The ‘r-word' is back. How a slur became renormalized

CNN

2 days ago

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article features language that may be hurtful to readers.
On an April episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' the host used a slur within the first 45 seconds of the show.
'The word 'retarded' is back, and it's one of the great culture victories,' Rogan said with a laugh in the April 10 episode of his über-popular podcast. 'Probably spurred on by podcasts.'
A few months earlier, on January 6, Elon Musk used the word in response to a Finnish researcher who called Musk the 'largest spreader of disinformation in human history.'
Use of the slur more than doubled on X, the platform Musk owns, in the two days after he made that January post, researchers from Montclair State University found. More than 312,000 subsequent posts made on X in that span contained the r-word, wrote co-author Bond Benton, a professor of communication at the New Jersey university.
The buck didn't stop there, Benton said. Throughout 2025, influential public figures like Rogan, Musk and Kanye West have used the r-word on platforms where millions can see and hear them. (West most recently used the term in March to refer to Jay-Z and Beyoncé's twins, though those X posts are now deleted.)
Since Musk's January post, the online prevalence of the r-word is 'absolutely getting worse,' Benton told CNN.
Rogan, Musk and West are likely using the word to get a rise out of people and draw more eyes to their content, Benton said. But by using a term that has historically been used to disparage and diminish people with disabilities, they're renormalizing the slur among followers and fans who interact with their posts, he said.
Musk, Rogan and West haven't responded to CNN's requests for comment.
The resurgence of the r-word is symptomatic of a graver problem — the 'apparent death of empathy,' said Adrienne Massanari, an associate professor at American University who has studied how the far-right uses tech to grow its influence.
'What you're seeing now, people's masks are off,' Massanari said. 'This is not just misunderstanding but the mischaracterization and demonization of communities. The use of that kind of language is signaling a shift, a desire to sort of push the envelope.'
Push the envelope too far, she said, and the harm spills out into all marginalized communities. The r-word's surging popularity is just the latest effort in a movement to normalize hate, she said.
The r-word has never really gone away, Massanari said — many people still use the word in private, and controversial far-right influencers and some members of the former 'dirtbag left' podcast scene alike have used it for years to rile up followers and appeal to edgy comedic styles.
But most people 'were comfortable with the word retreating from normal discourse,' after years of campaigns designed to end use of the slur, Benton said.
'There was a reason these words are no longer being used,' Massanari said. 'They weren't productive. They weren't helping. They are actively harming communities.'
The r-word, initially, was meant to replace words that had become pejoratives. Introduced in 1895, 'mental retardation' became the preferred term among psychologists, supplanting the diagnostic labels 'imbecile,' 'moron' and 'feebleminded,' said Lieke van Heumen, a clinical associate professor in disability and human development at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
The r-word was intended to be a 'neutral' term, van Heumen said. But people with disabilities then were still largely disregarded and treated as lesser members of society, regularly institutionalized in dangerous environments and even forcibly sterilized without their consent. Under those conditions, the r-word eventually warped into a slur and an insult, she said.
'When disability is framed as a lack, limitation or loss, it reinforces the idea that people with disabilities are inherently incapable,' van Heumen told CNN. 'This framing is used to justify their exclusion from everyday life, as if they are missing what it takes to participate. Such language is not harmless — it influences public attitudes, informs policy decisions and ultimately affects how people with disabilities are treated.'
The chorus to retire the r-word grew louder in the 1970s, van Heumen said, as people with disabilities advocated for their right to participate fully in society and end the use of ableist language. Nearly 40 years later, the 'Spread the Word to End the Word' campaign encouraged young people in particular to quit using the slur to insult their peers.
The federal government signaled its support to end the use of the r-word with 2010's 'Rosa's Law,' named for a young girl with Down syndrome, which updated all federal laws to use 'intellectual disability' in place of 'mental retardation.' The legislation stated that the term and its 'derivatives,' including the r-word, were 'used to demean and insult both persons with and without disabilities.'
Sophie Stern, a 22-year-old choreographer and actress from Arizona, has Down syndrome and is a member of the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. For years, she's confronted classmates who've said the r-word in front of her, even petitioning to have the word removed from a script.
But she's hearing the word more often now than she did in school, she told CNN. And it doesn't make her any less upset to hear it, even if it's not directed at her.
'It still hurts my feelings,' she said.
Celebrities used to apologize when they were 'caught' using the r-word. Khloe and Kim Kardashian both issued statements when they used the slur in clips shared on Instagram in 2018. LeBron James apologized at least twice for letting the r-word slip in postgame interviews in 2011 and 2014. Author John Green said in 2015 that he shouldn't have used the word in his popular YA novel 'Paper Towns,' in which it appears in a quote from a teenage character.
