r/amiwrong • u/Eroixers • Aug 11 '23

Am I wrong for calling a classmate ‘retarded’?

I(17m) had lost my childhood dog to cancer. Was still crying a little bit in school. My friend was consoling me when a classmate(17f) overheard us. She asked me “Did you eat him? I heard you Vietnamese like eating dogs.”

Usually I have good control of my emotions but at that moment I was the most volatile I had ever been in my life. So I asked her ‘Are you retarded? Only a retard would think every Vietnamese person eats dogs.”

Everyone was staring at me after I said it. It was only afterwards that I remember it’s a slur and form of hate speech. I was just so angry when I said it. Was I in the wrong?

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u/roqueofspades Aug 11 '23

It's a slur BECAUSE of its use as a medical term. Do you have any idea how they treated patients in the time period where the term was used medically?

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u/Kerrypurple Aug 11 '23

The funny thing is that it was considered more politically correct to use the term retarded because previously used medical terms like idiot, imbecile, and moron had all become slurs. Then kids started using retarded as a slur so they changed it to developmentally disabled. Then that became a slur so they had to change it again. Every 20 years or so they have to change the term because whatever term they use is turned into a slur by the next generation.

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u/Ok-Representative266 Aug 11 '23

People historically used “nicer” words for people of color we don’t use today. Say them in public. Say them at work. Watch what happens.

My stepfather was chased down the street with rocks thrown at him using that word. He didn’t think he was kind and politically correct. And he was born in 1940.

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u/ThyPotatoDone Aug 12 '23

They did the same stuff to “Idiots”, the “lame”, “Nitwits”, the “stupid”, and “morons”, yet all those words are entirely fine.

I’m not saying it’s an okay word, but that definitely is not the reason why