So I thought about the difference between calling someone blind and calling someone retarded:
The nafka mina is as follows. When you call someone retarded, why is it offensive? It is offensive because you are using the word retarded to say they are stupid and in so doing you are implying that retarded people are stupid, and since retarded people would get insulted if they heard that you consider retarded people to be stupid, therefore it is offensive to retarded people.
Now you are probably thinking: Obviously retarded people are stupid, so what’s the problem? However, I was at a friend’s house who has a daughter who is retarded. My friend’s husband asked his daughter if she knew a certain fact. The daughter’s response was, “Of course I know; I’m not stupid.”
This goes to show that even retarded people consider it offensive to be considered stupid and they do not consider themselves to be stupid, and they would be very offended if someone else called them stupid.
And when you use the word “retarded” to mean that someone is being stupid, if a retarded person were to hear you, they would be highly offended as you are implying that retarded people are stupid (and they don’t think so since everyone considers “stupid” a bad thing to be).
On the other hand, no one considers it an insult to be blind. It is negative to be blind but it is looked at as something bad that happened to the person as opposed to a negative reflection on them. So why is “blind” used as an insult if no one thinks that being blind is a negative reflection on a person?
It’s because when the term “blind” is used as an insult, what it really means is “stupid”. When you say to someone, “How did you not see that? Are you blind?” You are not trying to imply that he has poor eyesight; you are actually telling him that you think he is stupid and you are using the word “blind” to mean stupid. After all, when is the last time you hear someone say to someone “What, are you near-sighted or something?” (If someone said that to me, I’d just say yes).
The difference is with the blind person, even though you are using the word “blind” to mean stupid, you don’t really think that blind people are stupid. If you did, then it would be offensive to blind people. You are actually using the word blind to mean something completely different. Basically, it has two entirely different meanings.
I guess the idea is that it’s stupid for someone with vision to not see something, but no one considers it stupid for someone who is blind to not see something.Therefore, you are not offending blind people by calling someone with vision blind. On the other hand, if someone who is retarded is retarded they are considered to be stupid, so you are offending retarded people when you call someone who is acting stupid retarded.
I hope that my long explanation is clear, because if it’s not, then that might mean that you are _________ (fill in the blank as you wish).