Brainless. Shortsighted. Moronic. Dull. Foolish. Dense. Retarded.

Did that last word seem to fit in that group of words? Maybe it made you go “oh, uh..” and feel kind of awkward? Well, it should. Out of those seven words, only six are synonyms for the word “stupid.”

The thing that most people do not realize is that the “R-word” does not mean “stupid.” This word is misused and misunderstood; it is spat out in anger and it is yelled out in laughter. So what does it actually mean?

According to the immediate results of Google, “Retarded: less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one’s age.” Not anywhere is it defined as being stupid or someone being dumb.

I probably do have a biased opinion, considering my own personal experiences with “the R-word.” My uncle, James Parrick, was diagnosed with a form of Autism called Asperger’s, and along with this life obstacle, he has many other medical issues that make his appearance not exactly up to the status quo. One day as a child, James was playing at the park with his older sister, my mother. While playing, he came across a young girl about his age, and he excitedly asked her to play — she was just as excited. But as she ran off to the swings, her father grabbed her arm and said, “get away from that retard.”

And there it is. Retard. My sweet uncle went from being a human being, a sweet and innocent child — a person — to being lowered to a blatantly arrogant and incorrect term. He was no longer just a kid in the park, he was a thing, an “it.”

I was not there because I wasn’t born yet, but I grew up with this boy who never quite grew up to be a man in the adult sense, but more like a big teenager. I also grew up knowing to never judge no matter a person’s appearance, and hearing that story made me know from a young age that the word “retarded” is not a word you fling around every time something makes you unhappy.

For those who think I’m simply overreacting, and that it’s their “right to say what they want,” yes that may be true, but the right to speak and act freely does have a catch. What would one do if you were joking around at the store with a friend and laughed saying “omg you look retarded,” and there just happened to be a child with Down syndrome close enough to hear? Do you apologize? I could drop a plate on the ground, watch it shatter to pieces and then tell it that I’m sorry until I couldn’t speak, but the plate isn’t going to get back together. Sure, I could glue it back together — but is it really the same shape it was before the incident? No, it is not.

So I guess I would love to be able to tell you the next time you get ready to say the “R-word,” don’t hesitantly look around to see if anybody might hear you, to just not say it. But I am well aware that I couldn’t tell a person to do that, so this is me asking you to just use a different word and help educate others about what this really does mean. Retarded does not mean stupid, so stop the confusion.