The word "retarded" has gone from a clinical term to a word of derision.
During the month of March, Best Buddies and the Special Olympics are sponsoring a national campaign called Spread the Word to End the Word.
"It's a national campaign to remove the use of the r-word as a derogatory comment," said Lauren Swindle, vice president of event coordination for Best Buddies and sophomore in special education. "A lot of negative comments have come and people are saying, 'Why the r-word?'
"What our campaign is all about is removing the use of 'retard' or 'retarded' in reference to objects or your friends. Even if you're trying to be silly or funny, it's offensive. The campaign is just trying to promote awareness for that."
Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization, establishes friendships between college students and individuals suffering from intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"It is one of the most rewarding experiences ever," Swindle said. "I describe it to people as the definition of unconditional love.
"These people have mental and physical handicaps and intellectual disabilities and they overcome adversity day by day. Some of them don't know that they're different. My buddy doesn't know, but she is so full of joy and just wants to be treated like everyone else is treated."
Swindle said even if it's unrealized, use of the word is offending someone directly or indirectly.
"I was talking to a girl on the concourse who was so excited to sign her name because she has a little sister who has Down syndrome," Swindle said. "The girl said she gets so upset when people use that word. For people who have someone that's very special to them dealing with that, it can be really offensive."
Patrick Marsh, sophomore in biomedical sciences, said the campaign is about respect.
"If we had a significant problem in our lives that was labeled by a certain word, we wouldn't want that word used loosely," Marsh said. "It's not something that they can help; it's something they struggle with. Throwing around the word 'retarded' is making light of the fact that retarded means held back, and they do have something holding them back intellectually. Calling people who aren't retarded by that word is very disrespectful."
This is the first year Auburn's Best Buddies chapter has promoted the campaign on campus. Joy DeShazzo, treasurer and junior in Spanish, helped plan the event.
"We had a huge banner out on the concourse that people could come by and sign to pledge to stop using the word in a derogatory way," DeShazzo said. "We also had a blurb in This Week at AU so we could get the word out. We had little wristbands we would give out to people when they came by and signed."
DeShazzo said the campaign attracted more attention than expected.
"We had lots of positive feedback," Swindle said. "We counted and we had around 2,000 signatures on the banner, which is awesome. It was a huge success and our buddies had so much fun getting to love on this campus. They call everyone here their buddy."
Marsh said he hopes awareness continues even after the month of March ends.
"Even though our campaign is done, their problems don't go away," Marsh said. "The problem is still there so the use of the word is still disrespectful. I know it's just something that slips out, but students should really make the effort, even getting involved in Best Buddies. After getting involved, I don't ever want to say that word again."
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