OpinionJournal, the WSJ’s online op-ed page, has an interesting piece from John Fund entitled “You’ve Got Mail (it’s from Yale)” that primarily covers the ivy-league university’s silence regarding their admission of a former Taliban official (with a fourth-grade education) to the ranks of their elite freshman class.
Putting aside for a moment the primary topic, an item that caught my eye (and ire) was the following:
[Alexis Surovov, assistant director of giving at Yale Law School] anonymously sent scathing emails to two critics calling them “retarded” and “disgusting.”
It is the use of the word “retarded” that angers me. It means, according to Mirriam-Webster, “slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development or academic progress.” My children know that there’s no quicker route to swift and memorable punishment than to use that word as a synonym for stupid or thoughtless, usually in an epithet hurled at a sibling.
My sensitivity is this: my next younger sister is mentally retarded due to brain damage she suffered at birth. There is no nice, neat, medically-appropriate term for her condition (such as Down’s Syndrome or autism)… just brain damage that left her unable to learn to speak, read, write, or reason as most of us do.
We’re not sure, even at age 40, exactly what she knows and what she doesn’t. Basically, she comprehends about what a two-year old does, except that she does seem to understand the concepts of death and work ethic (although the latter is limited to work that she is actually interested in doing).
That a Yale alumnus and high-level administrator at Yale Law School couldn’t think of a better descriptor for his feelings (disgraceful, short-sighted, maybe even ungrateful or selfish) than to use a word that applies to a person who has no control whatsoever over their condition is at least as bad as whatever feelings he had toward the alumni he was lambasting.
If he’d said “crippled” or “niggardly” (which actually means miserly or spendthrift, having nothing whatsoever to do with race), someone would have filed a civil rights complaint already.
Aside from the university’s disgraceful and short-sighted decision to harbor and educate a known terrorist, unqualified by anyone’s most liberal affirmative-action admissions standard, this demonstration of inadequate communications ability is reason enough for firing Mr. Surovov immediately. Given the institution’s current track record of decision-making, any disciplinary action will probably hinge on whether contributions really do suffer.
And I hope that they do. March is Mental Retardation Month — send whatever you could have sent to Yale to the ARC instead.
ited for an hour and a half to ride Superman – the Ultimate Flight and ended up stuck on the tracks when the ride broke down, was a welcome break of fun and relaxation.