'Glee' Stop R-Word Campaign Grabs Attention with Use of Ethnic Slurs

Confession: I had a preview of this PSA months ago. I thought it was brilliant, powerful and certainly had shock value to grab viewers' attention. Most important, the message was compelling and clear with strong call-to-action. However, I thought it would never air on any television station or network (clearly I was wrong about that. The PSA will be shown on "a majority of their(Fox) cable channels and regional sports networks, MTV, USA Network, Oxygen Network and Turner networks including TNT, TBS, truTV and CNN," according to the campaign's website. because of the use of ethnic slurs. It certainly has people talking. Share your thoughts.

There are some words you just don't hear on network television - and a public service announcement airing during last night's "Glee" used them all.
The uncensored video, filmed as part of the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign to put a stop to the use of the R-word, featured men and women of different minorities firmly telling viewers it is never acceptable to use a slur.

How Words Can Demean a Person

From "The Record" of New Jersey, a wonderful perspective about the use of the R-word by Barbara Coppens, president of the New Jersey Statewide Self-Advocacy Network.

Using, or criticizing others who use the words "retard" or "retarded" (a.k.a. the R-word) has become a nationwide hot topic, ignited by Ben Stiller’s film, "Tropic Thunder" in the summer of 2008 and fanned most recently by a Valentine’s Day episode of "Family Guy" on Fox Television.
As a person who lives with an intellectual disability, I’m hopeful about the R-word’s newly-found status as a big story, because it is serving to shine a light into the shadows that I and so many of my friends with intellectual and other developmental disabilities have lived in for so long; shadows of shame, stigma and aching humiliation.Come on, you say, can one lousy word do all that… really?
Yes. I’m telling you that it does. And there should be no need for any more explanation than that.