Political Correctness

[wgreer25]

Things have gotten so crazy about PC and trying not to step on toes. I will give you an example of a companies response to an e-mail.

My wife is a nurse and has a doctor friend who was almost car jacked. The incident happened like this. Two cars pulled up to either side of her(the doctor)and a woman got out of one of the cars and stood in front of the doctor's car. The woman said to the doctor "What are you gonna do, run me over?" to which the doctor noded "yes" and floored it. She didn't hit the girl but the two cars gave chase as she called 911. She eventually lost her persurers and a cop found her. She had a very clear view of the people who tried to attack her (and do god knows what), but the cop never asked what race they were (I just found that odd, but not really part of the story I'm trying to tell here). The doctor's mother sent out an e-mail to people that work with the doctor as a warning and telling them to be careful in certain areas of town. In her e-mail she described the event. In her words (and an accurate description) she described the scene as "two cars full of black guys and one girl". The hospital she worked for has now requested that the e-mail not be forwarded as it has a racist tone.

Nobody seemed to care that a doctor may have been killed, but that an e-mail by the doctors mother may have been offensive, yeah... that's the real problem with this whole story... (in case you couldn't tell that last part was in massive sarcasm quotes)

 

[0thello]

It gives refuge for racists, fascists and all sorts of monolithic groups of pricks. However if you had something nice, positive or truthful to say there are a bunch of words you can use anyway. The only people who would whine about wanting to offend people are people who want to offend people.

 

[Moccamonster]

I'm willing to defend to the death, the right to say whatever the hell i want.

People should be able to say whatever the hell they want, with the exception of things that cannot be interpretated in any other way then actually threatening someone. Also, groups that are proven to be terroristic in nature should not be allowed.
I mean, it's just so fucking ironic that America is fighting against Al-Qaida, yet they allow the Arian Brotherhood to go on, under the veil of freedom of speech.

 

[ZZ-Tops89]

I feel you should always be allowed to say what you like, as long as you never try and act upon it.

Edit: Let me elaborate. Freedom of speech means that you can say whatever you like. Yes, even terms that would be considered racist. However, the moment you actually act upon those words (such as using them to insult someone) you can be held accountable.

What about fighting words? There's clearly established legal precedents that if you make threats that's not protected speech. Many have made the argument that racist terms constitute an inherent threat since they are somehow inherently dehumanizing. It seems like a defensible position, but the implications for freedom of speech are obviously bad. Your thoughts?

 

[mrpenguinismyhomeboy]

Political Correctness itself doesn't annoy me, but the way people act about it does. The thing is that most political correct people don't know when to tell others to be politically correct. I think that if you but in on someone's conversation just to tell them not to call someone "gay", you're being dumb. If you are in a conversation with someone, and you don;t like it that they are using certain terms, then you can tell them that, but don't let their choice of words determine the validity of what ever the other person is saying. That's what annoys me the most. When people don't listen to someone's opinion because they think it's not politically correct. I think political correctness is a good thing, but it shouldn't determine whether someone is right or wrong about something.

 

[Fingerprint]

I hate the whole PC culture we live in - it is not okay to say 'racially handicapped', the term is black/coloured etc.

The idea of being PC assumes and almost forces any and all ethnic groups to take themselves too seriously. Yes, you shouldn't call people derogatory terms but at the same time you should be able to say certain colloquial terms. E.g. you can't say the 'n' word to a black man, but at the same time you should be able to say 'black' without feeling the need to correct yourself to say 'African-American' or whatever. In all actuality I think that sometimes saying a PC term can be patronising and condescending - hows that for irony?

 

[Eskay]

Seeping sense of of deja vu here.

Would it be politically incorrect to say: learn to used the damned search bar!

 

[traceur_]

Personally I hate the term "African American", it pisses me off when all black people are called African American.

Look at this guy.

An African American? no, this man is British. Unless you were actually born in Africa and moved to America then you are not an African American mmkay? I'm not called Welsh Australian because my ancestors were Welsh and nor should any black person have "African" in their politically correct title unless they were born in Africa.

 

[El Poncho]

Political correctness? You mean that thing we used to call spastic gay talk?

Frankie Boyle ftw

 

[hypothetical fact]

The moment you decide a word is too offensive to say, is the moment that word becomes offensive.

 

[0thello]

Personally I hate the term "African American", it pisses me off when all black people are called African American.

Look at this guy.

An African American? no, this man is British. Unless you were actually born in Africa and moved to America then you are not an African American mmkay? I'm not called Welsh Australian because my ancestors were Welsh and nor should any black person have "African" in their politically correct title unless they were born in Africa.

