SWA #9

In Lynn Harris's essay she quotes Gail Williamson, mother of a child with Down syndrome, saying that the word, "retarded," is hate speech. I have to agree with Gail Williamson, because the definition of hate speech our words that are used to describe someone or something that you don't like or that are different. "Retarded" has been used to identify mentally dissabled people and in our culture today, people through that word around when they are not refering to them. I have to say Gail Williamson is right, because if we are not only using that world for its purpose then we are using it as hate speech.

I have to dissagree with Gail Williamson when Lynn Harris quotes her in her essay. Williamson says that the word "retarded," is hate speech. The world retarded is not hate speech, because when people throw this word around so much, they are usually not implying or making fun of someone with down syndrome. Some people might not even think that "retarded" is offensive to everyone. I don't think we can say "retarded" is hate speech unless people do something about it. I rarely ever hear someone scorn someone else for saying, "retarded" and for this reason alone we cannot say its hate speech, because no one will do something about it