This article was published in 2008 explaining HARC’s decision to change its name from the Hartford Association of Retarded Citizens to HARC, Inc.
Amid the bullying, misuse and misunderstanding that still surrounds the r-word today, we thought we’d re-print this editorial about HARC changing its name. It was written at the time by HARC President, Dr. Stephen Becker, and in it, he describes the difficult deliberations that took place about the reasons for the name change, and the underlying reasons for the name change will be addressed in the future.
Misuse Of Name Leads To Hurt, Change
STEPHEN BECKER
February 19, 2008
After considerable deliberation and with some reluctance, The Greater Hartford Association for Retarded Citizens changed its corporate name to its acronym, HARC Inc. The major reason for the change is that the term mental retardation is no longer acceptable to people with intellectual disability and their advocates since it is used in a demeaning, hurtful and otherwise inappropriate manner. Although a change to the new term — intellectual disability — has become necessary, many advocates are angry about the circumstances that precipitated it, and don’t want to see the same thing happen in the future.
Previous terms for mental retardation were similarly abandoned because of their devaluing, mean spirited and otherwise pejorative use. Readers may be surprised that the terms mental defectives, mental deficients, feeblemindedness, moron, imbecile and idiot were scientific descriptors for intellectual disability. Now the term mental retardation is being abandoned because it, too, has been hijacked, corrupted and used in hurtful ways. How often does one hear the words “That’s retarded,” “You retard” or “He’s retarded”?
Clinical terminology should change as research fosters deeper understanding of a condition. For example, manic depressive disorder was changed to bipolar disorder and multiple personality disorder was changed to dissociative identity disorder because the new terms better describe the nature of these conditions. The term mental retardation, however, is being replaced not to provide more clarity, but to escape its history of pejorative use.
Similarly, governmental and nonprofit organizations are changing their names to exclude the term mental retardation not to improve understanding, but to protect their constituents from being bullied and tormented. In fact, the ARC of the United States, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens, does not use the R word or any other clinical term in its name.
Think about the message this omission gives to our families. Would the American Cancer Society remove the word cancer from its name? How about the Epilepsy Foundation, American Heart Association, Autism Speaks, the Leukemia Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association or the Multiple Sclerosis Society? Why should organizations serving people with intellectual disability have to use nondescript titles to protect their people from ridicule and demeaning treatment?
In keeping with the new terminology, HARC decided to retain its acronym as the corporate title because we are known to the community as the organization to which people turn when help is needed. HARC intends to use several taglines that will include — “Serving people with intellectual disability and developmental challenges” and “Changing lives, changing minds.”
We also want to communicate that HARC’s families are not ashamed of their children or the term mental retardation. Throughout our history we have presented our people in a proud and dignified manner.
People with intellectual disability, their families and advocates are proud of their accomplishments, especially after being quarantined in large, often dehumanizing institutions for generations and generations. Instead of causing us to hide behind acronyms and cute phrases, the community should stand in awe of our people’s ingenuity, courage, resilience, good humor, sweet, gentle and forgiving spirit, and often penetrating wisdom.
We ask our community to be vigilant for all forms of bullying, stereotyping, discrimination or otherwise hurtful or demeaning behavior. Remind your children and friends to use “people first” terminology, referring to “people with intellectual disability” rather than the intellectually disabled. Communicate with the media when you observe hurtful language on stage and screen. Be assertive and put an immediate stop to any attempt to turn our new terminology into something harmful. We don’t want to change our name again for the wrong reason.
Changing a name will do nothing to address the underlying problem of prejudice and discrimination. We hope that people seek opportunities to welcome people with intellectual disability into their schools, workplaces and their recreational, social and religious lives.
Stephen Becker is president and CEO of HARC Inc.