Political correctness

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm with Stewart Lee, he calls it 'institutionised politeness', and sure some idiots take it too far, but in the vast majority, political correctness is just trying to stop people using offensive terms when there's others that work just fine.


I think if you asked 1000 people who said they were 'pro PC', over 99% of them would have no problem with 'black','gay' or 'disabled'. However, they probably would have a problem with the terms '******' '******' and 'spaz'.

I think nowadays, many of these 'stories' are flatly made up by the papers, and the ones that aren't are people reacting to fears that they'll appear in the next one.

I grew up in the 80s and remember seeing so much graffiti along the lines of 'wogs out' 'pakis go home' 'die niggers' and crudely drawn swastikas. I'm not going to claim political correctness cleaned that off the walls, but it's certainly less socially acceptable to scrawl racist shit on a wall any more.

As Mr Lee states in that audio clip, if occasionally someone gets in trouble for using offensive language, or someone errs on the side of caution and avoids using the word black for something, isn't that a small price weighed against how much improved life is for the minorities compared with even 20 years ago?

I should be able to have an opinion, because I was cautioned for workplace sexism in my last job. I don't know who reported me, but I bet it was 'Juggs' in accounting.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

I agree with the 'Native American' and 'Mentally Challenged' titles, but the 'African American' one infuriates me. There is nothing at all African about them, and it actually reduces African identity to skin colour, which is in and of itself racist.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

To mess with my own argument however, I remember when Cheryl Cole punched a female bathroom attendant who was working in the nightclub she was in one night.

However, a violent assault wasn't the main part of the story, the headlines and bold print was all about her using the words 'black *****' as she drove her fist into another woman's face.

Now I can't help but feel a violent attack should always be seen as worse than a verbal one. Isn't punching someone in the face worse than calling them black, even if it was meant in anger?

Yet the papers mainly got excited about the chance to label a 'celebrity' as racist.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

OP snip

I was playing Fallout NV, and my cousin walked in while i was talking to a Ghoul lady.

He screamed "OH God, what is that thing?!"
"SHE is a Ghoul" I answered.
"Why are you talking to it?"
"Why am i talking to HER!"

Am I PC-crazy? You tell me.

OT: Just don't use those words as insults, is all i say. "Dude that's Retarded" is fine, "Get outta here, Retards aren't welcome" (to an actual handicapped person) is not fine. That's how i see it.

 

[FMAylward]

To quote my nan (grandmother)

?I'm not black I'm brown?

While that will be the most correct colour to describe my nan I would be willing to bet no offical will ever call her that.

 

[flangleelgnalf]

hmm... i live in Salem, OR and except for the "everyone is different, respect those differences" posters at my school i don't really encounter too much over-the-top political correctness.
however i have met one person who didn't like me using the word gay to mean lame...so i started saying "blatantly homosexual" instead, just to annoy him.

 

[robot slipper]

I think some terms are better the way they are now, for example "retard" which has become more of an insult rather than a description of someone's actual condition (Special Needs is the PC alternative). In the UK it is ok to call black people black, it is the word "coloured" that is considered offensive. In fact on any form you fill in for the doctor, electoral roll etc., the etnic category is "Black British".

The thing I hate is scaremongering by the tabloids, especially around Christmas when they claim that NO ONE will be able to put up Christmas decorations because it will offend non-Christians! Ugh.

 

[Caligulove]

It fits in closely with censoring.

I think it would be better to teach kids context instead of just making our language so bland and neutral. Context and how something is used it what makes it offensive or hurtful for someone to hear- not the actual word, itself.

Trying to change the terms around just gives the original "wrong" forms more power and more reason to use them in a more derogatory manner, I think. This is entirely hearsay, but I have never met a black person who has actually preferred to be called an African-American, etc or other affected people that prefer to be called by their PC term.

I mean, I have a friend in Uni who can trace his family history back to slaves brought over nearly 300 years ago, while I'm from Sweden and a naturalized American. We're both American, yet I'm classified as "typical" American while he's still African-American, as if he's the immigrant. Ironic since his family has been here far longer than mine.

