will read in my paper, the campaign Spread the Word to End the Word devotes their efforts to eliminating the word retarded from everyone's vocabulary and to pledge to make the new "r-word" respect. I feel that the word retard is extremely unethical and derogatory and I have been spending most of my life tyring to convince others of the same thing. Not a single one of my friends or family members would dare use the word in front of me because they know a 20 minute lecture would be coming there way shortly after. This project gave me a chance to explore this opinion objectively and to find evidence that actually supports it. I am choosing this type of erasure for my creative piece (erasing the "tard" from "Retard" and turning it into "spect" for "Respect) because I too believe many individuals need to learn respect and understand why using the r-word is disrespectful. My intended affect for this creative piece to make others realize that is is disrespectful and unethical to use the word "retard" or "retarded". They are potentially hurting many other peoples' feelings by doing so and they are demonstrating a serious lack of respect. This creative piece matters to the world because it can prevent a lot of harm and a lot of tears and even a lot of self-esteem issues if ignorant individuals become informed of what their words are doing. After doing all the research for this project and writing my research paper, I have found that I am definitely not the only person who feels so strongly about the misuse of this word. It started out as a medical term and has now changed to a derogatory slang word which, like most slang, is hurtful and direspectful. Many important people in today's society also feel this way and because their voice is more powerful than mine, they are advocating change. Even the President of our United States has served as an advocate for the omission of this word in our everyday vocabulary and I think that in itself is really saying something. I hope my creative piece is a powerful and subjective visual aid to complement my paper and my research.