The R-word is back. But why?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past few years, Brittany has noticed the resurgence the R-word - a word that otherwise left the cultural lexicon. And while that's troubling in and of itself, its return may also have larger implications that affect policy, culture, and how we treat each other.

Disability advocate Imani Barbarin joins the show to break down how ableism can take root in casual conversation, and why words matter.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:18.8	You know, the kids this year, I feel like they're less woke.
0:21.5	Did you notice that?
0:22.3	They're not into being woken.
0:23.3	It's circled back around.
0:24.4	It's circled all the way around.
0:25.5	And now they're like for what they say they're against.
0:28.0	Right.
0:28.3	And they're saying the R word again.
0:32.0	Much like FX's English teacher, I've noticed an uptick in a term I thought was long gone, at least in
0:39.3	polite conversation. The R word. It's always kind of been on undercurrent on social media.
0:45.5	It's always been kind of thrown around. Generally speaking, I usually see these upticks when it
0:50.2	comes to relation to politics. Disability advocate and content creator Imani Barbaran,
0:56.6	aka Crutches and Spice on TikTok.
0:58.8	Thank you so much for having me.
1:00.4	Notice this a few years ago.
1:02.1	I noticed that the R word had come back.
1:04.3	I want to say in full force around midterm elections in 2022.
1:10.1	A lot of times, anybody who displays what we consider deviant behavior,
1:15.1	whether that be political opinions that may not agree with the status quo or, you know, societally,
1:20.6	we cast them out using able-s language.
1:23.6	As someone who was a young person in the early 2000s,
	...

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