Should I Be Offended?

As you may have read earlier, I have been watching a lot of Futurama on netflix while I pump and feed Adaline. Well, the time came when I had watched all 100 available episodes and needed to look for more mindless entertainment. I stumbled on a show called Workaholics and decided to give it a try. In one of the episodes there was a character with down syndrome. My instant reaction was "Should I be offended by this?"

If you have been reading this blog long or know me, you probably know that I can be easily offended. A good example would be the mental list of things people have said to me about Adaline that have offended me that I am debating I should write a blog post about or not.

However, there is also a long list of things that many people are offended by that don't offend me. One example is the "R" word. Whenever I would see the campaigns against the "R" word before I knew I would be Adaline's mother, I truly thought it was a waste of someones time. I am honestly still not offend by the word. Granted, things may change as Adaline is able to understand names and be hurt by them, but for now it is something that doesn't bother me. I want my kids to learn not to define themselves with one word. Good or bad, true or not. Whether they're mostly known for being disabled or as a star athlete, I want to instill in them to always remember they are much much more.

I do however realize that I am in a new circle and many, if not most of the people in it probably are understandably offended by such things, so I do want to be respectful of that. It is hard though. With the list of taboo things not to say growing every time I find a new blog, I have a hard time communicating what I am trying to say. For example, the term "Special Needs" also seems to be becoming taboo. It is becoming hard to describe my daughters condition in less than a paragraph.

Back to the original topic, I decided to query the internet to see if I indeed should be offended by the role that this actor with down syndrome played on the show and I was surprised to find out that most parents were not offended. Many found it refreshing.

So, how have I decided to feel? I decided that I am a bit offended, but not because of the way the person with down syndrome was portrayed, but because the show itself is a bit offensive. :). I actually love the role he played. He was just one of the guys. He had wit and even rescued the guys in one scene. It was very tastefully done. My favorite part though was how the writers even poked fun at how people react try and be politically correct to retarded, special needs err...(however I am supposed to describe what I am getting at here). In the first scene the actor introduces himself to the main characters as the ISP supervisor. When they slightly question him, his response is "what, don't you think I could be an ISP supervisor? The guys immediately stumble over themselves to find excuses other than the fact that he was born with down syndrome as to why they would question him. The actor then tells him he has found a lot of porn and that he can be bought to keep quiet. It is later revealed that he is the brother of their boss and not the ISP supervisor. In a later scene the actor and the main characters are trapped in an impound lot. One of the main characters happened to have a strippers police suit in the car that we were introduced to in another scene and the actor put it on to save the guys from the owner. Again, the impound owner looks confused as to if he is truly a cop and then stumbles over himself to be politically correct when he is questioned on it.
It pretty much sums up how I feel when trying to stay respectful in this new circle we are in.