The Special Olympics called on singer-songwriter Kid Rock to reject the “R-word” after he said it during a nationally televised appearance on Fox News.
Loretta Claiborne, chief inspiration officer for the Special Olympics — the world’s largest sporting organization for people with intellectual disabilities — addressed Rock’s use of the slur in an open letter shared earlier this week.
Claiborne’s letter comes after the “American Bad Ass” and “All Summer Long” singer joked while on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Friday that he was going to be a “r-----” in a medical mask for Halloween.
“The R-Word deeply demeans and harms people with intellectual disabilities,” Claiborne wrote. “I’m writing to you personally with an urgent request: please acknowledge the hurt caused and use this moment to stand with us in rejecting that word and the prejudice it represents.”
Claiborne went on to detail the serious implications of Rock’s word choice, stating that people with intellectual disabilities are “still continuing to fight for the simplest form of justice: the recognition of our full humanity, a recognition you undermine when you use the word r-----.”
The word has recently seen a resurgence in popular use, especially among right-leaning and “anti-woke” figures such as Elon Musk, Joe Rogan and now Kid Rock.
The Special Olympics has been fighting against the discriminatory use of the word since the term’s early days as an insult.
In 2009, the organization launched a campaign to banish the slur.
Sixteen years later, the Special Olympics is still working toward the elimination of the word, which has a “long, painful history of being used to belittle and dehumanize,” according to Claiborne.
Kid Rock did not immediately reply to an NBC News request for comment.
