Surely Bill O’Reilly will have something to say about this – in a recent interview Jennifer Aniston referred to herself as a “retard.”
The usually composed, well-spoken actress slipped during her visit on “Live With Regis and Kelly on Thursday (August 19) when explaining what it was like dressing up as Barbara Streisand for the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
“You’re playing dress up!” Regis told her, to which Aniston replied, “Yes, I play dress up! I do it for a living, like a retard!”
Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc (a nonprofit advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities), told Us Magazine it was “extraordinarily offensive and inappropriate.”
“Frankly, someone in her position ought to know better,” he said. “She is using language that is offensive to a large segment of the population in this country. We estimate that there are probably in excess of 5 million people in the country with intellectual disabilities, and when you think about all of them, their family members and friends, you’re talking about tens of millions of people who find the use of that term to be really offensive. Every time folks hear that word, it kind of reminds them of all the discrimination and oppression they’ve experienced in their lives. Even if it wasn’t intended to insult them, that is the effect of it.”
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