Well I'm not sure about that, African/ Afro-British suits me just fine and I'm more or less from the same background as Chiwetel Ejiofor (the guy in your picture). Part of the problem of political correctness is that it leads to false assumptions like the brilliant example you gave.

 

[MusicalFreedom]

let's consider another viewpoint

I consider myself to be a very politically correct person. the problem is that everyone has their own definition of what political correctness actually is. Is it "baa baa rainbow sheep" or does it just stop at not saying the word "******"?

[sub]Afterthought: there's no reason to censor this particular usage of the word '******', as it is used in an informative manner.[/sub]

The backlash against PC is mostly caused by a small number of individuals who wield the power and the visibility to make absurd statements. These absurd statements are then picked up by the media, exaggerated, and fed to a public that is all-too-ready to froth at the mouth. And you know what? The public swallows every god damn mouthfull.

It is nowhere near at the level that people think it is at. Have you ever met a significant number of people who think that "baa baa rainbow sheep" is a good idea? If not, then the issue is not as widespread as the media has you believe.

It's hard to even properly debate political correctness considering how it is not even properly defined. Add to this the fact that it is not a black-and-white issue, middling in the shades of grey, and we get a huge clusterfuck of people saying "oh no I'm not PC at all, but people really shouldn't say '******'".

there is no pc brigade

"political correctness gone mad" is a phrase coined by the media to froth up the lowest common denominator, and froth they certainly do

 

[0thello]

let's consider another viewpoint

I consider myself to be a very politically correct person. the problem is that everyone has their own definition of what political correctness actually is. Is it "baa baa rainbow sheep" or does it just stop at not saying the word "******"?

[sub]Afterthought: there's no reason to censor this particular usage of the word '******', as it is used in an informative manner.[/sub]

The backlash against PC is mostly caused by a small number of individuals who wield the power and the visibility to make absurd statements. These absurd statements are then picked up by the media, exaggerated, and fed to a public that is all-too-ready to froth at the mouth. And you know what? The public swallows every god damn mouthfull.

It is nowhere near at the level that people think it is at. Have you ever met a significant number of people who think that "baa baa rainbow sheep" is a good idea? If not, then the issue is not as widespread as the media has you believe.

It's hard to even properly debate political correctness considering how it is not even properly defined. Add to this the fact that it is not a black-and-white issue, middling in the shades of grey, and we get a huge clusterfuck of people saying "oh no I'm not PC at all, but people really shouldn't say '******'".

there is no pc brigade

"political correctness gone mad" is a phrase coined by the media to froth up the lowest common denominator, and froth they certainly do

Well moral panics like that happen when the same demographic (or people whom are not so much different from each other) are speaking on behalf of both sides of the fence. For example the Resident Evil 5 madness wasn't a discussion between black/African gamers and white/western gamers. It was a discussion almost exclusively between the white/western gamer demographic.

[Hence the fallacious arguments, accusations and false analogies about RE4/ Spaniards and how blacks get away with stuff.]

Very few black/ African gamers actually gave opinions on the subject and if they did it was mostly in favour of the product (after all not many gamers ~regardless of race~ are expert or even novice media critics). N' gai Croal and a couple of news columnists (who were non-gamers) gave their two cents and were berated and beaten back with ferocity because (what could be classed as the "genuine" opposition) were so infinitesimal it was swarmed. Given the levels of sales of RE5 it's safe to say that the "minority" had no impact at all and the internal conversation between white video gamers about RE5 turned RE5 into so much more than just a stupid video game, it became a symbol.

Political correctness works in almost the exact same way, a similar demographic complaining about the methods of an offshoot of that same demographic. Maybe we should be asking the people whom PC is "inflicted" on.

 

[garjian]

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noone likes to be told what to do.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Actually, political correctness isnt socially correct. It implies that politics has something to do with correctness

 

[Jorik]

http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Ricci%2C_et_al._v._DeStefano%2C_et_al.

Ricci v. DeStefano is a perfect example of Political Correctness run amok. Groups of test takers study for and take a promotion exam. (Designed to be racially unbiased, or to display as little bias as possible) The test scores show NO Black people scoring high enough to qualify for promotion, and only ONE latino. The City throws out the perfectly valid test results and does not promote ANYONE because not enough minorities scored high enough. The white testers who did score high enough, sue to get their promotions, and are denied by the courts. This case is being heard by the SCOTUS, and a decision should be soon.

So you want "proof that minority are being picked over better qualified majority applicants?"

This shows that if the minority candidates aren't good enough, we won't promote ANYONE.