 

[iLikeHippos]

WE NEED THIS VIDEO (Hopefully not yet posted)


I rest my case with this, since I sincerely agree with him.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Back in my day political correctness was called politeness. And being "not PC" meant making an ass of yourself.

I guess those terms are no longer PC.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Political Correctness = Bullshit

I refuse to use P.C. terms or listen to people who insist on using them simply because they're worried about offending someone because they say "BLACK" or "INDIAN" instead of "African American" or "Native American". It's the 21st fucking century. If people are still offended by this, they can grow the fuck up already. I refuse to not say stuff like "Black Sheep", "Blackboard", "Black Light" etc. Why change it because someone of a different skin color insists it is meant to be offensive? It isn't! He's just an idiot!

(sorry to rant, but I've hated political correctness since the term was coined and I understood what it meant. There went my youth).

 

[cicaba]

"If a Black person wants to be called African American or an Indian wants to be called a Native then whats the big deal? Do you feel like you should have the authority to call them something they don't wish to just because you don't feel like it?"

Yes

I think political correctness is awful and thankfully it doesn't seem to do a lot right now.

 

[Verlander]

"Mentally challenged" in place of "Retard" and other terms
"African American" in place of "Black," "Negro" and other terms
"Native American" (or "First Nations" in Canada) in place of "Indian"
"Gender-neutral" terms such as "firefighter" in place of "fireman"
Terms relating to disability, such as "visually challenged" or "hearing impaired" in place of "blind" or "deaf"

Well, calling someone retarded is an insult, especially when you don't know exactly what their problem is. It's like accusing a person on a wheelchair of being lazy.

Calling someone "black" isn't politically incorrect, but calling someone a negro is pretty racist, considering the slave connotations.

Native Americans were called Indians by ignorant sailors who thought that they were in India, and kept on by the ignorant masses of American settlers who were not only disinterested in the natives, but also sought to actively decimate their population.

Gender neutral terms are only used in an official capacity, for example in paperwork, and calling someone blind or deaf isn't politically incorrect.

No one except for the media or gullible idiots use, or believe even half of the "political correctness" shite. It doesn't exist in the way that you are understanding it. Basically, real political correctness (which is a horrible term coined by Conservatives), is to stop discriminatory slurs. At best, such as in the example of the nursery rhyme in England, it's a sales pitch.

I have a friend who is a policeman, even though she is in fact a woman. Does she refer to herself any differently? No. Do we? No. Does her bosses? No. Frankly, on everyday life, it doesn't exist. If anyone thinks that it's taken over the world, or it's gone mad, then they are spending too much time reading papers or on the computer, and not enough time living.

The only people who moan about "political correctness", however, are the people looking for an excuse to find a way to insult others based on some arbitrary designation. If someone feels the need to insult someone based on something inconsequential, they are a failure of a human being, and are holding the gene pool back.

Im from the UK, PC is a cancer, I can say whiteboard but not blackboard

I live in the UK. I can safety say that what you have written is bull. Don't believe the papers.

Although if you want to call it a blackboard go right ahead. Although, I may point out that they are all, in fact, white.

 

[JoshGod]

How about bah bah white sheep?

 

[slightly evil]

Here is a News artical (from 2006) where Children are now being taught to sing "Bah bah rainbow Sheep" instead of "Bah bah Black Sheep"
(snip)

in fairness, baa baa black sheep is about slavery, maybe we should just not sing it instead of replacing it with something that doesn't even fit.
but i agree with replacing fireman/policeman, because it instills a mental image of men in positions of authority
although black board to chalk board is just stupid

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

But baa baa rainbow sheep is just offensive to gay people!

OT: Political correctness is bull shit. Everyone has such thin skin nowadays. Grow a pair.

 

[higgs20]

it's fucking ridiculous, it's spineless, it doesn't even make sense.
i say things the way they are, i will never call a blind person vision impaired because the term blink is not offensive.

my town no longer puts up Christmas lights to ensure we do not offend the non-Christians in our community, I say pretend they are Hanukkah lights, or dwili lights, but don't expect us to take them down.

 

[rutger5000]

For me any kind of political correctness that isn't regarding a handicap is wrong and harmful. It should be battled against, for it only causes people to drift away from each other.
There is a huge difference between politeness and respect.