BlackFalconKY
First Post
In a very unfortunate and poorly thought out post today, Bart Carroll of Wizards of the Coast heavily endorsed the use of the word "retard" in his April and Beyond preview. In the article, he discusses how Chris Sims "absolutely hates the silly, stupid, and outright ridiculous monsters" from D&D. He follows by saying, "yes, we too love that headinjurytheater.com article". This article proceeds to illustrate silly, stupid, and ridiculous things as "retarded". It doesn't do this once, but no fewer than 11 times and even follows with a Part II article entitled "Bigger, Badder, and Even more Retarded."
As a parent of a child with Down syndrome, I am shocked and outraged. This is no less offensive to me, my son, my family, my friends, and even my gaming group as any other pejorative or racial slur. I am at least partially confident that Mr. Carroll wouldn't have linked to the article if it used the words "n&gger, d&ke, k&ke, or cripple". How is it you can not think someone would be offended by this flippant use of an extremely inflammatory word?
How many would be offended? Well, just using Down syndrome as an example disability that is often slurred with the term "retard", this occurs in 1 in 800 to 1,000 births. So, assuming 1 in 1,000 and an estimated United States population of 306 million, that's 306,000 Americans with Down syndrome who would likely be offended. Now, let's be very loose with the numbers and assume at least a mother and father would be offended as well, so another 612,000. There are nearly 1,000,000 people who would have every right to be incensed by Mr. Carroll's public "love" and endorsement of this article. That doesn't take into account any other family or friends, nor does it factor any of the numerous other developmental disabilities in this country. Just thinking about this for a minute, and you can see that there are likely more people out there to be offended by this than have ever even played Dungeons & Dragons.
To make matters worse, Mr. Carroll uses the term "we" in his statement about who "loves" this article. This inclusive makes me assume he is talking about the Wizards of the Coast staff. I don't know if he just means in his department, or if he would be wishing to include Wizards of the Coast as a whole. I would imagine if Mr. Carroll walked around for a while asking his fellow WotC employees, he would be shocked how many have special needs family and friends. I wonder if he would like the opportunity to call them retards in person?
All does not have to be lost, and some good could come of this. This is a fantastic opportunity for Mr. Carroll, and Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro, to make a public apology and help raise awareness of special needs interests around the world. They have many means of reaching their demographic and could do a lot of good in helping in these causes. What remains to be seen, is will they, or will they ignore this horrendous insult?
You can help. Post about this all over the net. Talk about it. Make it news. Get Hasbro's attention. Let's turn what I'm sure was an accidental oversight into a positive motive for inclusion and education.
As a parent of a child with Down syndrome, I am shocked and outraged. This is no less offensive to me, my son, my family, my friends, and even my gaming group as any other pejorative or racial slur. I am at least partially confident that Mr. Carroll wouldn't have linked to the article if it used the words "n&gger, d&ke, k&ke, or cripple". How is it you can not think someone would be offended by this flippant use of an extremely inflammatory word?
How many would be offended? Well, just using Down syndrome as an example disability that is often slurred with the term "retard", this occurs in 1 in 800 to 1,000 births. So, assuming 1 in 1,000 and an estimated United States population of 306 million, that's 306,000 Americans with Down syndrome who would likely be offended. Now, let's be very loose with the numbers and assume at least a mother and father would be offended as well, so another 612,000. There are nearly 1,000,000 people who would have every right to be incensed by Mr. Carroll's public "love" and endorsement of this article. That doesn't take into account any other family or friends, nor does it factor any of the numerous other developmental disabilities in this country. Just thinking about this for a minute, and you can see that there are likely more people out there to be offended by this than have ever even played Dungeons & Dragons.
To make matters worse, Mr. Carroll uses the term "we" in his statement about who "loves" this article. This inclusive makes me assume he is talking about the Wizards of the Coast staff. I don't know if he just means in his department, or if he would be wishing to include Wizards of the Coast as a whole. I would imagine if Mr. Carroll walked around for a while asking his fellow WotC employees, he would be shocked how many have special needs family and friends. I wonder if he would like the opportunity to call them retards in person?
All does not have to be lost, and some good could come of this. This is a fantastic opportunity for Mr. Carroll, and Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro, to make a public apology and help raise awareness of special needs interests around the world. They have many means of reaching their demographic and could do a lot of good in helping in these causes. What remains to be seen, is will they, or will they ignore this horrendous insult?
You can help. Post about this all over the net. Talk about it. Make it news. Get Hasbro's attention. Let's turn what I'm sure was an accidental oversight into a positive motive for inclusion and education.
