“Spread the Word to End the Word”

Hello to my extended GiGi’s Playhouse Fox Valley Family,

I recently joined the social media campaign “Spread the Word to End the Word”.  This is a campaign dedicated to ending the derogatory use of the word “retard” or “retarded” to describe both individuals with intellectual disabilities and its presence in everyday conversation when we describe situations or specific people as “lame”, “stupid”, “embarrassing” or “bad”. With that said, I wanted to remind the volunteers at GiGi’s Playhouse Fox Valley to speak out against people using the r-word both in private conversations and in public media (i.e. remember the outrage and campaign against Robert Downey Jr.’s character in the movie “Tropic Thunder” for saying the r-word; we should be more vocal like that).

By letting people know it is unacceptable in all circumstances to use the r-word we can create a society that is more understanding of people born with Down syndrome and any form of intellectual disability and progressively make our world more socially inclusive for everyone.

Below is an excellent video I found that really demonstrates how using the r-word is just as hurtful and despicable like using any other racial, ethnic, homophobic or religious slur.

video

#GiGisBelieves

Sincerely,

Bailey Skrocki