Facebook entries:
Glenda - Going to the Minister does not work for ordinary crips...
Others - "crips"?? way to put the cause back 20years, Glenda!!
Glenda if we dont refer to ourselves in a positive manner, how can we expect anyone else to?
That is a very offensive term.
Glenda - I am reclaiming the word. It's strong and punchy. The homosexuals call themselves "gay" now, and so do we. Once that was an insulting term but the gays reclaimed it and made it strong. They even proudly call each other and themselves "poofs" in certain situations. I know many crips who call themselves crip and do so proudly. I know what "disabled" means and I am not gonna call myself that cos I do function and work!
Here is a blog post where the woman refers to herself as a cripple and you will see how powerful it is!!
http://wheelieanurse.blog.com/2010/09/02/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to-get-back-on-the-train/
Do read it and you might just see where offensive really begins and ends.
By the way crip is also:
computer software
a gang or gang member
acronym, Continuous Revolution In Progress
acronym, Class Rebels Immortalizing Paint Spray.
I don't find it offensive because it means positive things to me and many fellow crips.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
I have thought about this many many times over the past few years and have been again today. I don’t use the word “crip” lightly. I was appalled as a child to be called a cripple. I lived at the bloody Somerton Crippled Children’s Home and was appalled. I hated hated the Down Every Street Appeal for the Crippled Children’s Association. Been there done all that.
Is “disabled” any better? No. Is “handicapped” any better? No. Is “impaired”? Is “differently abled? Is “physically/intellectually challenged”? No!
I wish we didn't need labels to identify minorities but it seems we still do at the moment while we fight for equity. However I AM a person, woman, human.
Tonight on Good News Week, Josh Thomas (who is gay) kept repeating with glee the phrase “suck on that faggots” that Stephanie Rice said recently which shocked ‘everyone’. He said it was great that a sportsperson actually SAID something real. Josh was smiling and laughing and delighted in repeating the phrase. He said it at least 5 times with emphasis and then one of the others said “You, you can stop saying that now thanks Josh!” with squirm of discomfort. Josh was revelling in it. The discomfort was in the non-faggot man because he was ashamed of how it has been used to vilify, marginalise and abuse gay men.
I see the above with Josh as the same as when I use the word crip and the woman in that Train blog used the word cripple. The discomfort is in how you perceive the word. If you believe that “crip” is a put down then you let that old judgemental power be put on you forever.
Continuous Revolution In Progress
CRIPS GO!!!
