President Donald Trump took to social media last week to share a Thanksgiving post in which he spouted anti-immigration rhetoric and used a slur in describing a fellow politician.
“A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being ‘Politically Correct,’ and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
He went on to reference refugees from Somalia who he claimed are “taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” later using a slur to describe Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for his inaction.
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“Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both,” the president wrote.
In the past, the term “retarded” was used medically to describe people with mental disabilities. For example, the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities was once known as the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
However, there has been a push in recent decades to retire the term, which disability advocates say is often used in an insulting, derogatory fashion.
Despite recent efforts to curtail the use of the term, several high-profile celebrities, including Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, have been using the word publicly, and unapologetically, over the past year.
Dr. Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics chairman, told USA Today that the word has a long history of being used to discriminate against people with developmental disabilities and is unacceptable to use under any circumstances.
“The post suggests the president used the R-word to mock Gov. Walz. If that’s true, this word has a long, painful and humiliating history, and it reinforces unfair and wrong stereotypes that people with intellectual disabilities are incompetent or worse,” Shriver wrote in a statement to USA Today. “Words matter. It’s never OK to use the r-word.”
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