Today, whether it's 'Silicon Valley tech bros' or far-right ​figures, people who use the r-word online appear to share a motivation — 'the appeal of transgression,' said Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida. Many people who use the r-word know it will anger people who disagree with them, Ingersoll said — it's a way of 'owning the libs.'
'I think that they are flaunting their ability to offend and confront,' she said. 'Why do you need that word? If it bothers other people, why wouldn't you just pick a different word?'
Content designed to provoke outrage is often more likely to court engagement — from both supporters and those who disagree, Benton said. Engagement guarantees visibility, and if the r-word is more visible online, it'll eventually become less jarring for users to encounter, he said.
'Clicks are the currency in the commerce of social media,' Benton said. 'And if I put up content where the r-word is prominently used, I can just guarantee there's going to be a few thousand replies.'
Platforms can end up 'rewarding' controversial content that draws sustained attention, said Brandon Harris, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who studies content creators, especially those in the 'manosphere.'
'Being controversial is more profitable than being kind to people,' Harris told CNN.
Inconsistent guidelines and enforcement on what constitutes hate speech also makes it easier to get away with using hurtful terms, Harris said.
X and Spotify didn't respond to CNN's requests for comment on their hate speech guidelines, but neither platform allows attacking other users based on disability, among other characteristics. Content that violates these rules is sometimes removed, demonetized or made less visible, both companies have said. X does allow users to post 'potentially inflammatory content' and encourages users to block or unfollow other users whose content offends them.
Spokespeople for Meta and YouTube said their platforms do not allow the r-word to be used to mock a person's disability, but the word is not banned outright on either platform.
The agitators using such language don't necessarily need to believe the things they say, Harris said — intent doesn't matter when the outcome normalizes the casual use of a hurtful term.
A spike in online use of the r-word would be harmful on its own. But even more concerning is what the slur's return represents, Massanari said.
'These are never just about the words,' she said. 'The words are standing in place for a whole symbol.'
What's happening now, where notable people are using the r-word in posts on X or on podcasts, is a 'classic testing of the waters,' Massanari said, when influential people who get paid to agitate see how far they can push the line.
'These communities come out to denigrate, to make fun of, to demonize the most marginalized,' she said.
The r-word will almost certainly not be the last slur to reemerge on popular platforms, from popular users, Benton said. And when the line is continually pushed, it can take people to 'the worst spaces imaginable,' he said.
'The term itself — the casual use of it — is a problem,' he said. 'The normalization of it will allow even more problematic terms to be normalized.'
Other hurtful words are already being used to harm other marginalized people, Harris pointed out. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace earlier this year repeatedly used an anti-transgender slur in a House Oversight Committee hearing. CNN reached out to Mace about her use of the word. In response, her communications director said, 'While you tiptoe' around hurting feelings, the congresswoman 'is standing up for women and girls.'
'We're now using language that promotes cruelty, and not just cruelty but casual cruelty — where you just offhandedly don't think about it and dismiss someone's humanity,' Harris said of using slurs like those lobbed at trans people and people with disabilities.
Seeing how the r-word proliferates offline is the 'next threshold' to cross, Benton said. Some people likely never stopped privately using the r-word, he said, but if people who aren't protected by wealth, fame or political affiliations use the word at their workplace or in social settings, they could face punishing consequences.
Many people are actively pushing back against the r-word when they encounter it. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has a son with Down syndrome, earlier this year called out Kanye West, ''Christian conservatives'' and 'popular newbie-conservative women' for 'thinking it's hip to ramp up use of the 'R' word.'
'Please unfollow me & know that my disrespect for you is insurmountable,' she wrote on X in March.
'The Brady Bunch' star Maureen McCormick, who's also a Special Olympics ambassador, said that Joe Rogan celebrating the resurgence of the r-word 'ignores the terrible hurt' the slur causes people with disabilities.
'This is not a victory,' she wrote on X, prompting more than 8,000 replies from supporters and detractors alike. 'It is a regression.'
Engaging with users who post the r-word to court outrage and online engagement can cause well-meaning people to fall into a trap of rage bait, Benton, Harris and Massanari cautioned. But there must still be resistance against reintegrating the r-word into regular speech, they said — a conversation most effective when it's had offline, person to person.
'We have to continue to have courage, to have these conversations and these moments of resistance to say, 'We don't appreciate what you're doing, we don't share your values,'' Harris said.
Sophie Stern, the dance teacher from Arizona, has a word of guidance for anyone who wants to pick up the r-word: 'Don't.'