Former ‘Scrubs’ actor discusses the R-word

On Wednesday night, as part of a nationwide campaign to stop the use of the word “retarded” as a derogatory and insulting adjective, actor and National Down Syndrome Society ambassador John C. McGinley spoke to students in the Leavey Auditorium on how young Hollywood has the power to make a change through what they write and produce.

Change · Actor and advocate John C. McGinley spoke to students in Leavey Auditorium Wednesday night on ending the use of the R-word. – Austin Vogel | Daily Trojan

McGinley has been coming to USC for the past few years to speak about this campaign, known as “Spread the Word to End the Word,” in conjunction with Delta Kappa Alpha, the professional cinema fraternity.

The actor and advocate, best known for his role on the hit television show Scrubs, is actively involved in the campaign. Along with an interview on KDVR Fox 31’s “Everyday Dish,” McGinley published an article on March 4, a day before Spread the Word’s annual awareness day, in The Huffington Post entitled “What Really Happens When You Use the R-Word” in which he encourages the public to substitute kinder words for the R-word.

“Perhaps next time you feel compelled to use the words ‘retard,’ ‘retarded’ or the suffix ‘-tard?,’” wrote McGinley, “Stop. Just for a second. And see if sprinkling your language with love and compassion, doesn’t lead you to discovering a new, different and possibly better way of saying the exact same thing?”

McGinley encouraged students at the event to use his blogging and social media efforts as a model for how they should go about raising awareness. On the most basic level, McGinley encouraged students to — when they hear someone use the R-word — say to them, “Is there a better way to phrase what you just said?”

McGinley became interested in the movement 17 years ago, when his son Max was born with Down syndrome. Since then, he has been an active participant in a variety of movements to educate the public on Down syndrome and other conditions. He cited the Special Olympic games in particular.

“Some of the athletes [in the Special Olympics] are                       self-advocates, which I had never heard of,” McGinley said. “They’d stand up and it started to become a consensus in the room and then it started to get some momentum, and they decided they wanted to do something about it.”

One of McGinley’s missions is to have people equate the R-word with other derogatory words such as the N-word, so that it no longer becomes acceptable in everyday conversation.

“When we do use that language, there’s zero tax on it,” McGinley said. “If you go around disparaging Jews or blacks or gays or lesbians with disparaging language, there will be an expense, but with the “R-word,” our population can’t A) defend itself, and B) get back at you,” McGinley said.

Since becoming involved in the movement, McGinley has made a conscious effort to both not sign onto films that use the R-word and encourage directors and writers to take derogatory language out of their productions.

McGinley and the Special Olympic athletes, for instance, wrote a letter to political commentator Bill O’Reilly when he used the R-word on his show, and days later he publicly apologized for using it.

“The kids — they had moved the meters an inch,” McGinley said. “They had got a win [over O’Reilly].”

Kimberly Goldstein, a sophomore majoring in occupational therapy and psychology, said she tries not to use the R-word in her everyday vocabulary, and she also hopes to encourage friends not to use it as well.

“I always make a conscious effort [not to use the R-word] because I think it’s not a word that should be used,” Goldstein said. “But I will make a conscious effort to not have people use it as well so they can understand the magnitude of language in general.”