R-Word, Sydney Sweeney, The Rock and a Road with Bad Intentions

Disability in the Public Square take a look at the "R-Word" and the use in today's society. A quick Google search shows you how often famous people are using the word and the implications for all of us.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Our Ability Podcast. This is John Robinson, your host, and this is our second pilot episode of Disability in the Public Square. Excited to talk with you about some of the issues that are going on today, here in May 2026, and things that are uh prevalent to we as individuals with disabilities. Uh, if you don't know, I'm an individual with a disability. I'm a quad amputee, been a disability advocate for years, and and run this organization which helps individuals with disabilities find jobs. And so, but I do want to create some space where we, uh, those of us that host this and you, those of those of you that listen and respond, can talk about disability in the public square and what's going on today. Uh, this won't be the first time this issue comes up. Uh, it certainly hasn't been the last time, but it is kind of troubling. Yesterday we talked about employment and great employment stories coming out of Colorado Springs, individuals with disabilities that are receiving um uh an opportunity, and that's really all that we're looking for. Today I'm gonna talk about something that popped up on in my inbox, and it's uh it is troubling. Uh, and that's the use of the use of the the R-word. Um, and I'm gonna say it retarded. Um it's a extremely troubling turn of events here in 2026. Um and I'm just gonna bring up where it's been in the public space just in the last six months, and people that have said it. The reason it popped up in my inbox is because uh Euphoria, which is a popular TV show, and quite frankly, have not seen it, certainly seen highlights and and uh memes online. Uh you can't you can't not see Sydney Sweeney out in the public space. Uh and this isn't uh a political comment about Sydney Sweeney and her her Trump side of the world, but but I guess maybe it is. But um I haven't seen Euphoria. I I don't really know anything about it other than the memes I've seen. But it did pop up into my um my inbox that the Sydney Sweeney character uh called the Democrat the R-word in the TV show. Uh here we have a uh uh an episode in the TV show where you've got somebody uh, according to the internet, that's in OnlyFans, that's that's lashing out, that's mad, whatever, and you you lash out by using this word, which is hurtful to all individuals with disabilities. And it is it comes up this week. I did a quick Google search of stars that have said the the R word in the recent recent months, and it's not just Sidney Sweeney's character on Euphoria, it's the rock that has said it, Dwayne Johnson. Uh he did it in a Kevin Hart roast. It is also Kid Rock, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Donald Trump. I read recent reports uh uh 18 months ago coming up onto the election and coming out of the election that the younger generation wanted the uh permission to use the word again. And so the reason you vote for Donald Trump is because you want a little bit of a pushback against whatever woke is. The truth is it's hurtful. It is extremely disrespectful to put someone down. I don't care what the slur is, in this case it's the R word, I don't care what the slur word slur is, I don't care what the hurtful nature is, but if you have to get jokes and ratings based on hurting someone, what are you doing? What are you truly doing in in this world if you need to put somebody down to build yourself up? Does euphoria really need to put people down to build themselves up? Does Sidney Sweeney really need to put people down to get more people to look at her? I don't think so. Does does The Rock need to use the word to get a laugh? Is that the only way he can get a laugh? I don't know about Kid Rock, Joe Rogan. I mean, I get it. They're popular, but really? Is that what you need to do? Elon Musk? Donald Trump? You're playing to the base, and the base is going to a place that is hurtful not only to just intellectual and developmental disability individuals, but going to a world that's hurtful to all of us? How many of us out there know somebody in the IDD population? How many of us out there have somebody that's neurodivergent in their life? How many of us out there are disabled in some way, shape, or form? When the R-word is said and used for a joke, a laugh, a meme, you're hurting us. You're doing it intentionally. There is no respect there. There's no respect there for the human condition. There's no respect there for people. That's where we are today. Maybe it's social media, sure. You can blame social media. Maybe it's the politic today, sure you can blame politics. But it starts and ends with each one of us. I found myself in the last 18 months fighting against this word, even in friend groups that I have. Friend groups that are saying it jokingly, but you know what? It's not really a joke. It's hurtful. Yeah, I can take a laugh. I certainly laugh at myself more than anyone else. If you've ever heard me speak publicly, if you've ever seen a video of me, if you've ever seen me on stage, you know that I like to poke fun at myself being three foot eight, no arms, no legs. What I won't do, and hopefully haven't done, is mock other people for a laugh. I don't think Sydney Sweeney's character did it because she's in the intellectual and developmental disability community. I don't believe Sydney Sweeney herself as an actress is in the intellectual and developmental disability community. We've done so much work in this in this space of inclusion, inclusion in education, inclusion in society, we've added individuals with disabilities, we've added the neurodiverse population, we've added added the IDD population to the schools, into high schools, into community colleges, colleges, universities, and we're doing all the work that we can to being inclusive in society. But then when you go to work and come home and turn on your favorite television show, or read your favorite book, or listen to your favorite comedian, or your podcast, and you're diminished. Is that really the space that we need to be in? What can we do? As a person with a disability, yeah, I do, as I said, I like to poke fun at myself, but one of the things I want all of us to do is to push back a little bit. If we really care about inclusion, and inclusion means that we're welcome everywhere, including entertainment. It didn't have to take me too far to go down into the URLs here to find the R word. MSN, Teen Vogue, TMZ, The Tab, The Daily Mail, NJ.com, Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Indie Star, CNN, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, The Guardian, News report after news report of somebody famous and less people famous, comfortable in using the word. The R word. It's offensive to everybody with a disability, and it should be offensive to everybody with a disability. It should be offensive to everybody with a family member with a disability. Those of you out there that may be my age with adult children, teenage children who are neurodivergent or intellectual and developmentally disabled. Beyond that, it should be offensive to any of us that have worked towards inclusion. Why are we working towards inclusion? And maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is does society really want inclusion anymore? Is this AI push really part of a longer process of institutionalizing us again? Is that what's really going on? Because I feel like it is. I feel like we're on a real slippery slope here where if we can dehumanize individuals with disabilities, then it's going to be awfully easy then to take dollars away. Services, resources, the opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to get education, the opportunity to be an inclusive part of society. If we can take that away, then we can take our place in society away, and then we can go back to an institutionalized world. And it gets worse from there. Look no further than Germany in 1938, what they did to their institutionalized individuals with disabilities, who in 1929, ten years prior, had been part of an inclusive society. Is this really the world that we want? So sure, we can watch Euphoria and we can empathize with a character that's down on their luck, that's in OnlyFans, and whatever. We can laugh at The Rock's joke. We can drive Elon Musk's car. But what we're really doing is approving the beginning stages of dehumanizing us as individuals with disabilities again. And that is a problem. So what can I do? What can you do? Check yourself. Check yourself at the door. Are you purposely hurting somebody? Are you unintentionally hurting somebody? Are you laughing at that joke? Are you posting on Facebook that the R-word is offensive? Are you posting it on Twitter? By the way, by doing that, then it becomes part of the algorithm, and then maybe the algorithm from Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk will push against the use of the R-word a little bit. Are we calling out our friends that may say something, maybe innocently? You can do it with love and kindness, but you should do it. Are we checking a younger generation that's way more comfortable and calling something some something so hurtful? I hope so. That's what I'm thinking about today. On the pilot episode, the second pilot episode of Disability in the Public Square. Unfortunately, disability in the public square, the R word is used more prevalently, and we need to push against that. My name is John Robinson. I own our ability, and I thank you for listening.